Socrates argues that there are four main types of unjust states: timocracy, oligarchy (plutocracy), democracy, and tyranny (despotism). Socrates says that timocracy is the closest to the Ideal State that we have thus far experienced; the others descend in value as they are listed. We have already in the conversation […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book VIIISummary and Analysis Book VII: Section III
Socrates at this juncture in the conversation establishes the program of studies that will govern the lives of the future philosopher-rulers. This program, portions of which Socrates has discussed previously throughout the dialogue, is divided into six parts: Part 1: From early childhood and until they are about 18, the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book VII: Section IIISummary and Analysis Book VII: Section II
Following their rigorous study in mathematics, the future Guardians are to be trained in Dialectic, which field of study has been discussed earlier in the conversation. (Here we should review that summary and analysis having to do with the four levels of intellect, the Analogy of the Line, and the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book VII: Section IISummary and Analysis Book VII: Section I
For this allegory, we are to imagine an underground Cave, whose entrance/exit leads upward to daylight. There are prisoners in the Cave who have been chained there since their childhood; they are chained to the ground and chained by their heads. They can see only the wall of the Cave […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book VII: Section ISummary and Analysis Book VI: Section III
Analysis Socrates tells us now that there exist four levels of what we may call intellect (intellectual functioning, cognition) and four levels of objects that the intellect perceives. (See the illustration of the Levels of Intellect.) The lowest level of intellect (cognition, thinking process) is called imagining. Thinking at this […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Section IIISummary and Analysis Book VI: Section II
The problem, Socrates says, for our producing a philosopher-ruler may lie in the material with which we have to work. We agree that such a ruler must be intelligent, a “quick study,” ambitious in things of the mind, diligent. At the same time, the potential ruler must be disciplined, temperate, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Section IISummary and Analysis Book VI: Section I
Because he knows what Justice and Goodness are, the philosopher would be best qualified to administer justice for the good of the citizens he rules. And because he loves Truth, the philosopher will not lie (he would hate a lie); he will not countenance a lie for his benefit or […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Section ISummary and Analysis Book V: Section II
At this point, Glaucon and the auditors for the debate again say that the ideas Socrates has presented are probably impracticable. Socrates replies that the intent of the conversation remains, still, to search for a definition of justice as an ideal; he argues that a real state, if it could […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book V: Section IISummary and Analysis Book V: Section I
Socrates’ answer is that, although we agree that women are in the main physically weaker than men, we agreed earlier, in establishing the three classes, that every citizen should be relegated to the job that best suited him. This is true of the women as well as the men, so […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book V: Section ISummary and Analysis Book IV: Section III
Socrates argues thus: It is a given proposition (a self-evident truth) that a given physical body may not be moving and at rest at the same time. But in the case of a child’s toy (a top), we observe that parts of the top are in fact moving and parts […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book IV: Section III