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Thomas Taylor (1804)
Plato · Thomas Taylor (1804)
Scene: In the House of Cephalus, at the Piræum
The Republic is Plato's longest and most ambitious dialogue, ranging across nearly the whole of his thought. It opens with a deceptively simple question — what is justice, and is the just life better than the unjust? — pressed hard by the brothers Glaucon and Adeimantus, who challenge Socrates to show that justice is worth having for its own sake, even for a man who could get away with any crime.
To see justice 'writ large', Socrates builds an ideal city in speech, with its three classes — producers, guardian-warriors, and philosopher-rulers — and famously argues that there will be no end to the troubles of states until philosophers rule or rulers philosophize. The city mirrors the tripartite soul, and justice in both turns out to be the same thing: each part doing its own proper work under the rule of reason. Along the way come some of Plato's most radical and most discussed proposals, on education, the community of wives and property among the guardians, and the role of women.
At its heart stand the three great images of the Good — the sun, the divided line, and the allegory of the cave — which set out the philosopher's ascent from the shadows of the senses to the vision of the Good that lies 'beyond being'. The dialogue closes with the Myth of Er, a vision of judgment after death and the soul's choice of its next life, binding justice to the soul's destiny across many lifetimes.
In the library: the complete Republic, including the Cave, the Divided Line, and the Myth of Er.
From the Plato Scroll Encyclopedia · open this entry in the reader
I went down yesterday to the Piræum, with Glauco, the son of Aristo, to pay my devotion to the Goddess; and desirous, at the same time, to observe in what manner they would celebrate the festival, as they were now to do it for the first time. The procession of our own countrymen seemed to me to be indeed beautiful; yet that of the Thracians appeared no less proper. After we had paid our devotion, and seen the solemnity, we were returning to the city; when Polemarchus, the son of Cephalus, observing us at a distance hurrying home, ordered his boy to run and desire us to wait for him: and the boy, taking hold of my robe behind, Polemarchus, says he, desires you to wait. I turned about, and asked where he was. He is coming up, said he, after you; but do you wait for him. We will wait, said Glauco; and soon afterwards came Polemarchus, and Adimantus the brother of Glauco, and Niceratus the son of Nicias, and some others as from the procession. Then said Polemarchus, Socrates! you seem to me to be hurrying to the city. You conjecture, said I, not amiss. Do you not see, then, said he, how many there are of us? Undoubtedly I do. Therefore, now, you must either be stronger than these, or you must stay here. Is there not, said I, one way still remaining? May we not persuade you that you must let us go? Can you be able to persuade such as will not hear? By no means, said Glauco. Then, as if we are not to hear, determine accordingly. But do you not know, said Adimantus, that there is to be an illumination in the evening, on horse-back, to the goddess? On horse-back? said I. That is new. Are they to have torches, and give them to one another, contending together with their horses? or how do you mean? Just so, replied Polemarchus. And besides, they will perform a nocturnal solemnity worth seeing. For we shall rise after supper, and see the nocturnal solemnity, and shall be there with many of the youth, and converse together: But do you stay, and do not do otherwise. It seems proper, then, said Glauco, that we should stay. Nay, if it seem so, said I, we ought to do it. We went home therefore to Polemarchus’s house; and there we found both Lysias and Euthydemus, brothers of Polemarchus; likewise Thrasymachus the Chalcedonian, and Charmantides the Pæoneian, and Clitipho the son of Aristonimus; Cephalus the father of Polemarchus was likewise in the house; he seemed to me to be far advanced in years, for I had not seen him for a long time. He was sitting crowned, on a certain couch and seat; for he had been offering sacrifice in the hall. So we sat down by him; for some …
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The Athenian who turned Socratic conversation into a written philosophy and founded the Academy.
Plato was born around 428 BCE into a wealthy and politically prominent Athenian family; through his mother Perictione the family traced kinship to the lawgiver Solon, and his relatives Critias and Charmides were among the oligarchs of the Thirty. A late tradition says his given name was Aristocles and that 'Plato' — from the word for 'broad' — was a nickname. He grew up during the long agony of the Peloponnesian War and came of age amid the violence and disillusion that followed Athens' defeat.
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