Editing Allan Bloom (section)

==Philosophy==
Bloom attempted to preserve a philosophical way of life for future generations through both scholarly and popular writing. His writings may be placed into two categories: [[scholarly]] (e.g., ''Plato's Republic'') and popular political commentary (e.g., ''The Closing of the American Mind'').{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}

===''The Republic of Plato''===
Bloom's translation and essay on the ''Republic'' is radically different in many important aspects from the previous translations and interpretations of the ''Republic''. Most notable is Bloom's discussion of [[Socratic irony]]. In fact, [[irony]] is the key to Bloom's understanding of the ''Republic'' (see his discussion of Books II–VI of the ''Republic''.) Allan Bloom says a philosopher is immune to irony because he can see the [[tragic]] as comic and comic as tragic. Bloom refers to Socrates, the philosopher ''par excellence,'' in his Interpretative Essay stating, "Socrates can go naked where others go clothed; he is not afraid of ridicule. He can also contemplate sexual intercourse where others are stricken with terror; he is not afraid of moral indignation. In other words he treats the comic seriously and the tragic lightly".<ref>Bloom, Allan. 1968. ''The Republic of Plato'', "Interpretative Essay," p. 387. New York: Basic Books</ref> Thus irony in the ''Republic'' refers to the "Just City in Speech", which Bloom looks at not as a model for future [[society]], nor as a template for the human [[Soul (spirit)|soul]]; rather, it is a city presented ironically, an example of the distance between philosophy and every potential philosopher. Bloom follows Strauss in suggesting that the "Just City in Speech" is not [[nature|natural]]; it is man-made.

====Critical reception====
Some reviewers, such as Norman Gulley, criticized the quality of both the translation and the essay itself.<ref>{{cite journal| first=Norman| last=Gulley| date=July 1970| title=The REPUBLIC of Plato: Translated, with Notes and an Interpretive Essay. | journal=Philosophical Quarterly| volume=20| issue=80| pages=269| jstor=2218401| doi=10.2307/2218401}}</ref>