h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dear lovely people (expurgated sycophancy activated),

I think that article http://www.h2g2.com/a378849 should be included into the edited guide, as it is currently the only discussion (at least, the only one I could find ) about Plato's "The Republic", one of the world's most important philosophical works.

Thanks,

Casanova the Short.

An interesting and well-written article, and certainly worthy the Guide. However, it does seem to leave me wanting something. You make mention of the duties of the philosopher king. What are they? What sort of king would one of Plato's kings be? I get the feeling that this might be the most important part of The Republic, and perhaps requires amplification.

OK, I did my bit... now go forth and commentus upon mine Libertarianism article!

I agree. It covers the subject, and it's quite readable; however, I also would like to hear a little more. Maybe a clearer outline of The Republic; maybe a few quotes from the book.

Yeah. Now go read mine, too - Bananas!

Great article, and a worthy topic which needs to be covered in the Guide. Some nits:

Opening:
Who was Plato? The name may not explain itself in some cultures. I think "Greek philosopher" would be ample description, but we don't see that until well into the first section of the article.

Dialogues:
Avoid the use of "in my opinion;" the h2g2 higher-ups want articles to be in the third person. In the last sentence, put a comma after "indeed." You might want a quick sentence somewhere here stating the premise for the dialogue; why are these folks chatting about government?

Justice:
No nits.

Constitution:
Auxiliaries, not Auxhiliaries, right? Also, "Rulers, Auxiliaries and Workers" should be offset by dashes, parenteses, or a footnote rather than commas to avoid confusion with all the other commas around here.
Second paragraph: "different from." Is a Polis a Greek State? A footnote or something would help.
You discuss Timocracy and Democracy, but not Oligarchy or Tyrrany. How are they different? Also, you use the words Timocracy and Timarchy; are they the same?

Appendices:
No nits.

You might add a "Conclusion" section, in which you could tell us why this work is important. Has anyone tried to live in a society structured as Plato proposed? If so, what was the outcome?

Nice work, and good luck with the editing.

I agree with JonBob's nitpicking. I also felt that the article was too brief. It's a very brief overview - perhaps too much so to be an adequate reference. I almost feel that a Guide Entry needs to provide enough information to allow someone to briefly bluff their way out of a discussion on the topic. Working from here someone is going to find their are just too many holes in what they know.

I don't believe that a background on Plato is necessary - that should fall to a completely separate Entry. However, the areas that JonBob identified - like the forms of State - certainly deserve a synopsis of their meaning.

And - as I find format the greatest bugbear - can I suggest that the paragraph under "Constitution" be split into more than one separate paragraphs. And you might consider a bulleted list for the types of State.

Well, the revisions are complete.

::Prints off amended version, attaches it to a halyard, and runs it up the flagpole. Looks around to see if anyone salutes it.::

So, what do you all think?

I think it's an improvement, but it still needs a bit of tweaking. For instance, what is the definition of eugenics? That paragraph was lost on me. Also, you misspell "tyranny" in a few places as " tyrrany"

Better? (Yes, I know the spellign mstikaes are still there, I'll do them later).

::Gets printout of amended version, cuts it into very small thin pieces, allows to dry out for a couple of weeks, sticks it into various people's pipes and sees who will smoke it.::

**picks up pipe and begins to smoke** ahhh, nice aroma.

I found this entry very informative, and well-written.

Gavroche

Oh, right... I reread it, but forgot to mention my impression of the last revision...

I like it now.

Thanks very much for your criticisms and appraisals. The fact that you now like it gives me nearly sufficient incentive to correct the spelling erorrs.

Nahh... leave the spelling errors to the Subs... lets them feel important.

Congratulations Casanova, this article has been Accepted by the Guide team, and has begun its perilous journey through the bureaucracy to battle its way to the Edited Guide! Wooohoo!

I now feel whole. My life is complete. (Withdraws Seppuku blade from its sheath....)

I think that it would make a very nice addition to this article (I'd certainly like to read it) to briefly describe the influence The Republic had on latter day political theory, especially contemporary theory. Maybe this would take up too much space though?

Editorial Note: This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review forum because this entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

Congratulations!