Republic

Read only books 1 and 7 (of a total of 10).

Book 1 introduces the question of what is justice, and what it means to be just. Three definitions are introduced, all refuted by Socrates:

- Justice is to give back what you owe;
- Justice is to treat the good justly and the bad unjustly;
- Justice is the strong doing what’s best for the strong.

None of these is a particularly appealing definition, so the first book does not do much more than ask the question and get ball the rolling.

Book 7 introduces the allegory of the cave. Of course you’d have to have been living in a cave to not have heard of it, but still great to read it in (a translation of) its original appearance.