PHILOSOPHY OF SOCRATES

Philosophy of Socrates

Philosophy of Socrates

Prelude

In this passage, Socrates predicts that this paradoxical claim will elicit even more ridicule and contempt from his Athenian contemporaries than will equality for women rulers or communality of sex and children. They saw philosophers as perpetual adolescents, skulking in corners and muttering about the meaning of life, rather than taking an adult part in the battle for power and success in the city. On this view, philosophers are the last people who should or would want to rule. The Republic turns this claim upside down, arguing that it is precisely the fact that philosophers are the last people who would want to rule that qualifies them to do so. Only those who do not wish for political power can be trusted with it.

In establishing his own position, Socrates seems to be responding to Glaucon whereas many Platonic dialogues, especially those featuring Socrates, end inconclusively in aporia, or pathless confusion, The Republic succeeds (at least on its own terms) in countering the two most dominant and dramatic challenges that are posed within it: that justice is simply a mask for exploitation by a ruling class of those it rules (advanced by Thrasymachus in Book 1); and that justice is, although not so drastically exploitative as Thrasymachus contends, a social settlement that would be better for each individual to violate, if he could get away with it (advanced by Glaucon and Adeimantus in Book 2, though as a thesis they wish to hear refuted rather than one they endorse). To do so, Socrates redefines justice by means of delineating a virtuous city and a virtuous soul, and then identifying the specific source of justice (widely accepted as one essential element of virtue) within each. This delineation is itself a redefinition, as Socrates carves up social structure and psychology in ways that democratic Athenians, at least, would have generally rejected, but seeks to make this plausible to his elite young Athenian interlocutors.

Exposition

Specifically against the egalitarian Athenian polity previously described, Plato insists that there must be a separate group of rulers within the city, divided into those performing strictly military functions and those who will exercise a broader guardianship based on wisdom. Thus, he divides the city into three classes and insists that although citizens must be chosen meritocratically for each group, they must be made to believe that where they belong is natural and necessary. (This is ...