The Republic of Plato-Book 5 & 6 PDF

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Summary and class discussion of Plato's The Republic, Books 5 & 6 ...

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The Republic of Plato--Book 5 & 6 Wednesday, October 11, 2017

4:17 PM

• Justice is achieved for the purpose of a successful city • "To be who you are is to be just"--which is to say that you're ethical ○ Minding your own business and doing what you are supposed to creates a harmonious state • The 3 of the soul : ○ The calculated § The capacity for human rationality/logic ○ Spirited § Willpower or strength which strives for honor and victory § Outdoing others ○ Desiring § It is human desire § The irrational part of the soul that drives our most basic wants ○ What is justice in the soul? § It is order and harmony, the right structure of the soul □ A structure where the rationale part is in control with our spirited part □ This dominates the desiring ○ Man is healthy: § Not at odd with ourselves § We are harmonious • To be just ○ Is to be one with self ○ To be your own master • How to fall out of being just? ○ Letting the desiring part of the soul take over ○ Not having control over your desires • Justice is being sovereign and in control ○ We need to be just to be free ○ If not, we are the victim of our own emotional volatility ○ Socrates gives us a concept of a soul that is present today

○ Socrates gives us a concept of a soul that is present today § Trying to come to terms with the volatility of yourself • Why is the soul spoken about in terms of politics? ○ Wars within ourselves § A civil war = internal war ○ Because politics reaches deep to make an even impact § Politics will never be right unless the soul is content • To be just, is to be natural and following one's nature • Book 5 & 6 ○ Socrates is challenged and was asked to give another apology about his argument ○ Regarding women, children, and property: § Metaphorically gets arrested and has to argue his way out ○ 3 waves of laughter: § Socrates is aware that people will laugh at him § Soldiers on and presents 3 radical claim: □ The position of women: ® Classes should include women and men together ® Gender shouldn't separate success for the city ® Men and women have the same nature when it comes to ruling ◊ Equally able to exercise the virtues necessary to execute leadership ® Socrates is arguing for the sake of logic in terms of achieving the utmost justice □ Communism ® A ruling class with no family life ◊ Parents wouldn’t know who their children are and vice versa ◊ Raised in a commune ® There won't be private relationships, just reproduction □ Philosophers have to rule or rulers have to become philosopher ® Why? ◊ Because of the special virtue/insight that the philosopher has ◊ But what does it mean to be a philosopher?

} Someone who loves wisdom – Desire wisdom – Except their desire is not often paid attention to } Knowledge is defined by reforms and ideas ◊ Every empirical object in the world should not be visible to the naked eye } It is visible to the mind's eye ◊ Everything has a form: } Forms function like abstract concepts that needs an object to which it refers } Crucial: – Unchanging and timeless – Gives us a stable foundation for reality } The highest form: – The form of the good w Functions like god w Origin of things and gives the world structure and character w But it is out of our range } 3 analogs to the good: – The good is like the sun: w Just as the sun allows us to see in the visible world, the good allows us to see and understand in the invisible world – The sun can be understood by a divided line: w It gives us the fullest account of Plato's understanding of how we know the world and the nature of the world w Right hand = how we understand the world w Left hand = reality

– Right hand: w Imagination: w Doesn’t produce anything but our fantasy w Trust: w Through trust we know things – The empirical world is a deceptive world w Almost like a deceptive regime – Move into the Invisible world: w Abstract and high level thinking – If we don't know what justice is, we have to move up to the realm of higher thinking

§ The pattern of justice □ Not trying to prove that the city is going to happen but that it is possible □ Need a pattern to work towards □ Suggesting that it is crucial for the city to flourish, private life be eliminated ® Especially for the rulers ◊ In modernity, instead of limiting private life, we've pushed politics aside and inverted private life to replace it § Innovation is the enemy □ Not in modernity, but in Socrates' context...