Republic (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (71 page)

The matter of the
Republic
is great. Its scope is nothing less than the whole of life and its surroundings in the world, aye, and in the other, beginning before the cradle, and extending beyond the grave.

How, placed as we are, shall we live best? How are we to make the best of one or of both worlds? What is right to do? What is the most perfect state of human society and life we can imagine if our dreams could come true?

This, under its many forms, and with all that it involves, is the grand question that is asked in the
Republic
as a practical question, and answered as a practical question, or if partly in dreaming, then with such dreams as are the inspiration of waking moments, when

For this is the secret of Plato, that he is a dreamer, but a dreamer who is also a man of the world who has known men and cities, kings and councils, and peoples.

—from his introduction to
Republic,
London: Macmillan, 1888

ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD (1861-1947)

The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.

—from part 2, chapter 1, section 1,
in
Process and Reality,
New York:
Macmillan, 1929

 

It is terrible to desire and not possess, and terrible to possess and not desire. Because of these we long for an age which has that unity which Plato somewhere defined as sorrowing and rejoicing over the same things.

—from a letter to Olivia Shakespear (May 25, 1933),
in
Collected Letters of William Butler Yeats,
vol. 3 edited by John Kelly,
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997

 

Plato’s was essentially a dualistic theory. To him, the divine ideas, the universals, the general qualities, the genera, were the only real beings, that, like the deities, had an absolute, independent existence. God himself was the supreme idea. The man, the animal, the beautiful, the good, the brave, and so on, represented realities, the archetypes of life of which the individuals, the earthly forms of those general qualities, as they appeared in daily life, were mere shadows and faint replicas.

—from “Reason and Science,”
in Man the Measure: A New Approach to History,
New York: Pantheon Books, 1943

 

Our tradition of political thought had its definite beginning in the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. I believe it came to a no less definite end in the theories of Karl Marx.

—from “Tradition and the Modern Age,”
in
Between Past and Future,
New York: Penguin Books, 1954

1. What perspectives on justice and its relationship to happiness emerge from
Republic?
Do you think that Socrates and his companions make a convincing case for understanding justice as something that is concerned “not with the outward man, but with the inward, which is the true self and concernment of man” (4.443c-d)? How would you respond to the claim that the just man is someone who “does not permit the several elements within him to interfere with one another, or any of them to do the work of others” and who “sets in order his own inner life” (4.443d)?

2. Are you convinced that justice, as Socrates and his companions define it, is something intrinsically valuable? Are you convinced that the just man can be “happy” even if he does not enjoy a reputation for justice, nor any other material benefit?

3. Have Socrates and his companions persuaded you that the ideal city-state they describe in
Republic
is truly the best political community possible? Why or why not? If you are not convinced, how would you respond to their arguments?

4. Do Socrates’ arguments for the censorship of poetry and music still hold water? Is he correct in asserting that “when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them,” and does he seem to have a point in claiming that artistic innovation “is full of danger to the whole State” (4.424c)? Why or why not? If you are not convinced by his arguments for censoring and controlling artistic expression, how would you counter them?

5. Is there anything of value in the critique of democracy that emerges in
Republic,
especially in 8.555b-558c? How do you respond to Socrates’ estimation that the “democratic constitution” is second only to tyranny in its dysfunction?

Readers who do not know Greek may find the introductions and commentaries in these editions useful. Those by Halliwell and Murray are accessible and interesting.

 

Adam, James, ed.
The Republic of Plato.
Second edition. Introduction by D. A. Rees. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963.

Halliwell, Stephen, ed.
Plato:
Republic 10. Warminster, UK: Aris and Philips, 1988.

.
Plato:
Republic 5. Warminster, UK: Aris and Philips, 1993.

Jowett, Benjamin, and Lewis Campbell, eds.
Plato’s
Republic. 3 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894. Reprinted New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1987.

Murray, Penelope, ed.
Plato on Poetry:
Ion; Republic 376e-398b9; Republic
595-608b10.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Bloom, Allan, trans.
The
Republic
of Plato.
New York: Basic Books, 1991.

Cooper, John M., trans.
Plato: Complete Works.
D. S. Hutchinson, associate editor. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997.

Grube, G. M. A., trans.
Plato:
Republic. Revised by C. D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1992. Also in John M. Cooper, trans.,
Plato: Complete Works
(see above), pp. 971-1223.

Lee, Desmond, trans.
Plato:
The Republic. New York and London: Penguin Books, 2003. Reissue of 1955 edition with updated bibliography.

Shorey, Paul, trans.
Plato:
Republic. 2 vols. London, New York, and Cambridge, MA: W. Heinemann, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, and Harvard University Press (Loeb Classical Library), 1930-1935.

Annas, Julia.
An Introduction to Plato’s
Republic. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.

Baracchi, Claudia.
Of Myth, Life, and War in Plato’s
Republic. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.

Howland, Jacob. The Republic:
The Odyssey of Philosophy.
New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993.

Pappas, Nickolas.
Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Plato and the
Republic. Second edition. New York and London: Routledge, 2003.

White, Nicholas.
A Companion to Plato’s
Republic. Oxford: Black-well Press, 1979.

Annas, Julia, and Christopher Rowe, eds.
New Perspectives on Plato, Modern and Ancient.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.

Blondell, Ruby.
The Play of Character in Plato’s Dialogues.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Guthrie, W. K. C.
A History of Greek Philosophy
(Vol. 4: Plato). Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1969.

Hobbs, Angela.
Plato and the Hero: Courage, Manliness, and the Impersonal Good.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Irwin, Terence.
Plato’s Ethics.
New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Kahn, Charles H.
Plato and the Socratic Dialogue: The Philosophical Use of a Literary Form.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Morgan, Kathryn A.
Myth and Philosophy from the Pre-Socratics to Plato.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Nails, Debra.
Agora, Academy, and the Conduct of Philosophy
(Philosophical Studies Series, 63). Dordrecht, Netherlands, Boston, and London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995.

.
The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics.
Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2002.

Nightingale, Andrea Wilson.
Genres in Dialogue:
Plato and the
Construct of Philosophy.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

. “On Wandering and Wondering:
Theôria
in Greek Philosophy and Culture.”
Arion
9.2 (third series; Fall 2001), pp. 23-58.

Guthrie, W K. C.
A History of Greek Philosophy
(Vol. 3: The
Sophists and Socrates).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969.

Kerferd, G.
The Sophistic Movement.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

McKirahan, Richard D., Jr.
Philosophy Before Socrates: An Introduction with Text and Commentary.
Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1994.

Davies, J. K.
Democracy and Classical Greece.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Ober, Josiah.
Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.

Pomeroy, Sarah, and Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, Jennifer Tolbert Roberts.
Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History.
Oxford, and New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

West, M. L.
Ancient Greek Music.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

ACADEMY

ACHILLES

AESCHYLUS

see also DRAMA, DRAMATIC PRODUCTIONS AND COMPETITIONS; TRAGEDY

AGAMEMNON

AJAX, SON OF TELAMON

ALCIBIADES

ALCINOUS

ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATIONS (of poetry)

ANACHARSIS,

ANALOGIES (in
Republic)

ANAXAGORAS

ANTIPHON

APHRODITE

APOLLO

APORIA,
APORETIC [INCONCLUSIVE] DIALOGUES

APPETITES, DESIRES

APPETITIVE PRINCIPLE [ELEMENT] (as distinct from SPIRIT and the RATIONAL ELEMENT in the soul),

see also PRINCIPLES [ELEMENTS] (in the soul)

see also DOING ONE’S OWN WORK/MINDING ONE’S OWN BUSINESS; MEDDLESOMENESS

ARCHILOCHUS,

ARES,

ARISTOCRACY [RULE OF THE BEST]

see also IDEAL STATE

ARISTOCRATIC IDEOLOGY AND VALUES (in archaic and classical Greece)

ARISTOCRATIC INDIVIDUAL

see also JUST INDIVIDUAL; JUSTICE; PHILOSOPHER

ARISTON,

ARISTOPHANES

ARISTOTLE

ARITHMETIC
[ARITHEMETIKÊ]

ART-see CENSORSHIP; IMITATION; PAINTING; POETRY; TRAGEDY

ARTEMIS,

ARTISANS—see BRONZE/IRON CLASS

ASCLEPIUS, ASCLEPIADAE

see also DOCTORS/PHYSICIANS/ MEDICINE

ASPASIA

ASTRONOMY

ATHENE [ATHENA]

ATHENS, ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY

critiques of (in Plato’s dialogues)

development of maritime “empire,”

dissatisfaction with, among upper classes in Athens

ideological assumptions of

see also DEMOCRACY; MEDDLESOMENESS

ATHLETES, ATHLETIC CONTESTS

see also PHYSICAL TRAINING/CARE

AUTOLYCUS,

AUXILIARIES [SILVER CLASS]

see also GUARDIANS; PRINCIPLES [ELEMENTS] (in the ideal state)

BARBARIANS

BEAUTY, THE IDEA OF

see also IDEAS, THE THEORY OF

BECOMING (as intermediate between BEING and NOT-BEING)

see also OPINION

BEING [“THAT WHICH IS”], (as distinct from BECOMING and NOT-BEING)

see also, GOOD, THE IDEA OF; IDEAS, THE THEORY OF; MATHEMATICAL OBJECTS

BENDIS, BENDIDEA

BIAS,

BIRTHS, REGULATION OF (in the ideal State)—see BREEDING

BLESSINGS (from the gods)

BLINDNESS (as metaphor for ignorance)

BREEDING,

BRONZE/IRON CLASS (in the ideal state)

see also PRINCIPLES [ELEMENTS] (in the ideal state)

CALLICLES

CAVE, ALLEGORY OF

CENSORSHIP (of poetry/music in the ideal state)

see also CHILDREN; EDUCATION; GUARDIANS; POETRY

CEPHALUS

CHARMANTIDES

CHILDISHNESS

CHILDREN

of guardians, as observers on military campaigns,

see also BREEDING; CENSORSHIP; EDUCATION; FAMILY

CIVIL STRIFE/DISUNITY [STASIS]

in Athens, during the Peloponnesian War

concerns about, in
Republic

CLEITOPHON

CLEON

CLOUDS
—see ARISTOPHANES

COGNITION, FOUR FACULTIES OF

COMEDY

see also ARISTOPHANES; DRAMA, DRAMATIC PRODUCTIONS AND COMPETITIONS

COMMUNISM (among guardians of ideal state)

see also FAMILY; PRIVATE PROPERTY

CORINTH

COURAGE [ANDREIA]

as essential quality of guardians

as one of the four principal “virtues,”

CRAFTS, CRAFTSMEN—see TECHNICAL EXPERTISE
[TECHNÊ],
PROFESSIONALS WITH; also BRONZE/IRON CLASS

CRETE,

CRITIAS

CRONUS