Summary: Republic
The Republic is a dialogue by Plato that sets out an original vision of social life within an ideal city.
According to Cicero, it was the first work of Greek political philosophy.
Plato asserts the existence of an intelligible realm beyond the world of sensory experience—the world of Ideas. The dialogue also contains the famous Allegory of the Cave.
Other works: Symposium
Book I
This introductory book simply sets the scene for Socrates' meeting with his various interlocutors, including Glaucon and Adeimantus.
Book II
Glaucon argues to Socrates that we are never moral out of a desire for justice, but merely out of fear of punishment.
He illustrates his point with the famous myth of Gyges' ring: Gyges, having found a ring that makes him invisible, is able to commit any wrongdoing he wishes without fear of being caught.
This suggests that those who act justly do so only because they lack the power to commit injustice
1, or that no one is just voluntarily, but only under compulsion
2.
In response to this challenge, Socrates must come to the defence of justice
3 and establish its legitimacy.
Rather than examining justice in the individual, Socrates proposes to study it in the city, following the principle that one sees more clearly what is written in large letters than in small ones.
Men unite and form a city out of necessity, as they are unable to meet all their needs on their own.
Thus, in Plato's Republic, we see the emergence of the principle of the division of labour, which would later be famously articulated by Adam Smith:
All things are produced more abundantly, better, and more easily, when every man, according to his abilities, and within the proper time, engages in one work, being dispensed from all others 4.
As a result, specialisation emerges, leading to the creation of numerous new trades: carpenters, blacksmiths, shepherds, and many others.
In the corrupted city, useless trades that exist not out of necessity but for pleasure begin to emerge—musicians, artists. As a result, the city must expand, and to do so, it must wage war. Hence the emergence of soldiers.
Socrates defines the ideal character of the soldier, or Guardian: he must be both gentle towards the inhabitants of the city and fierce towards its enemies. Their education must exclude music and poetry, and Socrates takes the opportunity to condemn, in passing, fables that depict immoral gods.
Book III
Plato even goes so far as to expel the poet from the city—more precisely, the "corrupting" poet, the one who knows how to imitate everything, including the vile:
We would send him to another city, after pouring myrrh on his head and crowning him with garlands 5.
By contrast, the "moralising" poet is allowed to remain in the city: the more austere and less entertaining one, who will imitate for us the tone of the virtuous man
6.
The education of the Guardians must incorporate both music and gymnastics, which complement each other: if music softens, gymnastics strengthens—an ideal balance for the Guardian, who must be both gentle and fierce.
Power must belong to the eldest, for they are the wisest. However, the people must not be told the truth; instead, the legitimacy of power must be grounded in a myth: the gods have formed those who rule from gold, and those who obey from iron and bronze. An oracle foretells the city's downfall when it is guarded by iron or bronze
7.
Since the Guardians belong to the golden race, they must own nothing. Nothing must be theirs by right, lest they begin to conspire to amass wealth.
Now, at last, the city is fully founded and described in all its complexity.
Book IV
In the fourth book of The Republic, Socrates returns to the original question: what is justice, and what grounds its legitimacy in the city?
Justice in the city is one of its four cardinal virtues. These virtues are essential for the city to remain healthy and function properly.
The four cardinal virtues are: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice.
- Wisdom: The rulers of the city, along with its Guardians, deliberate in order to make political decisions. In this decision-making, they employ prudence, which is a form of knowledge.
- Courage: Once again, it is the Guardians who embody this virtue.
- Temperance (or self-control): Just as in every individual there is a higher part that must govern the lower part in order to achieve self-mastery, so too is the city master of itself when the superior social class governs the inferior, if the desires of the multitude, made up of men of lesser virtue, are restrained by the wisdom of the virtuous few
8.
- Justice: Justice consists in possessing only what rightfully belongs to us and in performing only our own designated function
9.
The mixing of social classes—for instance, when a craftsman aspires to become a Guardian—constitutes the greatest harm to the city: an injustice.
1 Republic, 359a-360b
2 360b-361c
3 367b-368b
4 370b-371a
5 397b-398b
6 Ibid.
7 415a-416a
8 431a-431e
9 433d-434c