REPUBLIC
|
Polemarchus, which means "leader in battle," and was the name given to the third archon; Cephalus, meaning "head" as in head of the family; and Thrasymachus, meaning "schemer."]ELENCHUS.] Thrasymachus appeals to a sober, unblinkered view of the facts: people who can get away with so-called "injustice" do so regularly, repeatedly and with impunity. Eventually Thrasymachus wearies of the argument (it is not at all clear that he is refuted or even convinced.) He withdraws as Socrates remarks that they are now still without a clear and defensible definition of justice.
DIKAIOSYNE) and ARETE are instrinsically desirable. In their view, the vast majority will act unjustly if they can do so to their own benefit and with impunity. Where justice is honored, it is always honored for its consequences. They expand on this view, which they attribute to Thrasymachus, with discomfort. They want not to believe that it is so, but their faith in their fellow human beings has been shaken. They entreat Socrates to establish that being just & acting justly are their own reward. Socrates agrees to try. The argument that begins at this point is not completed until Book IX.POLIS) than in an individual, particularly if we conduct what we in the 20c C.E would come to call a thought experiment. The POLIS is the individual WRIT LARGE. So the argument begins with speculation about the foundation of an ideal POLIS. Initially this will be a small, circumscribed community brought together by the economics of basic material needs. Glaucon in particular finds this vision crude and unsatisfactory: he labels Socrates' idea a "city of pigs." In response, Socrates develops the implications and effects of the introduction of more "creature-comforts" and luxuries, chief among them war. The more luxurious POLIS inevitably is at risk from its neighbors and therefore must raise an army. With luxury and enhanced trade both the threat of war (and the necessity of defense) and the subdivision and specialization of labor inevitably follow. The POLIS requires Guardians (PHYLAKES.) As the argument of the Republic develops, the the role of the Guardians assumes greater and greater significance.POLIS require of its Guardians? [The Guardians swiftly acquire the characteristics of a separate class.] This question leads inexorably to an investigation into the goals and techniques of education (PAIDEIA.) What should children be taught, and when? This in turn leads to a discussion of censorship. Are there stories (especially about the gods) that children should not be told.?
REPUBLICPOLIS against its enemies, external and internal. There will be a strict conflict of interest provision: Guardians will be prohibited from owning private property, but their needs, not to extend to profligacy or luxury, will be supplied at state expense.
REPUBLICEUDAIMONIA) of the POLIS that is at stake. Every class must exercise its own special function. Extremes of both wealth and poverty must be avoided, since they will undermine the unity of the POLIS. The Guardians must remain particularly vigiliant about education, since if the youth are brought up and educated properly (and, as he indicates in passing, in common), all sorts of petty legislative questions that vex actual cities will be avoided. This means that attention must be given even to the stories children are told. As for religion, Socrates is content to leave that to Apollo.POLIS, Socrates says, is now established. Where is justice to be found in it? He inventories the four cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, moderation, & justice. Wisdom will be found among the rulers; courage among the guardians; moderation (SOPHROSYNE) in everyone's being content with his own role in the POLIS. Justice (DIAKIOSYNE) is, therefore, the smooth ordering of society that results from everyone fulfilling his own special role and not meddling in the proper functions of others. Injustice, by contrast, consists precisely in such meddling.POLIS, how can we translate this to the individual? By analogy, Socrates suggests, justice in the individual will be the harmonious functioning of independent parts, each fulfilling its own appropriate function. But analogy alone cannot establish so important a point, according to Socrates, which leads him into an examination as to whether the soul is actually divisible into discrete capacities or parts. A detailed investigation establishes that the soul has indeed three parts (reason, spirit, and appetite) that correspond to the three basic classes in the POLIS. Justice in the individual is, therefore, the condition under which each part of the soul fulfills its own special function, governed by reason, with spirit, as reason requires, restraining the passions (appetite.) Injustice in the individual is, by contrast, the state of imbalance and disorder, in which passions and drives rebel against the wise counsel of reason. Socrates remarks that there are four such ways in which disorder and rebellion can arise in the POLIS and/or the individual.
REPUBLICPOLIS that you have imagined even possible? Only, says Socrates, if the philosophers become rulers or (BASILEIS) (or if the rulers become philosophers.) This leads to an account of the Forms, by means of which Socrates differentiates most human beings, captivated as they are by changing sights, sounds, and pleasures, from the philosophers, the "lovers of wisdom," who seek the real, unchanging objects of true knolwedge.
REPUBLICREPUBLICPAIDEIA) must begin with playfulness. What subjects will help students learn to learn? Mathematics, followed by logic & dialectic, followed by a fifteen year apprenticeship in the practical world of politics (from age 35 to 50.) Only then can the final stages of the education (as the French would say formation) of the philosopher-ruler begin. Book VII ends with a reminder that some of these "philosopher-kings" will be women.
REPUBLICPOLIS. The obvious first question is why the ideal POLIS should suffer decline and erosion at all. The answer, Socrates explains in extremely elevated poetic language, is that whatever is born must die, according to a mathematical principle, which is expressed here as the so-called "Myth of the Platonic number." Complicated astrological calculations will regulate the precise timings of the fertility festivals. Errors in these calculations will result in iron and bronze types mixing with the golden and silver. When this happens the harmony of the ideal city will be compromised. Civil strife (STASIS) will arise from envy and hostility. The rulers, no longer governed by their best natures, seek compromises. They distribute land and private property, and concentrate their own activities on war and defense. Society forms into economic classes: the rich own land and property, the poor become wage-earners and serfs. Emphasis is on honor and martial arts (Socrates seems to have Sparta in mind.) Art " cutlure are neglected and education deteriorates. The rulers now secretly love money, but they cannot admit that they do. In the corresponding individual, the spirited element predominates over the rational.POLIS, democracy is inherently unstable. Liberty has turned to licentiousness, and this leads inevitably to tyranny and complete loss of freedom. The people name a champion dictator, and grant him bodyguards. He seizes all power and privilege for himself.
REPUBLICREPUBLICREPUBLIC concludes with the great "Myth of Er" which relates the thousand-year cycle of reincarnation, penalties, and rewards leading to the punishment of the wicked and the triumph and everlasting happiness of the just soul.REPUBLIC| TOPIC | Book/Chapter | Stephanus Numbers |
| PROLOGUE | ||
|
|
|
| INTRODUCTION | ||
|
|
|
Part I: Genesis & Order of the POLIS | ||
|
|
|
| Part II: Embodiment of the Ideal | ||
|
|
|
Part III: Decline of the POLIS | ||
|
|
|
| Conclusion | ||
|
|
|
| Epilogue | ||
|
|
|