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NOVELS: The Republic |
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| The dialogue begins with a
conversation at a party among friends that lasts
throughout the night, with the story covering ten
books, or chapters. The first book is a
discussion of wealth and justice. The second book
revolves around the ideas of the individual, the
state, and education, and Book Three discusses
the arts in education. In Book Four, the
conversation is on wealth, poverty, and virtue.
Book Five discusses matrimony and philosophy, and
the sixth book centers on the philosophy of the
government. Book Seven is on shadows and
realities in education, and Book Eight is about
four forms of government. Book nine discusses
wrong and right government, and the benefits
leaders could derive from both. Finally, Book Ten
is about the recompense of life. This work by Plato, one of the great philosophers, is considered by many to be his greatest dialogue. In the book, he discusses themes of reality, knowledge, human nature, politics, ethics, education, and the arts. Overall, it is a discussion on the nature of justice, and his vision of the ideal state, or utopia. The society Plato describes in The Republic is often considered to be the first utopia. We are reminded throughout the story that the real goal of the dialogue is to point out the value of being a just person. Plato’s words follow the intellectual thought of Socrates, who invented the imaginary city where all problems are solved (utopia). Socrates never wrote anything, instead Plato and others wrote of him. Plato employed the Socratic method in his writing. This was a way of questioning everything until you arrive at an unexpected conclusion. He also made Socrates the main character in more than twenty books, including The Republic. The leading theme of The Republic is justice. The idea is introduced early in Book One, where the conventional definitions are examined and found lacking. The characters in the story debate on what justice really is. It is said that many people are just only for fear of being caught, and Plato sets out to show that being just is important for more than social harmony. This then leads to discussion of political and ethical philosophy, and to the theory of a perfect society, where everyone is just. The Republic contains the famous allegory of the cave. It is about a prisoner chained in a cave his whole life, and that is his reality. Now if he escapes and sees the light outside the cave, he cannot be accepted back by the other prisoners if he is caught because he is enlightened and this intimidates them. It is the same as the idea of seeing through the chains of the mind. This allegory and others are used to demonstrate some of the theories in The Republic. |