The Republic

About this book

The Republic is a Socratic dialogue by the Athenian philosopher Plato, written in the fourth century BC. It is divided into ten books and asks a single question at length: what is justice, and is the just life better than the unjust one? To answer it, Socrates and his companions build an imaginary city from the ground up, on the theory that justice is easier to see in a large thing like a state than in a small thing like a single person.

The dialogue has stayed in use for more than two thousand years because so many later arguments start here. It contains the allegory of the cave, the theory of forms, the proposal that philosophers should rule, and an early and detailed discussion of what children should be taught and what stories they should be allowed to hear. Readers who disagree with almost every conclusion still find that Plato has stated the problems clearly.

The story

The conversation takes place in the Piraeus, the port of Athens, at the house of a wealthy man named Cephalus. Socrates is drawn into a discussion of old age and money, which turns into a debate about what justice is. The sophist Thrasymachus argues that justice is simply whatever benefits the stronger party. Socrates resists, and two young men, Glaucon and Adeimantus, press him to prove that justice is worth having for its own sake and not only for its reputation.

From there Socrates proposes to sketch an ideal city in speech. The rest of the dialogue follows that construction: who should farm, who should fight, who should govern, how the guardians should be educated, and what happens when a well-ordered state begins to decay. The work closes with the myth of Er, an account of what souls choose when they return to life.

Themes and historical context

Plato wrote after the Peloponnesian War and after the Athenian democracy had executed his teacher Socrates in 399 BC. The Republic reflects a deep suspicion of popular rule and of the rhetoric that drove it. Its ranking of constitutions, which places democracy near the bottom and tyranny at the very bottom, reads as a reaction to what Plato had watched happen in his own city.

The central move of the dialogue is the analogy between city and soul. Each has three parts, and justice in both consists of each part doing its own work under the direction of reason. This is where the book’s politics and its ethics meet, and it is why a discussion of city planning keeps turning back to individual character.

The Republic has been read very differently in different eras. It has been treated as a blueprint, as a thought experiment, and as a warning. Its proposals on the censorship of poets, the common ownership of property among the guardian class, and the equal training of women have each generated long traditions of commentary. Readers today usually encounter it in introductory philosophy and political theory courses, where it is often the oldest text on the syllabus.

Who should read it

This is a book for readers who enjoy following an argument through its objections. It is long, the dialogue form means that points are made and remade, and Socrates’ logic sometimes depends on analogies modern readers will want to question. Book I and the first half of Book II read almost like a play; Books V through VII, which contain the cave and the discussion of philosopher-rulers, are the most frequently assigned. Expect to read slowly and to stop and argue with the page.

Edition notes

The Gutenberg text is the English translation by Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893), Master of Balliol College, Oxford. Jowett’s translations of Plato were standard in the English-speaking world for decades and remain widely reprinted. His long analytical introduction precedes the dialogue in this edition. The transcription was prepared for Project Gutenberg by Sue Asscher and David Widger.