What is Book 5 of The Republic about?
Summary: Book V, 449a-472a. Having identified the just city and the just soul, Socrates now wants to identify four other constitutions of city and soul, all of which are vicious to varying degrees. Socrates then discusses the requirement that all spouses and children be held in common.
How many books are in The Republic?
ten
Divided into ten “books”, the Republic is mostly taught as a text championing a series of radical prescriptions concerning the best city (polis) or regime (politeia).
What is the most radical claim in Plato’s Republic?
Summary: Book V, 471e-end His response is the most radical claim yet. Our system is only possible, he says, if the rulers are philosophers. Thus he introduces the concept of the philosopher-king, which dominates the rest of The Republic.
Where is Socrates coming from at the opening of The Republic?
The Republic moves beyond this deadlock. Nine more books follow, and Socrates develops a rich and complex theory of justice. When Book I opens, Socrates is returning home from a religious festival with his young friend Glaucon, one of Plato’s brothers.
Who is Socrates talking to in the Republic Book 5?
Cephalus
Socrates and Glaucon visit the Piraeus to attend a festival in honor of the Thracian goddess Bendis (327a). They are led to Polemarchus’ house (328b). Socrates speaks to Cephalus about old age, the benefits of being wealthy, and justice (328e-331d).
Why did Plato abolish family?
Socratic Communism Abolishment of the family is advantageous because it gets rid of people’s natural affection towards one’s own. In order for a society to progress, there must be people or groups of people that are better and more accomplished than others.
What is the main point of Plato’s Republic?
Plato’s strategy in The Republic is to first explicate the primary notion of societal, or political, justice, and then to derive an analogous concept of individual justice. In Books II, III, and IV, Plato identifies political justice as harmony in a structured political body.
What are the 3 classes in Plato’s Republic?
Plato divides his just society into three classes: the producers, the auxiliaries, and the guardians. The guardians are responsible for ruling the city. They are chosen from among the ranks of the auxiliaries, and are also known as philosopher-kings.
What are the three parts of a soul?
According to Plato, the three parts of the soul are the rational, spirited and appetitive parts. The rational part corresponds to the guardians in that it performs the executive function in a soul just as it does in a city.
What is Plato’s view on the family?
The family is said to be the basic cell of all human society, the primary association of human beings. The mutual influence and inevitable tensions of the family and the polis extend throughout the political philosophy of Plato and Aristotle.
What did Plato say about family?
Family Is More Than the State Since the nature of a state is to be a plurality and intending to greater unity, from being a state, it becomes a family, and from being a family, an individual; for the family may be said to be more than the state, and the individual than the family.
Is the Republic by Plato a good book?
Plato’s ‘Republic’ Still Influential, Author Says The dialogues of Plato’s The Republic are regarded as the first great texts on political and moral theory. Philosopher Simon Blackburn has written a new book about The Republic, gently reminding those of us who have forgotten why it remains so important.
Is Plato’s Republic the ideal republic?
Ideal City-State Plato’s ideal state was the republic. The word ‘republic’ comes from Latin and means “public affairs”, while the Greek word used in the work of Plato “politia” whose translation is constitution. But the ideas set out in ‘The Republic’ of Plato are not political, they are associated with justice.
What is the idea of the Republic by Plato?
Plato’s Republic is a Socratic dialogue concerning justice in the context of examining the character of the just man and the order of a just polity.
What does Plato mean in the Republic?
Meaning & History. From the Greek name Πλατων (Platon), which was derived from Greek πλατυς (platys) meaning “broad-shouldered”. Plato was one of the most important of the Greek philosophers. He was a pupil of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle. He constructed the theory of Forms and wrote several works, including the ‘Republic’.
Did Plato write a book?
Plato wrote his books in the form of dialogues with two people or more talking about ideas, and sometimes disagreeing about them.
