柏拉图（公元前427年－347年）是古希腊的大哲学家，苏格拉底（公元前469年－399）的学生，亚里士多德（公元前384年－322年）的老师。他一生大部分时间居住在古希腊民族文化中心的雅典。他热爱祖国，热爱哲学。他的最高理想，哲学家应为政治家，政治家应为哲学家。哲学家不是躲在象牙塔里的书呆，应该学以致用，求诸实践。有哲学头脑的人，要有政权，有政权的人，要有哲学头脑。

R.E. Allen's highly regarded translations of the dialogues of Plato have been praised for their faithfulness and readability. Many years in the making, his translation of "The Republic" has been eagerly awaited. It comes now to crown a distinguished classicist's efforts to make Plato's works available in readable and accurate translations. This new, lucid translation of Plato's greatest dialogue is the first major translation in English since the publication of Allan Bloom's and G. M. A. Grube's renditions more than a generation ago. It will likely be the standard translation for years to come. This trade edition is accompanied by Allen's notes and introduction. "The Republic" is of course many things: metaphysics and epistemology, moral psychology and ethics, educational theory and aesthetics, and poetry and eschatology. In his introduction, Allen takes up its threshold question - the political - and argues that its particular formulation by Plato had a direct and profound influence on the Founding Fathers and the development of American constitutional law.