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Plato's 'Republic' Plato’s Republic Plato’s Republic An Introduction An Introduction SEAN MCALEER SEAN MCALEER S EAN M This book is a lucid and accessible companion to Plato’s Republic, throwing light C A upon the text’s arguments and main themes, placing them in the wider context LEER of the text’s structure. In its illumina� on of the philosophical ideas underpinning the work, it provides readers with an understanding and apprecia� on of the P complexity and literary ar� stry of Plato’s Republic. McAleer not only unpacks the key overarching ques� ons of the text – What is justi ce? And Is a just life happier than an unjust life? – but also highlights some fascina� ng, overlooked passages which contribute to our understanding of Plato’s philosophical thought. Plato’s ‘Republic’: An Introducti on off ers a rigorous and thought-provoking analysis of the text, helping readers navigate one of the world’s most infl uen� al works of LATO philosophy and poli� cal theory. With its approachable tone and clear presenta� on, it cons� tutes a welcome contribu� on to the fi eld, and will be an indispensable ’ S resource for philosophy students and teachers, as well as general readers new to, or returning to, the text. R EPUBLIC As with all Open Book publica� ons, this en� re book is available to read for free on the publisher’s website. Printed and digital edi� ons, together with supplementary digital material, can also be found at www.openbookpublishers.com Cover image: Anselm Feuerbach’s The Symposium (1871-1874). Cover design by Anna Ga� . book eebook and OA edi� ons also available OBP PLATO’S REPUBLIC Plato’s Republic An Introduction Sean McAleer https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2020 Sean McAleer This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Sean McAleer, Plato’s Republic: An Introduction (Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2020), https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0229 In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit, https:// doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0229#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/ All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Updated digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0229#resources Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. ISBN Paperback: 9781800640535 ISBN Hardback: 9781800640542 ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781800640559 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781800640566 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781800640573 ISBN XML: 9781800640580 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0229 Cover image: Anselm Feuerbach, The Symposium (1873). Berlin State Museum, Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anselm_Feuerbach_-_Das_Gastmahl._Nach_ Platon_(zweite_Fassung)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg. Public domain. Cover design by Anna Gatti. Table of Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction xiii 1. Fathers and Sons 1 2. Taming the Beast: Socrates versus Thrasymachus 25 3. A Fresh Start 55 4. Blueprints for a Platonic Utopia: Education and Culture 75 5. Starting to Answer the First Question: The Political Virtues 93 6. The Republic’s First Question Answered at Last: Personal 113 Justice 7. Questions about the Idea Polis: The Three Waves 131 8. Surfing the Third Wave: Plato’s Metaphysical Elevator, the 151 Powers Argument, and the Infallibility of Knowledge 9. The Philosopher’s Virtues 175 10. Metaphors to Think by: The Sun and Divided Line 191 Analogies 11. The Allegory of the Cave 211 12. The Decline and Fall of the Ideal City-Soul 229 13. The Republic’s Second Question Answered: Three and a 251 Half Arguments that the Just Life is Happier 14. Are We There Yet? Tying up Loose Ends in Book X 275 Afterword 299 List of Illustrations 305 vi Plato’s ‘Republic’: An Introduction Bibliography 309 Index 313 Acknowledgments This book springs from the happy confluence of two sources: my teaching the Republic every semester in PHIL 101 at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and my offering a three-session class on the Republic to Chippewa Valley Learning in Retirement in the fall of 2013. Dr Mike O’Halloran, the indefatigably cheerful and intellectually curious retiree who thought the group would enjoy a presentation on philosophy turned out to be correct: the sessions were well attended and well received—if subsequent requests for more philosophy sessions are any indication. Although some philosophical friends were skeptical at my plan to devote an entire ‘intro’ course to the Republic, many students seem to have found the experience worthwhile, so I have continued with this somewhat old-fashioned way of introducing students to philosophy. This book has been shaped by my experience with both kinds of audiences. I thank the students it has been my privilege to teach over the years and the CVLR audiences for their questions, feedback, criticisms, and their laughing at some of my jokes. Many friends have helped in a variety of ways. Erica Benson, the life partner than which none greater could be conceived, provided insightful feedback on the entire manuscript, created the figures for the Divided Line, and talked me off the ledge more than once. Geoff Gorham has used parts of the manuscript in some of his courses and has given feedback and encouragement, as has his wife, the philosopher Amy Ihlan. Rod Cooke unwittingly served as a ‘responsibility buddy’ during a sabbatical, regularly asking me how it was going and when it might it be finished. My colleagues at UW–Eau Claire—Kristin Schaupp, Matt Meyer, and Steve Fink—models of collegiality all, have been sources viii Plato’s ‘Republic’: An Introduction of intellectual stimulation and delight during trying times in higher education. I gratefully acknowledge the support of the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire Faculty Sabbatical Leave Program, which supported me during the 2017–2018 academic year, during which time the bulk of this book was written. I conceived the book as a philosophical instance of The Wisconsin Idea, a guiding principle of the University of Wisconsin system, which bids faculty and staff to ‘extend knowledge and its application beyond the boundaries of its campus’. I have tried to do that here, to help general readers with little to no background in philosophy to understand this philosophical masterpiece. Thus I am most grateful to Open Book Publishers for publishing it, since I too believe that ‘knowledge is for sharing’. I thank Alessandra Tosi for her wisdom, guidance, and patience; the two readers for their helpful suggestions, Anna Gatti for designing the cover; and Melissa Purkiss for her careful proofreading and her excellent editorial judgment. I have benefitted from some wonderful teachers over the years, starting in high school with Frank Townsend, who gave me my first glimpse of the life of the mind, continuing through my undergraduate education at Shimer College with Eileen Buchanan and Harold Stone, who provided such fine, living models of inquiry and engaged classrooms, and lastly in graduate school at Syracuse, where Michael Stocker and Jonathan Bennett showed me what doing excellent philosophy looks like. I am grateful to them all, and to all the other fine teachers I haven’t space to name individually. I thank Hackett Publishing for their kind permission to quote so frequently from the Grube-Reeve translation of the Republic. Lastly, I thank the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at UW-Eau Claire for financial assistance with the publication of this book. It is a good light, then, for those That know the ultimate Plato, Tranquillizing with this jewel The torments of confusion. — Wallace Stevens, ‘Homunculus et La Belle Étoile’ For Erica, my SLPF Attic Greek Black-figure Neck Amphora attributed to the Princeton Painter, ca. 550–540 BCE depicting an elderly king or man seated between two men and two women. Photograph by Aisha Abdel (2018), Wikimedia, Pulic Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Terracotta_neck-amphora_of_Panathenaic_shape_(jar)_MET_ DP161828_white_balanced_white_bg.png Introduction Plato’s Republic is one of those books that most people have probably heard of, even if they have not actually read it. Even Bubbles, the good- hearted, bespectacled doofus of the long-running Canadian comedy Trailer Park Boys knows enough of the Republic to appeal to the famous Noble Lie in a conversation with another resident of Sunnyvale Trailer Park. I first encountered the Republic like so many others have: in my first semester of college. This was many years ago, but my memory of the experience was one of feeling lost much of the time. I had a fine high school education, but philosophy was new to me, with its focus on big, abstract questions and especially on rigorous, rational arguments as the means to answering them. I did reasonably well in the course, but the Republic was tricky terrain, and I did not really know my way about. My aim in this book is to help readers traverse Plato’s philosophical masterpiece with fewer falls and less befuddled wandering than I experienced. I try to do this by pointing out important landmarks and interesting bits of topography, helping readers not to miss the forest for the trees, as the saying goes, but also to appreciate the importance of particular trees, hills, and streams.
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