CLAS 2000 Study Guide — Republic

 Book I
 Cephlus
 Justice = being honest and paying your debts.
 This definition is derived from Homeric epics.
 Socrates responds that if this is so, then it is just to return a sword to a man who lent it to you sane but is now insane. He could harm himself
or others with the sword due to his insanity.
 Polemarchus
 Justice = owing help to friends and harm to enemies; give each what is owed.
 Socrates argues we sometimes error about who are friends and who are not. Our enemies might also be good men, and for a just man to do
harm to another is not just.
 Harming anyone is contrary to a just person. Doing harm makes the victim more unjust.
 Thrasymachus
 Justice = the advantage of the stronger.
 Justice is essentially doing things for thestroner that are beneficial for them but not necessarily you.
 Just behaviour works to the advantage of others, not the person acting just.
 Justice is a convention, and really harms us more than benefits us.
 Justic is thus not worth persuing, it is actually more beneficial to be unjust.
 Socrates first responds that if justice were the advantage of the stronger, then what about when the strong make a mistake? Maybe a ruler
makes a law that is not to his own advantage, perhaps he errors and it is really to his disadvantage. Is it just for the weak to heed this even
though it leads to the disadvantange of the stronger?
 Cleitophone adds in that justice is when a ruler orders something he believes to be to his own benefit. Doing what the ruler says is justice.
Thrsymach replies that this is not when he meant. A ruler is not a ruler when he errors. No craftsman can error, but when he does error he is
not a craftsman. Thus a ruler never reallyerrors, only his judgement does. Might makes right.
 Socrates refuts this because it seems a ruler, as a doctor, has an interest in his patients, should be more interested in his subjects. It is the
form of the ruler to do thus, and in sor far as a ruler he cannot serve himself but only his people. It profits him to profit his people.
 T goes on to argue that it is better to be unjust than just and this shifts the argument from the definition of justice.
 He thinks unjust men are smarter, injustice gives power, injustice brings happiness.
 Socrates argues that injustice is contrary to virtue, there T is wrong on his first point. Any man without virtue would not profit.
 To point two: thieves need to be just in order to profit from an injustice act. If they were completely injust they would not accomplish
anything, fighting amongst themselves.
 Finally, the virtue of the soul is justice; to live well in harmony with others. Injustice only brings forth fighting, civil war, division which is
the opposite of virtue in the soul. Which seems happier?
 Book II
 Glaucon and Adeimantus fully develop T’s argument so that Socrates can respond and answer this unique argument.
 They ask Socrates whether Justice is a) good in itself (no consequences), b) good in in itself and for its consequences or c) good only for consequences.
 Socrates places justice as good in itself AND for its consequences, being the highest level of good.
 Glaucon argues that most people place justice as only good for its consequences.
 Glaucon proposes that we strip justice and injustice of all consequence. This leaves justice as simply not suffering the punishment of injustice but also
not having the benefits.
 He argues we practice justice unwillingly, only because we do not want to suffer punishments for injustice but we do all want the benefits. He uses the
story of the ring of Gyges to prove this, as the person with the ring will not WILLINGLY practice justice since he can get away with injustice. We thus
only practice justice publically.
 They come to conclude that the life of an injust man appears better than that of a just man if we strip away the consequences. Perfect injustice involves
decieving everyone to believe you are infact just, perfect justice is the opposite.
 Socrates aims to solve this by looking for justice in the city before looking at the individual.
 After defining a city which has only the necessity, he is chastised because such a city of necessity is not really possible. He founds this on the principle
of one man: one occupation. He refers to this as the healthy city while Glaucon calls it the city of pigs.
 Given the desire of man for luxuries this city evolves into the luxurious city. Luxury requires an army, and so guardians are introduced. They must
adhere to the principle of specialization.
 He then goes into describing the education and training of the guardians, banning poetry etc.
 Book III
 In order to keep the guardians obedient he invents the Myth of metals. Gold, silver, bronze/iron souls. Only gold can rule or prophesy of ruin. They will
live in a mess and not be allowed to posses their own property or touch real gold/silver.
 Through education and these noble lies we are purging the luxurious city.
 Purging removes the need for many laws.
 Book IV
 Adeimantus argues that the guardians will not be very happy with their life of bare necessity. Socrates argues that the goal is not to make a few happy
at the expense of many, and so the collect should be happy. This means wealth and poverty must carefully be guarded against because both create
influx or that is to say change. The guardians will thus guard their own system of education.
 Adeimantus asks about an evitable super wealthy city, Socrates answers that rich fat men will have no chance against the guardians. As wel, it would
be easy to garner the poor to help them from such a city. Also the guardians will gain many allies since they do not take any treasure, they only fight
out of necessity. Laws will not be plentiful, and deciding justice will be up to the guardians. This is self-government.
 The kallipolis is now complete and is the best city possible so it must contain justice. After sorting through Wisdom (rulers), Courage (guardians),
Temperance(residents) we find justice in the principle of specialization one man: one occupation.
 We can now turn to the individual soul.
 Divides the soul into three parts: rational, spirited, appetites.
 The soul is ruled by one of these parts, and it is best if ruled by the rational. These parts exist because you can be thirsty and yet resist drinking poision
etc.
 Justice in the soul is thus each part working in harmony. When the body is ruled by anything but the rational there is often division and thus injustice
within the soul. Thus is would appear that justice is more desirable than injustice since an injust man would be a slave to either his appetites or honor.
However, Socrates puts this off.
 Book V
 Socrates is interrupted by Glaucon and is asked to explain further his ideas about the common mess of the guardians.
 He explains this in 3 waves: a) Female participation in all aspects of life b) selective breed, abolishment of traditional family, infanticide, shared
parentage and state education of children c) city will be ruled by philosophers.
 They see practicality of first two waves abut require more of the third. Spends rest of book proving this. He differentiates between what they normally
hold to be a philosopher and what he means by a philosopher. Socrates divides existence into knowledge and opinion and asserts knowledge > opinion.
 Book VI
 The philosopher-king will be the only one capable of reaching knowledge and thus percieivng the forms. This is because philosopher-kings will be
made to love truth and hate opinion. Not just some specific subject of truth/knowldge, but all fields.
 The philosopher-king must have all sorts of characteristics, which will be carefully cultivated and chosen through a life-long process. These
philosophers will seek the Good.
 Socrates cannot describe the good in itself so he instead makes the analogy of the Sun. As light comes from the sun so does truth come from the Good.
Light allows us to see objects, truth allows us to grasp the intelligible realm of things (forms).
 From this he introduces the Metaphor of the line. Imagination and Belief occupy the visible realm while thought and understanding occupy the
intelligible realm.
 Book VII
 Allegory of the cave is presented. Shows effects of education on the human soul. The descent so far in the book is now complete, it is time to ascend
out of the cave.
 Education is a means of turning the soul around. The possibility of understanding the good is possible for all yet the ability to turn around is almost
impossible. The corruptions of the world are holding us back and we must work hard, and in Plato’s case in a strict system, to be able to.
 Calculation, Plane Geomerty, 3d geometry, Astronomy and musical theory are examples of studies that can turn the soul around.
 These are higher studies obviously, they require music/gymnastics discussed in book II/III before moving on. Those who best pass these studies will
become philkings.
 Book VIII
 Socrates now returns to his argument where he left off in book 5. He describes governments, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. All these
cities are failures. This is because the rulers rely on the senses or the visible realm, and so they degenerate into each other.
 Book IX
 Book X
