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Introduction to Plato's Republic
CONTENTS:
Plato was born in Athens in 427 BC to an well established aristocratic family. His father, Ariston, could trace his lineage back to the old kings of Athens; his mother, Perictione, was a sister of Charmides and the cousin of Critas, two prominent figures in the Athenian oligarchy of 404-403 BC. Plato also had two brothers, Glaucon and Adeimantus, who are portrayed in his masterpiece, The Republic. Given this illustrious background it is almost certain that Plato, as a young man, was groomed for a life of public service. Only a few years before Plato was born, Athens entered into a drawn-out war with Sparta (the Peloponnesian War), that eventually led to the decline of Athens' power in the Mediterranean world. Although he grew up during Athens' great experiment with democracy during the Fifth Century, it was certainly evident at this time that democracy was failing, and that some other type of political system was needed. Around the age of twenty, he became a disciple of Socrates, the father of Western philosophy. Socrates, as you may recall from reading the Apology, made it his mission to examine the beliefs his fellow Athenians in order to help them and himself attain wisdom. Socrates' tenacious style of philosophical examination earned him a number of powerful enemies. In 399 BC he was tried on the charges of impiety and corruption of the city's youth, found guilty, and eventually forced to take his own life. The influence of Socrates on Plato's philosophical career cannot be understated. Plato was so taken by the character and ideas of Socrates that he used Socrates as the central figure in all his philosophical dialogues, and made considerable use of Socrates' method during his early part of his career. Disillusioned by the manner of Socrates' death, Plato he gave up all thoughts of a political career, dedicating himself instead wholly to philosophy. He left Athens and for the next twelve years traveled around the Mediterranean, studying philosophy, geometry, religion, and other sciences. During this period, Plato was also invited to Syracuse, where he became friendly with Dion, the bother-in-law of Dionysius, the tyrant of the city. He would return to this city twice again (in 367 and 361) in a futile effort to implement some of the political ideas that he had developed in his Republic (Ep. 7). Eventually Plato returned to Athens in 387 to found his Academy, the aim of which was to philosophically educate the future leaders of Greek society. The Academy has been called the first European university, since its studies included, not juts philosophy, but all the known sciences. Plato himself was said to have delivered many of the lectures at the Academy, although the notes from these lectures were never published. Among the most famous students of the Academy was Aristotle, who would later go on to found his own school, the Lyceum. Plato's Academy would continue to educate Athenian noblemen for several centuries, influencing most of the major philosophical schools of the Western world. Plato died at the age of 80 in 347 BC.
Most of Plato's philosophical writing takes the form of dialogues. It is believed that all forty-two of the dialogues that Plato wrote have survived. These dialogues were written for educated laymen (as opposed to the elite in his academy) in order to interest them in philosophy (Taylor 10). To sum up their common characteristics, Plato's dialogues:
Plato's dialogues are not just great works of philosophy; they are also recognized as great literary works as well. He goes to much effort to carefully set the scene of each dialogue and to develop the personalities of each of the characters in them. One is frequently amazed at just how dramatic many of these dialogues are considering their lofty topics. Plato's dialogues can be divided into three periods:
As has already been pointed out been pointed out, Plato uses Socrates as the main interlocutor in his dialogues. The specific way that Plato makes use of the character of Socrates varies somewhat during the different periods in which Plato wrote. In the early dialogues the Socrates that Plato presents to the reader is probably close to the historic Socrates. Socrates is portrayed in these dialogues as precisely what he was in real life—a gadfly, whose aim was to make people recognize that many of their beliefs are baseless. The Socrates of these early dialogues claims to be ignorant of everything expect his own ignorance, and as such rarely presents his own position on the topics being discussed. Plato's aim, then, in these early dialogues primarily is critical: that is, to tear apart the inadequate moral views of others. In the middle dialogues, Plato is coming into his own as a philosopher and is starting to develop some of his own metaphysical and epistemological positions. In it during this period that Plato begins to introduce his theory of the forms into his writings. In the late dialogues Plato uses Socrates almost exclusively to advance his own views. His approach in these dialogues is essentially constructive: that is, to develop his own mature philosophical system. The Republic is an interesting work because in it we get the best of both the early and later dialogues. Book one is written as a traditional dialogue in which Socrates is represented in a fairly historical way, critically reacting to the views of others in the dialogue. But the rest of the text ( Books 2-10) is much more of a monologue in which Socrates serves as little more than a mouth-piece for Plato's own political views.
A. Purpose of Republic In her Introduction to the Republic, Julia Annas proposes two interesting theories concerning Plato's purpose in writing the Republic. One theory is that the Republic can be read as a conservative reaction to the moral skepticism being taught by the Sophists. The Sophists in Athens were a group of philosophers who taught rhetoric (the art of persuasion) to those seeking a career in public life. In general they espoused a view that held that there was no objective right or wrong and that morality was merely a matter of convention. Plato's purpose in writing the Republic, then, may have been to refute the moral skepticism of the Sophists by demonstrating that there are indeed objective moral truths and that, therefore, moral standard are not meaningless. According to Annas, there is strong evidence within the text of the Republic to support this interpretation. The the bulk of the work, for example, seems to be a response to the sophist Thrasymachus' view that only a sucker would behave justly, and that no one would obey moral rules if they thought they could get away with violating them. In this light, Plato can be seen in Books 2-10 as laying a foundation for conventional moral values (7-8). But the Republic according to Annas can also be read as a revolutionary work as well. Some of Plato's ideas in the work are as shocking today as they certainly would have been in his own times: the ideal society that he proposes is decidedly authoritarian, he advocates the sharing of sexual partners, and argues for what is essentially and early form of communism. According to this view, Plato aim in the work may have been to provoke and startle his readers. He wants to force us to think and to be prepared to challenge our own unreflective views on the good life (9-10). B. Main Topic of Discussion : Dikaiosune Whatever Plato's purpose may have been in writing the Republic, it is clear that his main preoccupation in the work is to give a detailed account of dikaiosune. According to Annas the term can be understood in two different senses. In its broad sense, dikaiosune can be translated as "righteousness" or simply as "morality". In this sense The Republic can be read as a quest for the right way to live. In its more narrow sense, dikaiosune can be understood for Plato as the opposite of pleonexia (that is, wanting more than one is entitled to). In this sense, the term could be translated simply as "justice." (11-12). Although throughout the Republic Plato moves back and forth between both of these understanding of dikaiosune, for the sake of consistency the term will be translated throughout this commentary as "justice" in keeping with the general consensus of most contemporary translators of the work.
Department of Philosophy | Sophia Project | Plato Page © 2000, M. Russo For more information contact: mrusso@molloy.edu |
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