Republic

Introduction

Plato’s longest dialogue besides the Laws, in ten books, narrated by Socrates. Book I tests definitions of justice, including Thrasymachus’ claim that it is the advantage of the stronger. Glaucon’s story of the ring of Gyges asks whether anyone would be just if they could act unseen. To find justice in the soul, Socrates builds an ideal city in speech, with three classes matching the three parts of the soul. Books VI and VII bring the images of the sun, the divided line and the cave; Book X ends with the myth of Er. The Greek title, Politeia, means “constitution” or “form of government”.

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Connections

Builds on

• Apologyc. 399 BCE · Plato

Taken up in

• The Spiritual Physick (al-Tibb al-ruhani)c. 910 · Abu Bakr al-Razi
• The Virtuous Cityc. 942 · al-Farabi
• The City of the Sun1602 · Tommaso Campanella
• Elements of the Philosophy of Right1820 · Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
• The Sovereignty of Good1970 · Iris Murdoch

Answered in

• Poeticsc. 335 BCE · Aristotle

Criticized in

• Nicomachean Ethicsc. 340 BCE · Aristotle
• Politicsc. 335 BCE · Aristotle
• Philosophy and Poetry1939 · María Zambrano
• The Open Society and Its Enemies1945 · Karl Popper
• Difference and Repetition1968 · Gilles Deleuze
• Speculum of the Other Woman1974 · Luce Irigaray

More works by Plato

• c. 399 BCEApology
• c. 385 BCESymposium
• c. 380 BCEPhaedo
• c. 370 BCEParmenides
• c. 370 BCEPhaedrus
• c. 360 BCETimaeus

Appears in

• Journey ‘What Is Just?’ · Stop 1 of 10