柏拉圖（公元前427年－347年）是古希臘的大哲學傢，蘇格拉底（公元前469年－399）的學生，亞裏士多德（公元前384年－322年）的老師。他一生大部分時間居住在古希臘民族文化中心的雅典。他熱愛祖國，熱愛哲學。他的最高理想，哲學傢應為政治傢，政治傢應為哲學傢。哲學傢不是躲在象牙塔裏的書呆，應該學以緻用，求諸實踐。有哲學頭腦的人，要有政權，有政權的人，要有哲學頭腦。

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.