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Muse tuning two kitharai. Detail of the interior from an Attic white-ground cup (c. 470–460 BCE). Photograph by Jastrow (2006), Wikimedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Muse_lyre_Louvre_CA482.jpg#/media/File:Muse_lyre_Louvre_CA482.jpg Book IX ends with Socrates telling Glaucon that if the polis one lives in is far from ideal, even if the ideal polis exists only in theory but not in reality, one can still ‘make himself its citizen’ (9.592b), and thus learn to live just...

Franz Caucig, Socrates with a Disciple and Diotima (1810). Photograph by Sporti (2014), Wikimedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Franc_Kav%C4%8Di%C4%8D_-_Sokrat_z_u%C4%8Dencem_in_Diotimo.jpg#/media/File:Franc_Kavčič_-_Sokrat_z_učencem_in_Diotimo.jpg Socrates is not the only one who is dissatisfied with the results—the non-results, really—of Book I. Glaucon and Adeimantus feel let down, too. It is not that they have been convinced by Thrasymachus. Quite the contrary. T...

Theodoor van Thulden, Telemachus and Ulysses Meet in Eumaeus’ Hut (1632–1633). Photograph by Mr. Nostalgic (2019), Wikimedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Odysseus_en_Telemachus_in_de_hut_van_Eumaeus_De_werken_van_Odysseus_(serietitel),_RP-P-OB-66.764.jpg Plato packs a lot into the Republic’s first book, so we will have an easier time of it if we break the discussion into two chapters. In this chapter we will examine Socrates’ conversations with Cephalus and then wit...

M. A. Barth, Return of Peisistratus to Athens with the False Minerva (1838). Photograph by Patna (2018), Wikimedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Return_of_Peisistratus_to_Athens_with_the_false_Minerva.jpg#/media/File:Return_of_Peisistratus_to_Athens_with_the_false_Minerva.jpg Having addressed the Three Waves to the satisfaction of Glaucon and company, Socrates picks up where he left off at the end of Book IV, ‘enquir [ing] whether it is more profitable to act justly,...

This book is a lucid and accessible companion to Plato’s Republic, throwing light upon the text’s arguments and main themes, placing them in the wider context of the text’s structure. In its illumination of the philosophical ideas underpinning the work, it provides readers with an understanding and appreciation of the complexity and literary artistry of Plato’s Republic. McAleer not only unpacks the key overarching questions of the text - What is justice? And Is a just life happier than an unjust life? - but also highlights some fascinating, overlooked passages which contribute to our understanding of Plato’s philosophical thought. Plato’s Republic: An Introduction offers a rigorous and thought-provoking analysis of the text, helping readers navigate one of the world’s most influential works of philosophy and political theory. With its approachable tone and clear presentation, it constitutes a welcome contribution to the field, and will be an indispensable resource for philosophy students and teachers, as well as general readers new to, or returning to, the text.

Figure of a boy writing on a kylix, 480 B.C. Photograph by Reame (2019), Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Figura_ragazzo_che_scrive_su_kylix.jpg#/media/File:Figura_ragazzo_che_scrive_su_kylix.jpg In having Socrates work out the proper education for the would-be guardians—which at least initially must include all the city’s children— Plato engages in the philosophy of education for the first time in the Western philosophical tradition. He is not the first philos...

Head of Platon, Roman copy. Photograph by Bibi Saint-Pol (2007), Wikimedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Head_Platon_Glyptothek_Munich_548.jpg#/media/File:Head_Platon_Glyptothek_Munich_548.jpg Having travelled so great a distance together, a few words about our journey seem in order. Few readers, I suspect, will want to live in Plato’s ideal polis—and they will be in good company, if a recent biography of Socrates is to be believed: ‘We can be in absolutely ...

B-side of bell krater with scene of three young men with himatia in an arena. Photograph by Ángel M. Felicísimo (2016), Wikimedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cr%C3%A1tera_(38877852382).jpg Although there are serious problems with the Powers Argument, its invalidity and unsoundness do not entail that the ideal city will get washed away by the Third Wave. For even if we reject the mind-independent reality of the Forms or, more cautiously, regard belief in their mind-...

Achilles and Ajax playing a board game overseen by Athena (c. 510 BCE). Photograph by Aisha Abdel (2018), Wikimedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Black-figure_pottery#/media/File:Attic_Black-Figure_Neck_Amphora_-_Achilles_and_Ajax_playing_a_board_game_overseen_by_Athena.jpg The analogies we looked at in the last chapter are interesting, but they are merely appetizers to the metaphorical feast Socrates soon serves, which features the Sun, Line, and Cave analogies ...

For Erica, my SLPF Attic Greek Black-figure Neck Amphora attributed to the Princeton Painter, ca. 550–540 BCE depicting an elderly king or man seated between two men and two women. Photograph by Aisha Abdel (2018), Wikimedia, Pulic Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_neck-amphora_of_Panathenaic_shape_(jar)_MET_DP161828_white_balanced_white_bg.png Plato’s Republic is one of those books that most people have probably heard of, even if they have not actually read it. Even...

Unidentified artist, ‘Image satirique du tennis chez les Anciens’, La revue athlétique, 3 (1890), 169. Photograph by Skblzz1 (2018), Wikimedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Image_satirique_du_tennis_chez_les_Anciens_(1890).jpg At long last, in Book IX Socrates is ready to address the Republic’s second question, Is a just life happier than an unjust life? There is a lot at stake here, as ‘the argument concerns no ordinary topic but the way we ought to live’ (1.352d). ...

John La Farge, The Relation of the Individual to the State: Socrates and His Friends Discuss ‘The Republic’, as in Plato’s Account; color study for mural (1903). Photograph by Pharos (2017), Wikimedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Relation_of_the_Individual_to_the_State-_Socrates_and_His_Friends_Discuss_%22The_Republic,%22_as_in_Plato%27s_Account;_Color_Study_for_Mural,_Supreme_Court_Room,_Saint_Paul,_Minnesota_State_Capitol,_Saint_Paul_MET_187194.jpg Socrates re...

Josef Abel, Socrates Teaching his Disciples (1807). Photograph by Jarash (2015), Wikimedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Josef_Abel_1807_Socrates_teaching_his_disciples.jpg In Book IV Socrates answers the Republic’s first question, What is justice? Keeping to the plan devised in Book II, he first tells us what political justice—justice in the polis or city-state—is and then, arguing that the ideal polis and the human soul (psuchê) share the same three-part structure,...

Bust of Athena, of the ‘Velletri Pallas’ type (inlaid eyes are lost). Copy of the 2nd century CE after a votive statue of Kresilas in Athens (ca. 430–420 BCE). Photograph by Aavindraa (2010), Wikimedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Athena#/media/File:Bust_Athena_Velletri_Glyptothek_Munich_213.jpg Whatever worries or quibbles we might have about Socrates’ definition of political justice, Glaucon finds it satisfactory: ‘I agree. Justice is that and nothing else’ (4...

Markus Maurer, drawing of Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ with Wikipedia’s logo as the sun (2015). Photograph by Crystallizedcarbon (2015), Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plato_Cave_Wikipedia.gif#/media/File:Plato_Cave_Wikipedia.gif The Allegory of the Cave is arguably the most famous part of the Republic. Although it is clearly related to the Sun and Divided Line analogies (indeed, Socrates explicitly connects the Cave and the Sun at 7.517bc), Plato marks its...