Book I: Aging, Love, and the Definitions of Justice (327a–354c) Socrates and
Glaucon visit Athens' port,
Piraeus, when they are intercepted by
Polemarchus who demands that they join him for a dinner and festival. Polemarchus points out that his men are superior in number and therefore Socrates and Glaucon must comply. Socrates asks if he might be persuaded otherwise but Polemarchus replies that he will refuse to listen. Socrates agrees to go. At Polemarchus' house, Socrates encounters Polemarchus' father, Cephalus.
Cephalus (328e–331d) In his first
philosophical conversation with the group members, Socrates asks the aged Cephalus, "is life painful at that age, or what report do you make of it?" Cephalus answers by saying that many are unhappy about old age because they miss their youth, but he finds that "old age brings us profound repose and freedom from this and other passions. When the appetites have abated, and their force is diminished, the description of
Sophocles is perfectly realized. It is like being delivered from a multitude of furious masters." and that no power or art provides what is beneficial to itself. He claims that the best rulers are reluctant to rule but do so out of necessity: they do not wish to be ruled by someone inferior. Socrates then gives three arguments in favour of the just life over the unjust life, centering on wisdom, harmony, and the soul.
Book II: Ring of Gyges (357a–383c) Glaucon and
Adeimantus are unsatisfied with Socrates's defense of justice. They ask Socrates to defend justice as a thing good in itself, and not only for its consequences. To demonstrate the problem, Glaucon tells the story of
Gyges, who – with the help of a ring that turns him invisible – achieves great advantages for himself by committing injustices. He uses this argument to challenge Socrates to defend the position that the just life is better than the unjust life. Socrates suggests that they use the
city as an image to seek how justice comes to be in the soul of an individual. After attributing the origin of society to the individual not being self-sufficient and having many needs which he cannot supply himself, Socrates first describes a "healthy state" made up of producers who make enough for a modest subsistence, but Glaucon considers this hardly different than "a city of pigs." Socrates then alters his original plan to accommodate Glaucon's demand for more luxuries. He decides to create an image of justice coming to be in not just any city but a luxurious one with a desire for "endless variety" in what he calls "a fevered state". Acquiring and defending these luxuries requires a guardian class to wage wars. Socrates then asks how the guardians will not become tyrants to the people they guard. He concludes that it is necessary for there to be careful education of the guardians, which education would involve censorship of poetry and stories. For example, he argues that stories that ascribe evil to the gods or heroes or portray the afterlife as bad are untrue and should not be taught.
Book III: Noble lie (386a–417b) Socrates further describes the program of censored education in such a city: Poetry should be censored in such a way that encourages courage, obedience, cunning, and self-discipline, while discouraging the fear of death, laughter, absolute truthfulness, avarice, or hubris. Further, the guardians will require physical training to prevent illness, benefit the soul, and in preparation for war. From the guardians, the rulers of the city will be selected, which rulers shall act only in the city's advantage. For the citizens to accept their role in society, the rulers must perpetuate a
noble lie (γενναῖον ψεῦδος, gennaion pseudos). The noble lie is illustrated by Socrates's myth or parable of the metals. In this version of the noble lie, each human is regarded as either containing gold, silver, or bronze, and, correspondingly, are best suited to rule, guard, or merely produce. Socrates claims that if the people believed "this myth...[it] would have a good effect, making them more inclined to care for the state and one another." Socrates then ends with the conditions in which the guardians must live. For example, they shall be prohibited from owning private property, privacy, and wealth, so as to keep their focus on the good of the city. In this ideal city, it would be pointless to worry over specific laws, like those pertaining to contracts, since proper education ensures lawful behavior, and poor education causes lawlessness. Socrates further observes that in such a just city, the guardians will share wives and children. Having established the theory of the just city (Kallipolis), Socrates argues that because the city is completely good and virtuous, it embodies the four
cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, justice and temperance. He then proceeds to search for wisdom, courage, and temperance in the city, on the grounds that justice will be easier to discern in what remains. He finds wisdom among the guardian rulers, courage among the guardian warriors, temperance among all classes of the city in agreeing about who should rule and who should be ruled. Finally, Socrates defines justice in the city as the state in which each class performs only its own work, not meddling in the work of the other classes. Socrates then creates an analogy between the parts of the city and the soul. He argues that psychological conflict points to a divided soul, since a completely unified soul could not behave in opposite ways towards the same object, at the same time, and in the same respect. He gives examples of possible conflicts between the rational, spirited, and appetitive parts of the soul, corresponding to the rulers, auxiliaries, and producing classes in the city. They are just if each part of the soul attends to its function and not the function of another. It follows from this definition that one cannot be just if one does not have the other cardinal virtues.
Book V (449a–480a): Philosopher-kings and the theory of forms At this point, Adeimantus again interrupts Socrates, questioning him on the point about the sharing of wives and children. Socrates is overwhelmed at what he perceives to be an "ambush" on his argument. He then goes on to elaborate his theory in detail: In the Kallipolis, both male and female guardians will receive the same education and perform the same roles, for sex is not relevant to the governance of the city. The rulers of the city, nonetheless, should govern sexual intercourse by organising sex festivals in which a rigged lottery will be held, allowing the best male guardians to have sex with as many female citizens as he wants. The subsequent children shall be raised in ignorance of their parents, and vice versa, so that all parents think of all children as their own. Socrates notes the risk of
incest. Socrates is about to discuss his theory of war, when Glaucon interrupts him, questioning the feasibility of such a city. In response, Socrates concedes the difficulty of establishing such a city but notes the theoretical value of the ideal in discussing concepts of justice and injustice. Nonetheless, Socrates believes that such a city may come into being, but only if ruled by a
philosopher, who would thus be known as a
philosopher-king. This is because, according to Socrates, only philosophers are unlike persons who merely have
opinions, for philosophers have
knowledge through their understanding of the
Forms.
Book VI (484a–511e): Ship of State, Form of the Good, and the first two analogies Socrates continues to argue for why philosophers should rule, when he is interrupted by Adeimantus, who observe that philosophers are corrupt, strange, or useless.
Ship of State (488a–489d) Socrates refutes Adeimantus's argument by likening the
governance of a city-state to the command of a ship, the
Ship of State.
Form of the Good (505a–505e) Socrates argues that in the ideal city, a true philosopher with understanding of forms will facilitate the harmonious co-operation of all the citizens of the city. This philosopher-king must be intelligent, reliable, and willing to lead a simple life. However, these qualities are rarely manifested on their own, and so they must be encouraged through education and the study of the
Form of the Good.
The Sun and Divided Line (507c–511e) Socrates then offers two analogies to illustrate the Form of the Good: that of the
Sun and the
Divided Line.
Book VII (514a–541b): Allegory of the cave Building from his previous two analogies, Socrates offers the
allegory of the cave. The
Allegory of the Cave depicts Plato's distinction between the world of appearances and the 'real' world of the Forms.
Book VIII (543a–569c) Returning to his earlier point, Socrates categorises governments into five types of regimes:
aristocracy,
timocracy,
oligarchy,
democracy, and
tyranny, in the course of which
Plato's number is enigmatically mentioned. The starting point is an imagined, alternate, just
aristocracy ruled by a philosopher-king. Aristocracy degenerates into timocracy when, due to miscalculation on the part of its governing class, the next generation includes persons of an inferior nature, inclined not just to cultivating virtues but also producing wealth. In a timocracy, governors will apply great effort in gymnastics and the arts of war, as well as the virtue that pertains to them, that of courage. As the emphasis on honor is compromised by wealth accumulation, it is replaced by oligarchy. The oligarchic government is dominated by the desiring element, in which the rich are the ruling class. Oligarchs do, however, value at least one virtue, that of temperance and moderation—not out of an ethical principle or spiritual concern, but because by dominating wasteful tendencies they succeed in accumulating money. From the conflicts arising out of tensions in an oligarchy, the poor majority overthrow the wealthy minority, and
democracy replaces the oligarchy preceding it. In
democracy, the lower class grows bigger and bigger. The populism of the democratic government leads to mob rule, fueled by fear of oligarchy, which a clever
demagogue can exploit to take power and establish
tyranny where no one has
discipline and
society exists in chaos. In a tyrannical government, the city is enslaved to the tyrant, who uses his guards to remove the best social elements and individuals from the city to retain power, while leaving the worst. He will also provoke warfare to consolidate his position as leader. In this way, tyranny is the most unjust regime of all.
Book IX (571a–592b) In parallel to this, Socrates considers the individual or soul that corresponds to each of these regimes. He describes how an aristocrat may become weak or detached from political and material affluence, and how his son will respond to this by becoming overly ambitious. The timocrat in turn may be defeated by the courts or vested interests; his son responds by accumulating wealth in order to gain power in society and defend himself against the same predicament, thereby becoming an oligarch. The oligarch's son will grow up with wealth without having to practice thrift or stinginess, and will be tempted and overwhelmed by his desires, so that he becomes democratic, valuing freedom above all. He speaks about illusions and confusion. Things can look very similar, but be different in reality. Because we are human, at times we cannot tell the difference between the two. With all of us, we may approve of something, as long we are not directly involved with it. If we joke about it, we are supporting it. Sometimes we let our passions rule our actions or way of thinking, although they should be controlled, so that we can increase our happiness. He continues on to argue for the immortality of the psyche and espouses a
theory of reincarnation and details the rewards of being just, both in this life and the next. Socrates tells a story he heard about a man named Er who dies and comes back to life after twelve days. Er remembers what happened in the afterlife and describes how people were punished and rewarded depending on if they were just or not. Afterwards they got to choose a new life to be reincarnated into. He describes how the choices made by the souls were determined mostly by habit, desire for pleasure and fear of painful experiences they had previously experienced. Socrates concludes the discussion by saying that while the story advocates for just behavior by describing souls that are inconstant and motivated by reward and punishment, he would rather persuade his companions to believe and act on the basis that the soul is immortal and capable of remaining constant in the face of any pleasure or pain. ==Legacy==