Plato and The Republic

The Republic is one of the philosopher's dialogues Plato, and in it exposes his theory of art, politics, society, justice, ethics or morals. The Greek proposes in this work his conception of the ideal state, one in which the citizen can develop and be happy. In this lesson from a TEACHER, we will do a analysis and comment of The Republic from Plato.

The dialogue takes place in Piraeus, a region to the southwest of Greece, at the home of Polemarco, son of Cephalus. The characters are: Socrates, Cephalus, son of Lysanias (father of Lysias, Polemarco and Eutidemo), Lysias, Polemarco, Euthidemo, Thrasymachus, Carmantides, Clitophon, Adimanthus, Glaucón. These last two, are from book II, practically the only interlocutors of the teacher Socrates.

So that you better know this philosophical work, below we are going to offer you an analysis of Plato's Republic, analyzing the most outstanding ideas of each of the books. They are as follows:

Book I of The Republic from Plato

In the book I, Socrates goes with Polemarco to his house, and there is also his father, Cephalus, the sophist, and the 3 begin to dialogue about the meaning of the term justice. Cefalo affirms that justice consists in telling the truth and giving everyone what is due. Polermarco says that the right thing is to do good to friends and bad to enemies.

Thrasymachus, he says that what is just is what benefits the strongest, stating that it is more convenient to do evil than good, and that everyone would see it more advantageous if it were not for fear of punishment. Socrates says that the just human being is one who cannot harm another and identifies the Justice with wisdom and virtue, and injustice with ignorance and vice.

Book II, III and IV

In the books II, III and IV, Plato describes his Ideal city-state, as well as their rulers. Thus, he affirms that the true rulers must be the philosophers, defending the figure of the philosopher-king. Likewise, they would act as judges and educators. The warriors are responsible for the defense of the city and the people, they must comply with the laws and respect the decisions of the rulers.

Just as they exist 3 parts of the soul: the rational soul, the irascible soul and the concupiscible soul, exist in the human being 3 virtues, which correspond to the parts of the soul, namely: prudence, courage and temperance, respectively. Although there are 3 in all human beings, one always dominates over the other. When this occurs in a State, then one can speak of justice. The perfect ideal state would bring together these 3 virtues, justice being the greatest of all and that it consists of each one takes care of what corresponds to him:

• To the rational soul, prudence corresponds to him and his place in the polis, the government. Philosopher-king
• To the irascible soul, it corresponds to the value and its place in the polis, the army. Warriors
• To the concupiscible soul, it corresponds to the temperance and the position of him in the polis, be obedient subjects and respect the laws. The people, the artisans, merchants and peasants.

If each one does his part within the polis, he is doing himself justice. A state that is fair is a reflection of its citizens.

In this context, education will be decisive when defining the place of each individual, based on their abilities, knowledge and aptitudes. What Plato tries to show is that individual justice is a reflection of social justice. Both are identical.

From book V to VII

In books V to VII Plato deals with the subject of education, not for formative purposes, but as a means of ascending from the sensible world to the intelligible world, through the dialectics. Likewise, it defines the different models of government:

• The best model of political organization would be the monarchy and / or aristocracy of political organization. The aristocracy is the government of the best, but they have to ally themselves with the warriors if they wish to retain their power, who will eventually take it, thus becoming Timocracy.
• The timocracy It is the government of the military, of the brave, but it can degenerate into an Oligarchy.
• The oligarchy is the deviation of Timocracy, and it would be the government of the rich and as wealth they will rebel and restore Democracy.
• The democracy, or the government of All, and will fall into anarchy and demagoguery, giving rise to tyranny.
• The tyranny. it is the government of only one, and it is a consequence of the degeneration of democracy and it is the most unjust form of all.

Books IX and X

The books IX and X, Plato dedicates them to the analysis of happiness and the soul, as well as its final destination.

Plato has been of great influence in the history of Western thought, although it is true that he has also received great criticism from philosophers such as Nietzsche, who accuses him of being the culprit of the decline of Western culture, built from contempt for life, based on the Platonic duplication of reality.