Republic (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

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Republic (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Page 54

by Plato


  —from‘Tlatos ‘Republic,’ “ in Modern English Essays, vol. 2,

  London and Toronto: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1922

  T. HERBERT WARREN (1853-1930)

  The Republic [is] the greatest of Plato’s dialogues, because it is the most Platonic, because it exhibits best the peculiar merit of Plato, adequacy of style to subject, of manner to matter; because, while the matter is profoundly difficult and varied, the artistic handling, both as a whole and in detail, does not sink under this difficulty and variety, is not overlaid or embarrassed by it, but rises to it, is equal to it, and expresses and conveys it with the grace and ease of complete mastery.

  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

  “Tasks in hours of insight willed

  Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.”

  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

  WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS (1865-1939)

  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

  ERICH KAHLER (1885-1970)

  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

  HANNAH ARENDT (1906-1975)

  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

  Questions

  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?

  FOR FURTHER READING

  Editions (with Greek Texts and English Commentaries)

  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.

  Translations

  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.

  Interpretative Guides to the Republic

  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.

  Critical Works on Plato

  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.

  Philosophy Before Plato

  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.

  Background on Greek and Athenian Culture

  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.

  INDEX

  A

  ACADEMY

  ACHILLES

  ADEIMANTUS

  AESCHYLUS

  see also DRAMA, DRAMATIC PRODUCTIONS AND COMPETITIONS; TRAGEDY

  AFTERLIFE

  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)

  APRAGMOSYNÊ

  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)

  B

  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)

  C

  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

  D

  DAEDALUS

  DAMON

  DEATH

  see also AFTERLIFE; COURAGE; PUNISHMENT

  DELIAN LEAGUE

  see also ATHENS, ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY

  DELPHI

  see also APOLLO

  DEMOCRACY

  as degenerate political constitution, xlv-xlvi,

  see also ATHENS, ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY

  DEMOCRATIC INDIVIDUAL,

  DEMOCRITUS

  DEMOS [PEOPLE IN A DEMOCRACY] (as the father of the tyrant),

  DIALECTIC

  DIOMEDE(S)

  DIANOIA [“UNDERSTANDING”]

  see also COGNITION, FOUR FACULTIES OF

  DION

  DIONYSIUS

  DIONYSIUS

  DIONYSUS, DIONYSIAN FESTIVALS

  see also DRAMA, DRAMATIC PRODUCTIONS AND COMPETITIONS; TRAGEDY

  DIOTIMA

  DIVIDED LINE, FIGURE OF—see COGNITION, FOUR FACULTIES OF; also CAVE, ALLEGORY OF; SUN, SIMILE OF

  DOCTORS/PHYSICIANS/MEDICINE,

  affinities between doctors and rulers

  proper treatment of the

  see also ANALOGIES; TECHNICAL EXPERTISE [TECHNÊ], PROFESSIONALS WITH

  DOG, “PHILOSOPHICAL” TEMPERAMENT OF,

  DOING ONE’S OWN WORK/MINDING ONE’S OWN BUSINESS

  see also APRAGMOSYNÊ ; JUSTICE; MEDDLESOMENESS

  DOXA

  see also OPINION; PISTIS; EIKASIA

  DRAMA, DRAMATIC PRODUCTIONS AND COMPETITIONS (in Athens)

  see also AESCHYLUS, ARISTOPHANES, EURIPIDES, HOMER, SOPHOCLES, TRAGEDY

  DREAMS,

  DRONES,

  E

  EDUCATION

  traditional, xxiv

  of children of the guardians,

  of future philosopher-rulers,

  see also CHILDREN; CENSORSHIP; PHYSICAL TRAINING; SOPHISTS

  EIKASIA [“PERCEPTION OF SHADOWS,” “IMAGINATION”]

  see also COGNITION, FOUR FACULTIES OF

  EMPEDOCLES

  END [FUNCTION],

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

  ENSLAVEMENT (of tyrant and tyrannical individual)

  see also FREEDOM; HAPPINESS; JUSTICE; TYRANNICAL INDIVIDUAL; TYRANNY, TYRANT

  EPISTEMÊ [KNOWLEDGE]

  see also KNOWLEDGE

  EPISTEMOLOGY—see COGNITION, FOUR FACULTIES OF

  ER, MYTH OF

  ERISTIC

  EROS, EROTIC/SEXUAL DESIRE

  see also APPETITES/DESIRES

  EURIPIDES

  see also DRAMA, DRAMATIC PRODUCTIONS AND COMPETITIONS; TRAGEDY

  EUTHYDEMUS

  EXCELLENCE [ARETÊ, VIRTUE]

  see also END [FUNCTION]; HAPPINESS; PHILOSOPHER; ARISTOCRACY; ARISTOCRATIC INDIVIDUAL; JUSTICE; COURAGE; TEMPERANCE; WISDOM

  F

  FALSEHOOD (dangerous, unnecessary)

  see also CENSORSHIP; POETRY; TRAGEDY; TRUTHFULNESS

  FALSEHOOD (useful, necessary)

  FAMILY/FAMILY LIFE

  FATES [MOIRAI],

  FORMS—see IDEAS, THEORY OF

  FREE WILL

  FREEDOM

  as enjoyed by the philosopher/ just man

  as manifest in democracy and in the democratic individual

  see also ENSLAVEMENT

  G

  GEOMETRY

  plane,

  solid (stereometry)

  GIANTS, GIGANTOMACHY

  GLAUCON

  GLAUCUS,

  GNOSIS

  see also KNOWLEDGE; DIANOIA; NOESIS

  GOD(S)

  as worshipped in Greek religion

  as represented in poetry

  true nature of

  as maker of the ideas

  see also CENSORSHIP; EDUCATION; MUSIC; POETRY

  GOLD CLASS (in the ideal state)—see GUARDIANS; RULERS; PHILOSOPHERS; PRINCIPLES [ELEMENTS] (in the ideal state)

 

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