Introduction: The Republic, one of the Great Dialogues of Plato #theclassics
Included in the Great Dialogues of Plato: The Republic, The Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Ion, Meno and Symposium. I have chosen to focus on The Republic because it is usually included on the list of the best books of all time. It is an extremely difficult book to read, and I had to focus my energy on what I was reading – in fact, I think that I have to read it another two times to really grasp all the information.
What is The Republic About?
Additionally, I have already read The Apology, Crito and Timaeus (Atlantis: The Lost City), another dialogue, which is considered to be the first place where the Lost City of Atlantis is mentioned. I am including the links to both the Great Dialogues of Plato and The Republic, so you can decide which one to read. In addition to The Republic, Phaedo is considered by many to also be a great book.
The reader should be aware that in the dialogues, Plato, Socrates’ protégé, is putting words in his master’s mouth. In the Republic, Plato is not present at Cephalos’ house where the discussion is taking place. Although Socrates is considered to be one of the greatest teacher and philosopher that ever lived, he never wrote a book. Plato is paying his teacher a great tribute by writing the dialogues.
At the beginning of The Republic, Plato’s longest running dialogue, Socrates is returning from a religious function in honor of Artemis, daughter of Zeus, and the goddess of the moon, wilderness and the hunt. He meets Polemarchus and is invited to the home of Cephalos, a man that is held in high esteem. The people at the home of Cephalos include: His sons Polemarchus, Lysias, and Euthydemos; Socrates, Glaucon, Adeimantus, Thrasymachus, Chalcedon, Charmantides, and Cleitophon. The main discussion throughout The Republic is carried on by Socrates, Glaucon, and Adeimantus.
Socrates asks Cephalos about old age, and a discussion about death, dying and the afterlife takes place. Cephalos wonders if he has an immortal soul, and what will happen to his soul when he dies. He believes that people who are in the twilight of their lives have nothing to fear if they haven’t deceived anyone, have lived an honest life and not in debt to anyone.
Cephalos leaves the group to perform sacred rites, and a conversation about justice, injustice and who is just and unjust begins. The conversation weaves in power, and they distinguish between individual power and the power of a city state. Thrasymachus argues that justice is power, and that the powerful put laws in place that they can get away with. One conclusion in Book I is that injustice is never more profitable than justice. But things do not end there, Glaucon is dissatisfied with the reasoning between Socrates and Thrasymachus, so he asks Socrates if he really believes that in every instance if it is better to be just than unjust.
The Republic is over 300 pages, so one has to assume that the conversation and philosophical musings take place over an afternoon. As the discussion progresses, it leads into politics, and cities. They identify three principles that create a united city.
3 Principles That Create a United City
- Equal shares for all so that there is no rich or poor. If you have a society with extreme wealth and poverty, in essence you have two distinct societies – one for the rich and one for the poor – and they will be enemies to each other.
- Physical limit of the size. Let the city grow to the point where it remains in unity and no farther. Therefore, the city cannot be too small or too large, but it has to be great enough, and a unity.
- Recognition of merit regardless of birth. Each person, whatever class he is from, should work in the area that he has a natural talent for, and the training in, because the well-educated become orderly men. Rulers of a city must place importance on training and education. The good of the city outweighs the good of the individual, and is more important, therefore it is imperative that the city has an educational system in place to produce citizens who are loyal fulfill the city's needs. Education is the vehicle to bring about morality, achieving the ideal government.
They agree that a city is a collection of individuals, and each individual has a set of values that they live by. They look at virtues such as wisdom, courage, temperance (moderation), and justice that allows the other three virtues to flourish.
The perfect city has to have the following:
- Wisdom: Must have good counsel, the perfect guardians, who are able to think.
- Courage: The quality of the soldiers, the people who uphold the constitution. They preserve the beliefs about danger, what is dangerous and what is not, and this also ties in with education. The protector of the city has to be able to accurately identify a threat and a non-threat.
- Temperance: This a kind of good order, do everything in moderation, and this is meant for both the rulers and those ruled.
- Justice preserves wisdom, courage and temperance. And it goes back to each individual doing the work that he has the natural talent and training for. There are three classes in a city, money makers, assistants and guardians (rulers). “A city is just when three classes of natures in it each did their own business: and again we thought it temperate and brave and wise because of certain other states and conditions of these same three classes.”
5 Types of Political Structures
- Aristocracy or Kingdom
- Timocracy
- Oligarchy
- Democracy
- Tyranny
According to Socrates, only one of these structures is good, the other four are bad. The one that he considers good is a Kingdom which one man rises above all the rulers, or an aristocracy, which is ruled by more than one person. Neither one ruler nor more than one would disturb important city laws if they are educated.
4 Categories of the Idea of Good
Socrates speaks about the highest knowledge, which underlies justice – the Idea of Good, which is the guiding light for the soul, and is the end of the philosopher’s study. At that level he becomes enlightened. “As the sun is to the world of sight, the Idea of the Good is to the world of mind.” The way that Socrates explains the Idea of the Good is very confusing, so I am adding the diagram. There is a line divided first in two and then in four. The lower part represents the visible realm and the upper part represents the knowledge realm. The four divisions are: 
- Conjecture: Images – Shadows and reflections in water, and in surfaces, which are of close texture, smooth and shiny.
- Belief: Objects –The things that the images resemble – the animals about us, trees and manufactured things.
- Understanding: Thought-Images-Ideas – The soul in its search is compelled to use as images the things initiated – Ideal Squares and Cubes.
- Exercise of reason: Ideas or Ideals – It makes its path of enquiry among ideals – Perfect Beauty, Justice and Goodness.
Conjecture and belief fall under opinion, and understanding and exercise of reason fall under knowledge.
Great Ideas from The Republic
- “Woman is the weaker sex [physically]; but there are no occupations for which a woman is unfitted merely because she is a woman.” Although this is true, it is a revolutionary idea for the time.
- Governments should place a lot of importance on having an educated society. This still makes sense today.
- Individuals in a city must have an area in which they specialize.
The major themes in the Republic are the nature of justice and the organization of societies. The Republic is not the type of book that you read over the course of a day, like I did. After reading it, I realize that you have to read it in small portions, perhaps one of the 10 books at a time. I do not believe for a minute that I have done this book review/summary justice. I will be re-reading this book over a month to give me the opportunity to digest it.
Final Thoughts: The Republic by Plato
According to Francis Bacon, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.” The Republic is meant to be chewed and digested – read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Perhaps this is the perfect book to read for a book club or a literary salon, places that give you the opportunity to discuss it. Because the Republic is so difficult to understand, I am including links to free courses to increase understanding.
The Republic of PlatoPlato: Complete Works
Plato: The Complete Works (31 Books)
Plato: Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo (Hackett Classics)
Six Great Dialogues: Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Symposium, The Republic (Dover Thrift Editions)
Great Dialogues of Plato
Further Reading
Introduction to Political Philosophy
Plato – The Republic
Lecture Course in Plato's Republic – Laurence Bloom
