The Republic By Plato (427 - 347 B.C.) Essays - Socratic Dialogues

The Republic by Plato (427 - 347 B.C.) The Republic by Plato (427 - 347 B.C.) Book Overveiw (The Republic is an examination of the "Good Life"; the harmony reached by applying pure reason and justice. The ideas and arguments presented center on the social conditions of an ideal republic - those that lead each individual to the most perfect possible life for him. Socrates Plato's early mentor in real life - moderates the discussion throughout, presumably as Plato's mouthpiece. Through Socrates' powerful and brilliant questions and summations on a series of topics, the reader comes to understand what Plato's model society would look like.) Socrates was returning to Athens after attending a festival, when he met Polemarchos on the road. Upon Polemarchos' insistence, Socrates accompanied him to his home to meet his friends and family. As they entered the courtyard, Polemarchos' elderly father, Cephalus, greeted them and launched into a discussion of old age. Socrates seemed pleased to converse with the older man: "It seems right to enquire of them, as if they traversed a long journey which perhaps we will have to traverse." The discussion then turned to the question of "justice," or "doing the right thing." Polemarchos suggested that "to give back what is owed to each is just." However, Socrates countered that to return a weapon to a friend who had gone mad was not just, but the opposite of justice. Still another man, Thrasymachos, offered his definition of justice: "I declare justice is nothing but the advantage of the stronger." But Socrates, again by logical argument, dismissed this definition: Since rulers are fallible, they often make decisions that are not in their best interest, thus requiring their subjects to do the wrong, unjust thing. But, according to Socrates, "right living," dutiful service to others, and doing that which is "appropriate" to the person and situation are the prerequisites to individual happiness - and prerequisites for avoiding chaos within a republic. Still another in the group voiced his objections to Socrates' statement that justice is a virtue and injustice a vice; Glaucon was not entirely convinced that justice possessed any intrinsic value. Socrates began his examination of this concept by turning his focus from the individual to the city: people gathered together in cities in order that each individual might perform the task best suited to his or her nature. From this point, Socrates delineated the various classes of people in a citystate, from the peasant and beggar to the highest kings and rulers. He then posed a question: "Do you not think, that one who is to be guardian-like (a leader) needs something more besides a spirited temper, and that is to be in his nature a lover of wisdom?" Socrates also wondered aloud how these traits could be instilled into potential leaders: "How shall our guardians be trained and educated?" Socrates proceeded to weigh the numerous types of education and experience demanded of a good ruler, and divided education into two main areas: music (in this case, all the arts) and gymnastics (athletics). Fables, he observed, were the first "music" that children hear, and children are "easily molded" by these stories. Socrates recommended that "we must set up a censorship over the fable-makers, and approve any good fable they make, and disapprove the bad." Many classical fables and myths were to be censored as "false" because they portrayed the gods in an unfavorable light. Children "must never hear at all that the gods war against other gods and plot and fight," he said, for when they grow older, they will accept this behavior as virtuous. Instead, children should hear the "noblest things told in the best fables for encouraging virtue." He concluded: "God is simple and true in word and deed," and this must be held up as an example to children, especially to those who may grow up to become rulers. Socrates extended his censorship argument to include craftsmen: artists and sculptors must be restrained from deformed, ignoble, morbid or "imaginary" creations, "to stop their implanting this spirit so evil and dissolute." Craftsmen "who by good natural powers can track out the nature of the beautiful and the graceful," should share their gifts so that young people would dwell in "wholesome country." A delicate balance had to be maintained between gymnastic and "musical" education; an over-emphasis on gymnastics produced "savagery and hardness" in a person, while too much music spawned excessive "softness and gentleness." The two arts "may be fitted together in concord, by being strained and slackened to the proper point." Now that the thrust of the future citizens' education was established, Socrates asked: "Which