SUMMARY OF PLATOS REPUBLIC Like Platos other works, this one is in the form of a dialogue.

The narrator is Socrates himself, and the very first line that Plato puts into his mouth reveals something important about him: ! walked down to the Piraeus yesterday "emphasis added#...$ %hat does the word yesterday$ tell us& That after what probably was an all'night conversation, the very ne(t day Socrates is back in )thens, presumably at his hangout in the )gora, the large open'air market in that city. * !n other words, he talked all night, walked back to )thens in the morning, and then with little or no sleep was back in his usual place, repeating from memory the e+uivalent of ,-. pages of a dialogue that he had conducted the previous evening. /ot only must he have been a prodigious talker, but his physical powers must have been considerable as well. Plato doesnt hit the reader over the head with this information, but lets the reader infer it from the clues he provides. 0ook ! Socrates gets playfully kidnapped$ on his way back to )thens from the port city of Piraeus, about five miles away, by some young men he is ac+uainted with and is persuaded to attend an all'night festival there. 1e will stay at the house of 2ephalus, a retired manufacturer, and they will go out after dinner and watch the festival. %hat follows is the events of the evening and night. %hen they arrive at 2ephalus home, the old man, seated comfortably, greets Socrates warmly, telling him how glad he is to see him and that he should come down to Piraeus more often. Then he starts telling him how much he is at peace in his old age and goes on for a little while in this self'satisfied manner while Socrates starts to pick holes in his reasoning. 1e soon reali3es that Socrates is more than he bargained for and retires from the room, leaving the discussion to the young men, who are more capable of responding to Socrates close +uestioning and find it both enlightening and entertaining. 2ephalus left when, after he had raised the sub4ect of 4ustice, Socrates response made his own comment seem foolish. Thereupon the young men induce Socrates5he doesnt need much persuasion5to discuss the nature of 4ustice with them, and he gladly responds. 6arly in the discussion Socrates is interrupted by Thrasymachus 7the name means bold in combat$ or bold in battle$8, who believes might makes right and bursts into the conversation, almost physically attacking Socrates out of anger at the drivel about 4ustice he thinks Socrates is spouting. Socrates manages to calm him down and then, by a clever process of +uestion and answer, makes him retreat step by step and calm down. Thrasymachus, made to look foolish by Socrates, remains +uiet the rest of the evening. 9eanwhile, Platos brothers, :laucon and )deimantus, although undoubtedly entertained by Socrates defeat of Thrasymachus, are not satisfied that he truly has defended the concept of 4ustice. Socrates responds with further arguments with which they still are not fully satisfied. )t this point he suggests they try to see 4ustice not simply
*

Think of the word ;agoraphobia, fear of open spaces, which is taken from the :reek agor and phbos, fear or terror. The agor was the place where the )ssembly of the citi3ens of a city met. !t also was used for debates and trials, and as a marketplace. !n modern terms, it was a combination of a public meetingplace and a shopping mall.

Summary of Platos Republic

as it might e(ist in the individual human being, but writ large,$ by sketching an ideal state, that is, an ideal :reek city'state or polis. The conversation that follows must have lasted till very late at night or even through the night, and it appears that the participants in the dialogue never actually attended the festival, but that the nights entertainment was provided by Socrates. 0ook !! Socrates thinks that with the refutation of Thrasymachus, the discussion is over, but the young men want him not 4ust to rebut an immoralist, but truly to show that 4ustice is better than in4ustice in every way. So one of them, :laucon, proposes to take up Thrasymachus theory, glorifying the life of in4ustice, and see if Socrates really can rebut that view. 1e tells the mythical story of :yges, a shepherd who discovers a ring that enables him to become invisible. )rmed with this ring, :yges seduces his <ueen and kills his =ing5the point being that if we all thought we could get away with evil deeds, we would commit them. :laucons brother, )deimantus, also makes an elo+uent speech praising in4ustice. !n response, Socrates observes that since 4ustice e(ists in a whole community as well as in an individual, wouldnt it be better to e(amine it in a whole society& %e could see it then on a larger scale and thereby e(amine it more closely. Thus, they agree to construct in imagination an ideal polis or city'state that would perfectly embody the idea or ideal of 4ustice. They start small with 4ust a few people. This is appropriate, because ancient :reece, a mountainous country, was divided into many city'states, some consisting of only a few thousand people and several much larger, the largest being )thens with appro(imately half a million people and colonies scattered about the 9editerranean. They first discuss the different laborers, tradesmen, and professionals who will make up their state and the type of land they will need. Then who will protect it& The best idea is to have a class of warriors, whom they call hoi phlakoi, the watchmen or guards, sentinels, guardians, or protectors. 9aybe one could even call them the police.$ !t develops that these guardians or policemen will be the ruling class of the society. !n our terms, this is decidedly a state resembling the government of )thens chief rival, Sparta, which was run by a military class to which the lower class of peasants was subordinate. The Spartans had a strong army, whereas the )thenians had a strong navy, which they used to defend their overseas empire. !n the -th century 0.2., the two city' states formed rival leagues, confederations of city'states, and eventually went to war. The Peloponnesian %ar, which lasted from >?*'>.> 0.2., with periods of truce, ended with the defeat of )thens. The conversation that comprises The Republic probably took place during one of the truces. !n short, the ideal state that Socrates and his pals are sketching would have been politically suspect to the mass of )thenians. %hile it would be a stretch to call it a fascist state, it was definitely right'wing, if one looks at it in conventional terms. 9aybe police state,$ a modern term, also is too strong a description, but it does come to mind. They then take up the education of the guardsmen. The literature the boys will be e(posed to will have to be censored because their young minds must be e(posed only to the best models to imitate so that they will grow up to be truly 4ust rulers. This means eliminating 1omer, 1esiod, the :reek tragedians, et al., all of whom constituted much of

Summary of Platos Republic

the normal curriculum for those :reek boys who were fortunate enough to be formally educated5something else to offend conventional opinion. They have a good time going through the classics of :reek education at some length, 4ust to drive home the point. 0ook !!! The censorship of the classics continues into 0ook !!!. The education will be rich in poetry and music in order to instill a sense of rhythm and harmony deep into the minds and souls of the young policemen. They wont be taught menial occupations. Those are unfit for the ruling class. 9oreover, those in charge of the guardsmens education will see that only the right kind of poetry and music is taught them5theyve got to protect them for whatever the ancient :reek e+uivalent was of hard rock and rap and so on. There also will be intense physical training, on the principle of a healthy mind in a healthy body. The guardsmens diet will be regulated to be like that of athletes in training. !n other words, they will be athletes as well as scholars. 0ook !@ %hat will be the manner of life of the guardsmen& /o private property beyond the bare necessities. They wont live in private homes, but in a common barracks with a common mess, like soldiers. They will be fed, clothed, and housed, but they wont receive any pay. The different classes of the state will be characteri3ed by the cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and 4ustice. The rulers will have wisdomA the guardsmen, courageA the farmers and workers, temperanceA and the society, well'organi3ed in this way, will be 4ust. This arrangement corresponds to the three parts of the individual soul. Society is the soul writ large. 0ook @ 2arrying the previous arrangements to their logical conclusion, all property will be held in common, including women and children. Burthermore, women will be treated as e+uals of men. They will perform the same tasksA they will e(ercise naked as :reek males were accustomed to do, and they will do this along with the men. They will even fight together with them in battle. 9en and women will compete e+ually in every occupation. The institution of the family will be abolished. 2hildren will be brought up in common. /or can a well'ordered state permit unregulated unions between the se(es. Curing the childbearing period of adulthood, at regular intervals marriage festivals will occur, and couples will be paired by lot. 1owever, the lots will be rigged by the rulers so that the best people of both se(es will be united in marriage. The couples will live together for the period of the festival for the sake of breeding. 0ook @! Ciscussion of the +ualities that characteri3e the philosophers, together with all the temptations that may corrupt him 7or by implication, her8. The process of selecting the philosophers will be rigorous because not many can meet the high standards that are

Summary of Platos Republic

re+uired for a guardsman to become one of the rulers. There cannot be any 4ustice in states until philosophers become kings and kings become philosophers. The philosopher will have to be very well'rounded, e(cellent both in mind and in body. 1e must strive for the highest ob4ect of knowledge, the knowledge of the :ood. Dn the urging of the others, Socrates agrees to try to sketch the nature of the :ood. The :ood in the realm of ideas is analogous to the Sun in the physical world. Then comes the allegory of the divided line, in which the various levels of reality and the corresponding states of mind are outlined. 0ook @!! The allegory of the divided line is abstract, so Socrates gives a concrete version of it in the famous myth of the cave, which corresponds e(actly to its divisions. Then he goes on to the higher education of the policemen. They study various sciences such as mathematics in order to train the mind and soul both to be rulers and to transcend the physical world, in other words, to escape from the cave. 0ooks @!!! and !E Cifficult as it might be to reali3e, they have sketched the ideal state. /ow Socrates observes that even if it could be constructed, it would be on too high a level for human beings to maintain and would inevitably decline. 1e then traces the stages in its decline, and the corresponding stages of decline in the character of the ruling class. 6ventually he comes to the lowest level, tyranny or despotism, and the tyrant or un4ust man, whose character he describes at some length. The un4ust man will be the unhappiest of all men. )t the end of 0ook !E, :laucon says that the republic they have been founding e(ists only in the realm of discourse, but nowhere on earth. To this, Socrates replies, Perhaps there is a pattern set up in the heavens for one who desires to see and to found a republic like this in himself.$ 0ook E !n the first part of 0ook E Socrates continues his criticism of the :reek poets and tragedians, saying that he will either ban them from his ideal state or only let them back in a very restricted way. 1e ob4ects to their appeal to the emotions, rather than to the mind. 1e concludes with an argument or proof for the immortality of the soul, and the dialogue concludes with another myth$ or parable of the reincarnation of the soul, the myth of 6r, a warrior who dies and miraculously comes back from the dead and relates what he has seen in the other world. Socrates talkathon on the ideal state probably lasted all night. 0y this reckoning, the allegory of the line and the myth of the cave occurred sometime after midnight and the proof of the immortality of the soul and the myth of 6r occurred as the gray dawn was breaking. Thereafter Socrates went about his business and later in the day was back at his familiar place in the )gora relating the events of the preceding night.

Summary of Platos Republic

F Gobert :reene ,..H