Great Minds - Part 1 - Plato's Republic VI-X: The Architecture of Reality 

Rest in peace professor, you will be missed! Michael Sugrue's passion for Plato and specifically 'the Republic', will not be forgotten. Thank you 🙏

This channel is like finding a pile of gold in the wilderness...how will I ever spend it all when I get out?

This man is the form of the professor

And I went about studying Engineering in college, if I had known that this is what philosophy was all about ... Amazing concepts! And this gentleman, such a marvelous orator!

13:18 Mathematics 15:54 The Bridge to Fixed, Permanent, Reality, Natural Law. 20:30 Realms/Forms of Truth Forms of Beauty 22:28 Dialectic - Figure things out by talking together 23:40 The Myth of The Cave, The Shadows - (False) Reality, What we can sense The Sun - True Reality, What makes being possible 26:17 The Journey is Asymptotic

"All knowledge is virtue, and all ignorance is vice - so all our vices are, really, ignorance." I profoundly believe that.

I’m rewatching these old videos and hoping the insights that the late Professor had on The Republic will be shared at some point. I am ever intrigued by Plato’s Republic and interested in the unique reading that Dr Sugrue claimed he would share with us. Many thanks for sharing these videos and keeping them available

Mr Sugrue one of the highest calibers lecturers of the modern day. Thank you sir.

Sugrue your lectures are thought provoking and dynamic, thank you so much for masterfully introducing me to my love of wisdom , best

It’s like getting a mind infusion. You feel your intellect elevated tremendously. I love The Republic which is so brilliant.

You're lectures remind me a lot of Rick Roderick - it's probably the format, and more likely the extremely clear language and talent for explicating these complex and interesting philosophers.

45:22 Bravo! Yes! It IS up to us as individuals. We DO have power both during and after this life seemingly dominated by individual helplessness/powerlessness. Upon spiritual transformation (ie: awakening/becoming conscious of every moment in this life, as well as upon death) we have the opportunity of respons-ibility (Response-ability).

Thanks Dr. Sugrue! Mad props to the camera people who captured your style meticulously!

Dr. Michael Sugrue in his prime was a phenomenal orator and educator!

I won't lie, as an artist myself, I was initially a bit disturbed by Socrates' view on poets/artists being imitators who don't offer much real value towards a common good, in particular, they typically further deception, which in many cases may be true. But I must say, the last few minutes of this lecture really made me feel better about the path I've chosen haha. It makes me as an artist really crave knowledge and understanding of things I don't know, which is why I'm enjoying these philosophy lectures as I work! I've always wanted my art and stories to represent ideals, virtues, reasoning and sober thought, and to be useful to others to learn about something they're not familiar with or reflect on their own view of the world, ultimately in search of truth (as is the function of many stories or mythos) so learning about this has actually encouraged me to pursue this even more. I still have so much more to learn. Dr. Sugrue, your lecture style really brings these topics to life in a way that lets someone like me absorb and meditate on these ideas. Your channel is amazing.

I love your lectures, I really wish to be there and listen to them all. Thanks for sharing them.

So elegantly and clearly explained! Very enjoyable to follow.

I love this. I hope you continue uploading this lecture series. I also have to thank Michael Sugrue for attracting me to stoicism after I saw his rockstar lecture on stoicism and Marcus Aurelius. Reading Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius has had a very real and beneficial impact on my life. I do have a question. I read the republic in high school, not for class I was just pretentious. It always struck me as very similar to brave new world, and in other ways 1984, in that he creates something he calls a perfect city but that would be in practice a hell. I also find that Socrates has conversations where he will use a chain of logic to come to conclusions that I in someway know is incorrect but can’t quite place my finger on where in the chain that I agreed with there is a mistake. Cheers!

I appreciate the passion you have it helping us to understand.

Absolutely amazing. Thank you

I have been trying to work out in my mind my fundamental objections to Plato’s Republics, and this was an excellent tool. Thank you for this remarkable video!

Every one of your lectures is amazing. I hope you continue to publish all of them. Thank you for doing this, I spent a great deal of time and effort attempting to find more of your work after hearing the lecture on Marcus Aurelius. I know it's unlikely but I wish you would do an educational podcast.

I am rereading The Republic because of these lectures. What profound insight.

Having just read The Republic for the first time this year, this was a fabulous series of lectures. I need to do a re-read, because as was mentioned, a lot of the symbolism and the parallels in comparing the men and the city, are easily missed with reading it only one time. I can say I learned a lot reading through Republic, but I definitely learned a lot from these lectures as well. Thank you Dr. Sugrue!

I'm on round two of your lectures and we are going deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. Amazing 😍

Dr Sugrue, your lectures are amazingly profound in the philosophical sense. It is very encouraging to discover a passionate lecturer of philosophy.

where I could find a biography of Michael Sugrue. Thank you very much !

After studying engineering in college and reading and rereading the republic and plato in general for a few years, i feel i can finally understand the real gravity of the material after hearing these lectures.

This is refreshing because it’s in American english. He’s a fantastic lecturer. One of the best l have ever heard, on any subject.

This is a really energetic and deeply healthy interpretation of Plato. Greetings from Serbia

Thank you for another lecture and video upload. The explanation of the Cave is brilliant.

Big Respect for this man. He knows the material so good, he can explain it as if he is the philosopher himself. Very impressive

This is absolutely brilliant

It's simply awesome..thanks for the lecture...again.

In addition to the many superb quotes already cited here in the comments: "When I first read this, I didn't know books could do stuff like that." "When I found this out, it just made my weekend." Right on. To extrapolate all the crucial themes of this work and make them accessible without compromising their complexity and sophistication is a remarkable achievement. I appreciate your work, Dr. Sugrue.

I love you Michael you inspired me to read Republic. To become more wise

Rest in peace professor.

Plato's idea of the tyrannical political systems might owe something to how it was conceived of before his time. While the Homeric epics are clearly concerned with the problem of political authority and ruling elites, as seen between Agamemnon and Achilles, their composition predates the introduction of the word tyrannos into the Greek language. The word ‘tyrant’ is derived from tyrannos, which in turn has a pre-Greek origin, likely of Phrygian or Lydian origin, probably derived from Lydian tûran, “lord”, and simply means “sole ruler”. The oldest known use of the word tyrannos is associated with king Gyges of Lydia. Gyges, whom Plato uses as a disparaging example of moral depravity and wickedness (Republic 359a-360d), was the first to be known to the Greeks as a tyrant and the one who introduced the institution of tyranny to the Greeks. The Greeks understood the word tyrannos as having the meaning of military leader, specifically of leader of hoplite troops. It was Gyges who made the first use of hoplites; the hoplite bodyguard was one of the particular features of Lydian kingship. That Gyges owed his power to mercenaries is certain: Herodotos relates that the Lydians resented the murder of their king and took up arms against Gyges, but Gyges was able to force the revolting Lydians into submission with his “partisans” or mercenary hoplites (Herodotus, Histories, 1.13). The Greek terminology applying to rulers reveals that archagetes (‘the first leader’, ‘founder’, but also a word that stresses the concept of leadership especially in war, a title used of the kings of Sparta) is the word nearest in meaning to tyrannos. Archagetes has the meaning of “furtherer” and is applied both to divinities and to military leaders. In its second use it can be compared with words such as strategetes (military general, army leader) or strategos (military commander, the official title of Sicilian tyrants). The idea behind the word tyrannos is that of leading some militarily organized formation of people. In other words, the tyrant was a person who had managed to become commander of a body of mercenary troops owing allegiance to him personally and which he could use as a military/police force to control the state politically, using the state itself to collect the money with which to buy his soldiers. For example, Peisistratus, tyrant of Athens, was supported by a very considerable part of the growing population of Athens. Though forced from power, he returned to Athens again by gaining the support of foreign assistance, maintaining power with a mercenary bodyguard.

Thank you sir for sharing these lectures. Thank youuu

This just made my weekend.

Fantastic presentation

What a guy Plato was.

Great presentation Prof

This is actually pretty good and helps me put other things together

Wow! 5:52 Yes! "The real corruption comes from the people themselves in EVERY city; IGNORANCE is the source of all corruption and evil." Thank you again, Dr. Sugrue...I could've used this profound acknowledgement decades ago as part of my arsenal of "intellectual self defense" (a term I first heard from Noam Chomsky) against our broken society. My lack of understanding of the source of corruption and evil cost me so much energy and heartache over the years due to the confusion that this lack of understanding creates.

Congratulations on +100K subs!!

Fantastic 3 part lecture on The Republic, thank you so much for the uploads.

Thank you very very very much!

Very lucid explanation of the book!

Thank you again!!!

This is changing my life…

Really really enjoying this series. Never gave Plato (and what the Greeks did for us generally) the respect he (and they) so obviously deserve(s), due to my own ignorance and prejudice. Having focused a bit of time on ancient Far Eastern philosophy and politics these last few years, and with my own background being firmly formed within a Christian context, all of this has helped me see more clearly how the whole of the human umwelt is tied together. Thank you professor Michael, you are a true philosopher and a king. I wish you many years of happiness and peace. Choice quotes: "Justice is to the soul what health is to the body" "They are great souls with bad education" "Ignorance is the source of all corruption and evil" (Paul speaks about the "willingly ignorant", which lately I have come to see as intensely arrogant, subjective and ironic given how Christians have behaved over the millennia, but still it hold true within a limited framework of those who are sincerely trying to overcome their own ignorance and prejudice as Paul seemed to have been doing). I believe that the reason we can account for the relative absoluteness of math compared to ethics is due to the 9dea that there are bubbles or unwelts of meaning. The Jews had three clear levels of inspiration. Christians were less clear but the same plays out. In the OT or Tanakh you have the Torah, Nevim and Ketuvim. In the NT you have the Gospels (Memoirs as Justin calls them, which includes the Acts), the Pauline epistles and the Catholic epistles. Lately I am seeing all of reality as falling into categories of more or less certainty. Interesting that you say a philosopher long can only become after age 50. I always remember Leonard Ravenhill saying that a man should not try to wrote aboom until he turns 50. I dou t he knew mub about about Plato, but it seems that no matter what, intellect and wisdom acrue incrementally. So while society is very different today, Id say that an individual human should remain in the learning phase until at least 30. Then in the practical stage from around 30 to 50, then in the teaching stage from 50 until death.

When listening set your playback speed at 0.75. That is a much more conversational speed to listen to this fine speaker who gives an excellent presentation of Plato.

35:40 a slip of the tongue: Adeimantus is the oligarchic man, not Glaucon The whole lecture is great btw, Thank you for such an amazing content!!

I mean algorithms weren’t created yesterday(expression). I listen to a bunch of stuff on RU-vid and just found this. Seems like a 💎. Just wondering where these TYPE of videos been hiding for so long.

Great Video. I have enjoyed it very much. Thumbs up. Stay connected Please continue to produce more. I am looking forward to your next video. "Like" #40

I have heard Dr. Sugrue's three lectures on Plato's republic and the lecture on Stoicism. The Republic speaks of arranging a society and Stoicism speaks of arranging an individual mind and body. However, both leave me with a question - how do these methods account for or deal with aspirations - social and individual? Or does it mean that aspiration is a bronze virtue - the corrupting influence of Athens - that the philosopher King saves the society/individual from themselves?

brilliant!

Another great lecture thank you

I am still stuck and meditating on the "I went down into the Piraeus" line 😆

Thanks!

great enthusiasm

The point about minding your own business is very much reminiscent of Voltaire's injunction at the end of Candide about tending your own garden. For a long time I struggled to fathom what Voltaire meant by that. Now I know.

great lecture. now with first time hearing i certainly didnt understand everything correctly so i will rewatch. english not my motherlanguage. now is somebody willing to explain me why plato isnt the master of strohmanning and goalpost shifting. thats the expression i got right now. im new to philosophy and find it very intresting. if theres additional lectures to help understand where platos ideas comes from please refere them to me. would be grateful.

Subscribed - perfect channel

Thank you so much for this wonderful lecture Dr. Sugrue. It makes me wonder what Plato would think of radical transhumanist philosophy. Is the architecture of reality a Symposium a noumenal or phenomenal phenomena, and why does the architecture of reality exist at all. Why does absolute certainty need to exist at all. Is pure logic just logicism. Is an object of knowledge, or is it knowledge because it's knowledge, mereotopologically speaking. What if math isn't true knowledge according to impossible world semantics. Do triangles exist as a bundle of sense-data, or as immaculate Platonic objects. If something exists outside of spacetime, can there exist objects outside the outsideness of spacetime as well --- and can it be a Platonic Form. Why is perception heterogeneous to begin with --- and why. Is an abstract object a Form of ultimate Being, and does the realm of Beings overlap with a dialectic of philosopher king/queen Hegelianism. Do immaterial objects possess the Form of Senses. Did Plato consider the bridge between noumenal and phenomenal a spaceless and timeless phenomena. Is the Form of the Good a synthetic a priori existence. Can noumenal existence be harmonic. Can an abstract Form possess properties of a philosopher king/queen. Finally, does geometry exist within the timelessness and spacelessness of Quarkinos and Higgsinos according to a QCD interpretation overlap of Wittgenstein/Plato.

good work

Plato knew this world is a simulation from the beginning

Womderful!

RIP dear😢😢😢

the great thing about phiolsophy is that because plato is the goat, to the extent that this lecture is about plato, it doesnt go out of date

The framed map - a map of America by John Speed.

1. Real world is maya, illusion... Realm of sadow 2. Mathematics is real knowledge... about space and time... realm of the form 3. Man of honor, sometime not virtue, ex: Achilles Grateful ❤

How true is this? Nietzsche:Quixote::Plato:Sancho I love these lectures, thank you for uploading!

Mathematics is God’s gift to Platonists.

Nice.

Up we go! :D

The sword logic will carve the world of forms, this is the realization of the final shape

Nice

Epic

9:17 "Remember that [Plato] doesn't have modern natural science, and the technological and logical triumphs to make him feel comfortable with the world of the senses. He lives in a world where we don't have an accurate, or adequate, or satisfactory theory of the world of space and time, and for that reason he thinks it's uncertain." I don't think that this holds as an explanation: If you were to explain to Plato that we can explain the refraction of light with formulas in physics, that are expressed mathematically, then in Plato's mind that would just prove that true knowledge of the forms is what makes it possible to interpret fundamentally faulty sense perception in the first place. This would be doubly true if you were to explain to him one of the many interpretations of modern scientific theories, like quantum physics, which state that, fundamentally, the world of space and time is *based on* uncertainty, and probability, rather than absolute truth. This should open up a very obvious question from a Platonic perspective: Is it absolutely the case that the world of space and time is based on probability, or is it only probabilistically the case? If the first, then there needs to be some explanation for absolute certainty in a world of fundamental uncertainty, and our capacities to understand it. If it is only probabilistically the case, then it follows that within the remainder probability, it must be absolutely the case that the world of space and time is *not* based on probability in the remainder.

Have you ever read the book “The Fourth Turning”? Or are you familiar with the Roman concept of the Saecleum?

Wow!

Hi Michael. I forgot to mention something to you. I note your interest in Shakespeare. Here is one of certain mathematical conundrums set up by the man. This is from The Tempest. "Full fathom five thy father lies," Now five fathoms is 30 feet which is equal to 360 inches. You will be well aware of this number's mystical associations in the past. One in particular is not publicly known. It will change the history of mathematics. It is truly remarkable. Anyway, that's why the depth is 5 fathoms. Cheers.

Dr. Sugrue it would be cool if you did a book by book analysis of the republic. I just finished book 7 and your videos have helped a lot so far to lock in what I read. I'd be interested in your take on the finer details if you ever feel up to it. Thanks and I appreciate you and your work.

My favorite kind of people are the kind of people whose weekends are made better by some “landslide of information”

I'm always looking for new interesting lectures on Psychology/Philosophy, please let me know if you guys have any recommendations, would be highly appreciated

(40:05) It made my weekend!

Where is Parts 2,3 and 4?

Sugrue is the Philosopher King.

RIP professor

I have been reading republic and gorgias, I had feeling that not only socrate is questioning his interlocutor, but also the reader, and I'm getting push back and forth answering yes and no. And although I'm not from religious famliy, but i feel like, at least in these two dialogues, the books remind me of bible, and socrate is saying something like "Sell all you have and follow me", get rid of these appearance and pursue the true good.

Am I the only one who sees the soul of a dionysiokolax here behind the elegantly talking body?

Wow

Philosophers: If the world dosen't reflect my Ideas there must be something wrong with the universe, not me. 😂

*Standing Ovation*

When Plato talks about educating someone to be a philosopher king that know the realm of the form whose in the end will become a leader of the city, isn't he essentially talks about creating prophets?

I too transition between mythos and logos. I have actually changed my position on Art being the highest form of abstraction to logos or Reason being the highest form of abstraction. However not math because maths has no intrinsic value, it's value is inextricably linked to logic because any conclusions reached are relative to the variables you begin with. In Plato's symposium, Socrates urged for the focus to be on the form of the good, minds and souls ( which are one and the same) and not bodies. This requires a revaluation of values, for example to use math, E = mc 2, and this changes the properties that we use to define masculine and feminine. To make any judgement regarding their physical prowess is to align your values from the perspective of the Homeric hero and Plato is encouraging us to move beyond that. Do you realise that this means that D.r Jordan Peterson is ignorant to the form of the good. As intelligent as he is asserts himself to be he is in fact ignorant and ignorance is the greatest oppressor of virtue. It's the root of all evils.

I feel smarter just for clicking on this

maybe nobody can reply to this, but the theater he gave this lecture in is a set right? otherwise, it has a very creepy uncanniness, as if somebody could knock the door or show their face through the window at any moment.