Dialogues · Chapter
The Republic explained
Socrates discusses the challenges facing the philosopher in society, the importance of education and virtue, the choice of lives in the afterlife, and the necessity for philosophers to rule in a just state.
What happens
Socrates discusses the challenges facing the philosopher in society, the importance of education and virtue, the choice of lives in the afterlife, and the necessity for philosophers to rule in a just state.
Themes in this chapter
Justice and Injustice
Explored through the choice of lives and the just ruler's obligation to serve the state.
Education and Virtue
Emphasized as essential for philosophers to discern truth and govern wisely.
Knowledge and Ignorance
Contrasts the philosopher's knowledge of the good with the ignorance of the multitude.
Characters to notice
- Socrates
Main speaker; discusses the philosopher's nature, education, and the necessity of ruling.
- Glaucon
Socrates' interlocutor; responds to Socrates' arguments about justice and the philosopher's role.
- Adeimantus
Present in the dialogue; part of the audience for Socrates' exposition.
Key passages
“but calls this honourable and that dishonourable, or good or evil, or just or unjust, all in accordance with the tastes and tempers of the great brute.”
He defines honor and dishonor, good and evil, justice and injustice based solely on the whims of the majority.
Critique of moral relativism and populism.
“For when a man consorts with the many, and exhibits to them his poem or other work of art or the service which he has done the State, making them his judges when he is not obliged, the so-called necessity of Diomede will oblige him to produce whatever they praise.”
When someone voluntarily submits his work to public judgment, he is forced to create only what pleases the crowd.
Illustrates the pressure of public opinion on artists and politicians.
“Then the world cannot possibly be a philosopher? Impossible.”
The general public cannot be philosophers.
Highlights the rarity and isolation of true philosophers.
“And how can one who is thus circumstanced ever become a philosopher? Impossible.”
A person surrounded by flattery and ambition cannot become a philosopher.
Describes the corrupting influence of society on potential philosophers.
“A man must take with him into the world below an adamantine faith in truth and right, that there too he may be undazzled by the desire of wealth or the other allurements of evil.”
One must carry an unshakeable commitment to truth and justice into the afterlife to resist temptations.
Emphasizes the importance of virtue for the soul's journey after death.
“For if a man had always on his arrival in this world dedicated himself from the first to sound philosophy, and had been moderately fortunate in the number of the lot, he might, as the messenger reported, be happy here, and also his journey to another life and return to this, instead of being rough and underground, would be smooth and heavenly.”
A person devoted to philosophy from youth, with moderate luck, can be happy in life and have a smooth afterlife.
Philosophy as the path to happiness and a favorable afterlife.