1. PLATO: The Republic

2. Plato’s Republic Republic = Politeia, i.e. the Constitution
Written ~380 after founding Academy
“Middle” Plato
Early = Socratic dialogues (inc. Rep I)
Middle = grand theories (Phaedo, Rep, Sym)
Late = more critical (Theaetetus, Sophist)
Skeptical vs. dogmatic readings
Dogmatic = Popper; Plato = totalitarian
Skeptical = Republic ‘reopens’ at many points

3. Background Peloponnesian War Political Differences
Sparta = communist aristocracy
Athens = commercial democracy
Ethical Challenges
Callicles
Protagoras
What is the just society?
Piraeus = port of Athens, home of democracy
INTERLOCUTORS
Glaucon
Adeimantus
Cephalus
Polemarchus
Thrasymachus
Cleitophon
Socrates
Also present
Son of Nicias
Lysias
Euthydemus
Other sophists

4. Book I: Thrasymachus; or What is Justice?
Prologue
Logos
1st defn Cephalus = not lie, pay debts 331d
2nd defn Polemarchus = give each what owed  help friends/harm enemies 332d
3rd defn Thrasymachus = advantage of stronger 336b
Does injustice  happiness? 347e
Epilogue: Socrates aporia

5. Prologue Opening paragraph “I went down”
Opening scene: “Do you see how many we are?”
Opening section: Cephalus on eros and wealth in old age

6. Justice = tell truth and pay debts
Socrates’ question & Cephalus’ ‘definition’
Socrates’ criticism:
counterexample: do you return a weapon to a madman?
Note  give what is ‘due’
Also  friends/enemies
A ‘contractual’ model of justice

7. Justice = help friends harm enemies
Defn
Justice = give each what is owed*; namely,
Justice = to benefit friends and harm enemies
2. Examination:
a. Justice = craft/ability [+ will] to help/harm friends/enemies
i. Insofar as = craft/ability, useless vs. other crafts
ii. Insofar as = craft/ability, = ability to harm as well as benefit
b. Justice = craft/ability [+will] to help/harm friends/enemies
i. if friends/enemies = seem F/E then it is J to harm good man who is an apparent enemy
ii. If F/E = seem/are F/E, is it J to harm?
No– never just to harm.
= A political model of justice

8. Justice = advantage of the stronger
1. Thrasymachus’ interruption
2. Defn = advantage of ‘stronger’ [= obey rulers’ laws]
3. Examination of defn
Initial clarification = laws created by rulers for own benefit
What if laws are not truly beneficial to ruling class?
Cleitophon’s notion: legal positivism
Concept of artist/ruler in the strict sense:
T: true ruler governs in own interest, not good of subjects [or common good]
S: artist qua artist acts for good of subject vs. qua money-maker
T: that doesn’t work for the shepherd and the sheep!
S: yes it does; rulers need other incentives to rule = $ or honor or not being subject
New question: does injustice  happiness (benefit)?
Organizational/evaluative model of justice

9. Does injustice  happiness?
Socrates’ three arguments vs. injustice
Unjust ‘outdo’ others like themselves, but artists don’t ‘outdo’ other artists
No group action can exist without mutual trust/justice
Function of soul = deliberate and govern; Virtue = do this well; Justice = virtue
Conclusion: entire discussion is inconclusive

10. Republic “High city” of Books V-VII / \
Justice = kind of self-government enjoyed at the top
/ \
“Just city” II-IV vs. “Unjust cities” VIII-IX
Justice = kind of regulation of society found in Republic
/ \
Intro/popular views I vs. conclude/poetry X