Republic (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
Page 54
—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)