# The Republic explained — Dialogues > Chapter companion for Dialogues by Plato. ## 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. ## Character check-ins ### 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 lines > 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._ > But we have brought you into the world to be rulers of the hive, kings of yourselves and of the other citizens, and have educated you far better and more perfectly than they have been educated, and you are better able to share in the double duty. Philosophers are educated to be rulers, serving both themselves and the state. _The philosopher's duty to govern for the common good._ > Whereas the truth is that the State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed, and the State in which they are most eager, the worst. The best state is one where rulers are reluctant to rule, while eager rulers lead to the worst state. _Contrasts ideal rulers with power-hungry politicians._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/the-republic - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/dialogues_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/dialogues_se/chapters