The Republic

The Republic of Plato is the longest of his works with the exception of the Laws, and is certainly...

Is not the Republic the vehicle of three or four great truths which, to Platos own mind, are most...

The delineation of Socrates in the Republic is not wholly consistent. In the first book we have...

Thus the first stage of aphoristic or unconscious morality is shown to be inadequate to the wants...

There was great difficulty in bringing Thrasymachus to the point; the day was hot and he was...

To do injustice is said to be a good; to suffer injustice an evil. As the evil is discovered by...

There have been theories in modern as well as in ancient times which have a family likeness to the...

...Socrates praises the sons of Ariston, inspired offspring of the renowned hero, as the elegiac...

The disappointment of Glaucon at the city of pigs, the ludicrous description of the ministers of...

The subjects of poetry have been sufficiently treated; next follows style. Now all poetry is a...

1. The constant appeal to the authority of Homer, whom, with grave irony, Plato, after the manner...

The second paradox leads up to some curious and interesting questions How far can the mind control...

First duty, then happiness, is the natural order of our moral ideas. The utilitarian principle is...

Two virtues remain; temperance and justice. More than the preceding virtues temperance suggests the...

The psychology of Plato extends no further than the division of the soul into the rational,...

In the first place our rulers will enforce the laws and make new ones where they are wanted, and...

Well, then, we were led to form our ideal polity in the search after justice, and the just man...

Here Adeimantus interposes. No man can answer you, Socrates; but every man feels that this is owing...

The objection, though fairly met by Socrates in this particular instance, may be regarded as...

2. Plato supposes that when the tablet has been made blank the artist will fill in the lineaments...

The idea of good is one of those sacred words or forms of thought, which were beginning to take the...

All these sciences are the prelude of the strain, and are profitable if they are regarded in their...

Two passages seem to require more particular explanations. First, that which relates to the...

But how did timocracy arise out of the perfect State. Plainly, like all changes of government, from...

Let us now inspect the individual democrat; and first, as in the case of the State, we will trace...

The portrait of the tyrant himself is just such as the later Greek delighted to draw of Phalaris...

The explanation given in the text supposes the two harmonies to make up the number 8000. This...

To return. You remember what was said of the democrat; that he was the son of a miserly father, who...

Perhaps you may remember some one saying at the beginning of our discussion that the unjust man was...

Let us now interrogate Homer and the poets. Friend Homer, say I to him, I am not going to ask you...

On the eighth day the souls of the pilgrims resumed their journey, and in four days came to a spot...

Again, Plato objects to the imitative arts that they express the emotional rather than the rational...

Plato does not seriously intend to expel poets from life and society. But he feels strongly the...

The freedom of the will to refuse the evil and to choose the good is distinctly asserted. Virtue is...

But as in his philosophy, so also in the form of his State, he goes far beyond the old...

The objections that would be generally urged against Platos community of property, are the old ones...

The great error in these and similar speculations is that the difference between man and the...

but scarcely less often the differences which distinguish children both from their parents and from...

We hardly appreciate the power which the idea of the State, like all other abstract ideas,...

Still, through this fallacious medium, a real enlargement of ideas is attained. When the virtues as...

When the training in music and gymnastic is completed, there follows the first stage of active and...

The want of energy is one of the main reasons why so few persons continue to improve in later...

5 Many theories of Plato, such as the doctrine of ideas, the government of the world by...

The short treatise de Monarchia of Dante is by far the most remarkable of mediaeval ideals, and...

Many details are given about their customs of eating and drinking, about their mode of dressing,...

I went down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon the son of Ariston, that I might offer up my...

Acquired. Socrates; do you want to know how much I acquired. In the art of making money I have been...

Yes, Polemarchus, but surely not in the use of money; for you do not want a just man to be your...

I believe that Periander or Perdiccas or Xerxes or Ismenias the Theban, or some other rich and...

Why, my good friend, I said, how can any one answer who knows, and says that he knows, just...

Then you must also have acknowledged justice not to be for the interest of the stronger, when the...

Nor does the art of horsemanship consider the interests of the art of horsemanship, but the...

And the art of payment has the special function of giving pay. but we do not confuse this with...

Then I certainly ought not to shrink from going through with the argument so long as I have reason...

Yet is not the power which injustice exercises of such a nature that wherever she takes up her...

Then you certainly have not succeeded. Let me ask you now. How would you arrange goods are there...

I do my best, he said. And now that we know what they are like there is no difficulty in tracing...

He proceeded. And now when the young hear all this said about virtue and vice, and the way in which...

Then, as we have many wants, and many persons are needed to supply them, one takes a helper for one...

This want, then, creates a class of retail traders in our State. Is not retailer the term which is...

And our State must once more enlarge; and this time the enlargement will be nothing short of a...

Then the first thing will be to establish a censorship of the writers of fiction, and let the...

And what do you think of a second principle. Shall I ask you whether God is a magician, and of a...

Was celebrating in song her fair progeny whose days were to be long, and to know no sickness. And...

Then we shall be right in getting rid of the lamentations of famous men, and making them over to...

or his insubordination to the river god, on whose divinity he is ready to lay hands; or his...

Or, if the poet everywhere appears and never conceals himself, then again the imitation is dropped,...

You mean, I said, if I understand you aright, that there is one sort of narrative style which may...

I answered. Of the harmonies I know nothing, but I want to have one warlike, to sound the note or...

And therefore, I said, Glaucon, musical training is a more potent instrument than any other,...

And I can hardly be mistaken in saying that sweet sauces are nowhere mentioned in Homer. In...

Yes, I said; a reward which a man might fairly expect who never understood that, if Asclepius did...

All that, Socrates, is excellent; but I should like to put a question to you. Ought there not to be...

If the element of spirit is naturally weak in him the change is speedily accomplished, but if he...

And they will have to be watched at every age, in order that we may see whether they preserve their...

Well then, I will speak, although I really know not how to look you in the face, or in what words...

Yes, I said; and you may add that they are only fed, and not paid in addition to their food, like...

The regulations which we are prescribing, my good Adeimantus, are not, as might be supposed, a...

Well, and about the business of the agora, and the ordinary dealings between man and man, or again...

If there were four things, and we were searching for one of them, wherever it might be, the one...

Why, yes, said I, you may, and if you add the words of a citizen, you will not be far wrong;...

Why, my good sir, at the beginning of our enquiry, ages ago, there was justice tumbling out at our...

And so of the individual; we may assume that he has the same three principles in his own soul which...

Yet, I said, that we may not be compelled to examine all such objections, and prove at length that...

And a certain kind of thirst is relative to a certain kind of drink; but thirst taken alone is...

You remember that passion or spirit appeared at first sight to be a kind of desire, but now we...

If the case is put to us, must we not admit that the just State, or the man who is trained in the...

I said, The argument seems to have reached a height from which, as from some tower of speculation,...

Yes, my simple friend, but the answer is the reverse of easy; many more doubts arise about this...

Yet having begun we must go forward to the rough places of the law; at the same time begging of...

I said. Suppose that by way of illustration we were to ask the question whether there is not an...

Here, then, is one difficulty in our law about women, which we may say that we have now escaped;...

I mean, I replied, that our rulers will find a considerable dose of falsehood and deceit necessary...

And the same law will apply to any one of those within the prescribed age who forms a connection...

Capital, I said; but let me ask you once more. Shall they be a family in name only; or shall they...

The Olympic victor, I said, is deemed happy in receiving a part only of the blessedness which is...

But the hero who has distinguished himself, what shall be done to him. In the first place, he shall...

And is there not illiberality and avarice in robbing a corpse, and also a degree of meanness and...

I was only going to ask whether, if we have discovered them, we are to require that the just man...

And I was quite right; however, I will do all I can to get you out of it; but I can only give you...

The lovers of sounds and sights, I replied, are, as I conceive, fond of fine tones and colours and...

But were we not saying before, that if anything appeared to be of a sort which is and is not at the...

The one love and embrace the subjects of knowledge, the other those of opinion. The latter are the...

Then suppose you now take this parable to the gentleman who is surprised at finding that...

Why, I said, we know that all germs or seeds, whether vegetable or animal, when they fail to meet...

Then, do you see any way in which the philosopher can be preserved in his calling to the end. and...

Are they not exactly like a bald little tinker who has just got out of durance and come into a...

Just the opposite. In childhood and youth their study, and what philosophy they learn, should be...

And do you not also think, as I do, that the harsh feeling which the many entertain towards...

And so with pain and toil we have reached the end of one subject, but more remains to be discussed;...

Yes, I said, there is. And of the virtues too we must behold not the outline merely, as at present...

Yes, my friend, and I shall be at least equally satisfied, but I cannot help fearing that I shall...

In like manner the good may be said to be not only the author of knowledge to all things known, but...

I understand you, he replied; not perfectly, for you seem to me to be describing a task which is...

He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the...

Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and...

You have again forgotten, my friend, I said, the intention of the legislator, who did not aim at...

Then Palamedes, whenever he appears in tragedy, proves Agamemnon ridiculously unfit to be a...

Think a little and you will see that what has preceded will supply the answer; for if simple unity...

Yes, I said, but for that purpose a very little of either geometry or calculation will be enough;...

And will not a true astronomer have the same feeling when he looks at the movements of the stars....

What do you mean. I said; the prelude or what. Do you not know that all this is but the prelude to...

And do you also agree, I said, in describing the dialectician as one who attains a conception of...

And as to truth, I said, is not a soul equally to be deemed halt and lame which hates voluntary...

After that time those who are selected from the class of twenty years old will be promoted to...

And when they have made many conquests and received defeats at the hands of many, they violently...

Yes, I remember that no one was to have any of the ordinary possessions of mankind; they were to be...

After this manner. A city which is thus constituted can hardly be shaken; but, seeing that...

He should have more of self assertion and be less cultivated, and yet a friend of culture; and he...

Another discreditable feature is, that, for a like reason, they are incapable of carrying on any...

Excellent. I said. Yet consider. Must we not further admit that owing to this want of cultivation...

Such is the state of affairs which prevails among them. And often rulers and their subjects may...

Are not necessary pleasures those of which we cannot get rid, and of which the satisfaction is a...

And so the young man returns into the country of the lotus eaters, and takes up his dwelling there...

I mean that the father grows accustomed to descend to the level of his sons and to fear them, and...

Then, in order that we may see clearly what we are doing, let us imagine democracy to be divided,...

Moreover, they are paid for this and receive honour the greatest honour, as might be expected, from...

And now remember the character which we attributed to the democratic man. He was supposed from his...

He first takes their property, and when that fails, and pleasures are beginning to swarm in the...

Then if the man is like the State, I said, must not the same rule prevail. his soul is full of...

Need we hire a herald, or shall I announce, that the son of Ariston the best has decided that the...

Nay, he said, all three are honoured in proportion as they attain their object; for the rich man...

Their pleasures are mixed with pains how can they be otherwise. For they are mere shadows and...

And now, to him who maintains that it is profitable for the human creature to be unjust, and...

From what point of view, then, and on what ground can we say that a man is profited by injustice or...

And the maker of either of them makes a bed or he makes a table for our use, in accordance with the...

And so, when we hear persons saying that the tragedians, and Homer, who is at their head, know all...

In like manner the poet with his words and phrases may be said to lay on the colours of the several...

But in all this variety of circumstances is the man at unity with himself or rather, as in the...

If you consider, I said, that when in misfortune we feel a natural hunger and desire to relieve our...