This program scrutinizes The Republic, a work that has intrigued and infuriated for thousands of years. Was Plato’s plan for an ideal city—a place where philosophers are rulers and wisdom is the cornerstone of society—a blueprint, a satire, or a bit of both? Columbia University’s Bonnie Kent; Princeton University’s Alexander Nehamas; Martha Nussbaum, of The University of Chicago; Thomas Pangle, of the University of Toronto; poet Joseph Brodsky; novelist Joyce Carol Oates; William Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education; and radio personality Michael Savage consider the worth of a system that promotes the common good through state control that, by necessity, must involve censorship and eugenics. A Discovery University Production. (48 minutes)