Plato and the Republic

History of Philosophy in Brief

5th Century BC & Peloponnesian War

“Good guys” = The Sophists Heraclitus – “all is in flux”

Protagoras – values are relative; advised Pericles

Gorgias – in praise of Helen

Antiphon – rhetorician; leader of oligarchic coup

Thrasymachus – justice is interest of the stronger

- taught philosophy as a technical skill Bad guy = Socrates

- taught philosophy as a way of life Result: Followers of “Good guys” kill “bad guy”

(Socrates)

History of Greek Philosophy, 5th Century BC

Sophist Socrates

Teachings of the sophists relevant to the Republic 1. Everything is in flux (Heraclitus). 2. “Justice is nothing other than the interest of

the stronger” (Thuc., Hist.; Thrasymachus, Rep. I)

3. “Man is the measure of all things” (Protagoras), i.e., values not real, but relative and a matter of opinion.

4. A cynical view of human nature. 5. Sophists taught “how to make the weaker

argument the stronger,” i.e., philosophy is a technical skill that helps you in your career, for example, as a lawyer.

Students of Sophists relevant to Republic Thucydides (460-395 BC)

student of Antiphon put Sophistic reasoning in mouths of

Athenians & Spartans in “Melian Dialogue” (v.89) & “End of Platea”

“Justice depends on the balance of power. In fact the stronger can do whatever they have the power to do, and the weak must accept whatever the stronger does” (Melian dialogue)

Melian Dialogue presents Thrasymachus’ teaching on justice 20 years before Republic

Students of Sophists relevant to Republic (cont.) Thucydides represents Athenians & Spartans

negatively by associating them with Sophistic teaching

But Thucydides also expresses Sophistic cynicism: “Human nature…showed itself…as something

incapable of controlling passion, insubordinate to the idea of justice, the enemy to anything superior to itself” (“Civil War in Corcyra,” iii.84).

Thuc. a kind of ancient Hobbes, regarded virtue as unattainable or illusory.

Students of Sophists relevant to Republic (cont.) Thucydides’ cynicism about human nature is

a pessimistic conclusion drawn from the Peloponnesian War, which devastated Greece and reduced many to barbarism.

Whether we regard Thucydides a Sophist is unimportant. What is important for Plato is that he expressed such cynicism about human nature

History of Philosophy in Brief

4th Century BC & Aftermath of Peloponnesian War

Influence of Sophists declines Influence of Socrates’ students, Plato &

Aristotle rises Plato writes dialogues criticizing Sophists,

e.g., Republic

Now, Socrates = The good guy Sophists = The bad guys

History of Greek Philosophy, 4th Century BC

SocratesSophist

Socrates

Taught philosophy as a way of life “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Plato’s goals

To refute and destroy reputation of Sophists To refute cynicism about human nature

expressed by Thrasymachus & Thucydides To advance optimistic model of human nature

In difficult times, we can rely on human dignity and act justly despite how others may be behaving

Soul as chariot (discussed in Plato, Phaedrus)

Clytemnestra kills Cassandra (scene from the Agamemnon of Aeschylus)

Scene from Verdi’s La Traviata

Sign at entrance of Academy

Fig. 1: The Platonic Solids

Role of study of geometry & mathematics 1) It transfers us from the material to the

intellectual, and so frees us from domination of appetites and emotions.

2) It proves that even human reason is non-arbitrary, not relative, so that justice, for Plato, becomes a constructible, almost geometrical concept.

Fig. 3: Plato’s Model of the Soul

Reason (logisikon)

Spirit (thumos)

Appetites (epithumia)

Fig. 4: Plato’s Model of the Guardian State

PhilosopherKing

Soldier-auxiliaries

Farmers & Artisans

Ostracism

Ostracon recording vote to exile Themistocles