Why Plato Matters Now

In this most persuasive book, Professor Hobbs shows how Plato can help us retain sanity and stop us going mad.

To Plato the soul is non-material: it is beyond time and space and therefore eternal. But in our society which is reductionist and at war with itself, the modern man is more than ever in search of a soul, of beauty, truth and goodness. In so many walks of life, not least in politics, these elements seem to have disappeared.

Plato's Republic explores many concerns relevant to the modern world: law, commerce, happiness and self-completion. Looking at the intersection between the ancient and the modern, Professor Hobbs examines women's rights, healthcare, justice, happiness, elitism, death, love, truth and reality using Plato's wisdom and key works.

Above all, as Plato shows in the allegory of the cave, we have lost a sense of the distinction between things as they are and things as they appear to be. Never has the wisdom of the ancients been so necessary.