PLATO’S REPUBLIC
Book Stephanus## TOPIC
I 327a-331b Going Down to the Piraeus: the separation of knowledge/power
327a-328b Capture of Socrates and Glaucon (stopped by Polemarchus’ slave)
328b-331b Socrates and Cephalus discuss old age and money and eros
331a-354a The Three Definitions of Justice, and their refutations
331c-332a 1: “telling the truth and giving back what one owes” [to gods]
(Cephalus, then Polemarchus)
332a-336a 2: “doing good to friends and harm to enemies” Simonides
(Polemarchus young metic = free and equal to Socrates)
336b-338b [Thrasymachus interrupts]
338c-343a 3: “the advantage of the stronger” (Thrasymachus)
343b-350c Thrasymachus interrupts again: on tyranny
350d-354a Thrasymachus blushes - and goes along, silenced, not convinced
354b-356e Socrates declares his ignorance
II 357a-368c The challenge to Socrates: Is Justice in itself Good?
357a-362c Glaucon’s charge (Myth of Gyges Ancestor)
362d-368c Adeimantus’ charge
368c-588a Socrates’ response: The City in Speech & the Human Soul
369b-372d The First City: The City of Necessity
372e-444a The Second City: City of Swine
374a-376d The need for Guardians
376e-412b Education (I) of the Guardians
376e-403c Music (& censorship)
377e-383d Tales about gods (noble lie)
III 386a-392c Myths about virtue
392c-398b Style (imitative or narrative)
398c-400e Song and melody, modes and rhythm
400e-403c Painting and sex
403c-412b Gymnastic
403e-408e Diet and medicine
409a-412b Judging and harmony
412b-417b Who Rules? Guardians, auxiliaries, & the noble lie
IV 419a-424a Adeimantus’ objection: Honor = Luxury Happiness of part/whole
424a-427c Completed law-giving
427d-445e Virtue in the City and the Soul
427d-434c 4 Virtues, 3 Parts of the City
434c-441c 3 Parts of the Soul
441c-444a 4 Virtues, 3 Parts of the Soul
444a-445e Injustice/Degenerate Regimes Glaucon apologizes! inquiry ridiculous
V 449b-543c The City Reconsidered
449b-451b Recapture Scene: Polemarchus/Adeimantus object: Robbing us of
the argument [Unanimity of Demos, Many to One] UP WE GO!
451c-540c Socrates’ response: Three Waves
451c-457c 1: Feminism
457d-471e 2: Communism and Abolition of Family
457d-461e Breeding and the sex lottery
462a-466d Community of pleasure and pain
466e-471e War-making, Greek and barbarian
472a-540c 3: Philosopher-Kings
472a-473c Prelude: Seeking a pattern, not perfection
473d-480a Who philosophers are
473d-475c Lovers of the whole
475d-480a Glaucon objects: strange
Socrates’ answer: knowledge/opinion
VI 484a-502c That philosophers must rule
484a-487a Testing for virtue
487b-497b Adeimantus objects: vicious & useless
Socrates’ answer: on corruption
497c-502c The many and the few on philosophy
502d-540c Education (II) of the Philosophers
502e-504e The Problem with Guardian Education (I)
505a-521c Idea of the Good: Three Images
506d-509c 1: Sun as the Good
509d-511e 2: Divided Line
VII 514a-521c 3: Cave
521d-535a Curriculum for Philosophers
522c-526c 1: Calculation
526d-527c 2: Geometry
527c-528a False start on astronomy
528b-528d 3: 3-d Geometry
528e-530d 4: Astronomy
530d-531d 5: Harmonics
531d-535a 6: Dialectics
535a-540c Who studies and when
540d-541b Ironic expulsion of all over age 10
VIII 543a-543c Recap of argument, DOWN WE GO
543c-576c Injustice [resumed], or the 4 Worse Regimes & Men
545d-548d Timocracy eros for Homeric kudos over Sophia = irrationality/vice
548d-550c Timocratic Man = Hybris
550c-552e Oligarchy eros for wealth overcomes honor and moral decency
553a-555a Oligarchic Man = Banauzia
555b-558c Democracy freedom/equality over elite order = license to chaos
558c-562a Democratic Man = Thersites
562a-569c Tyranny “eros for eros”, max desire with max satisfactions
IX 571a-576c Tyrannic Man = Absolute power over others, none over himself
576c-588a Happiness of Philosopher and Tyrant Compared: 3 Proofs
576c-580c 1: slavery and choice
580d-583a 2: 3 forms of pleasure: wisdom-, victory-, gain-loving
583b-588a 3: pleasure/repose/pain
588b-592b “Take up again the first things said”: Soul as hydra/lion/human
X 595a-608b Reconsideration of Poetry
595b-598d Craftsmanship (I) and Imitation: New Ideas
598e-601b Homer and Tragedy: The Claim to Know and Rule
601c-603b Craftsmanship (II): Use and Pity
603c-608b “Old Quarrel Between Philosophy and Poetry”
608c-612a Immortality of the Soul and the Statue of Glaucus
612b-621d Wages of Justice = Reputation and Retribution =Paying what owed
612b-614a The Argument Concluded
614b-621d Myth of Er (for absent Cephalus and everyone that is ineducable)