Plato - The Republic

Questions for Study and Discussion

Book I

1) Describe the rival conceptions of justice to which Socrates responds.  Focus on Thrasymachus' argument and Glaucon and Adeimantus' restatement of his argument.  Is justice rooted in nature (physis) or convention (nomos)?

Book II

1) Is it best for an individual to be just?  Why is justice better than injustice?

2) Do you agree with Socrates when he says that it is preferable that "each person does one thing for which he is naturally suited ... and is released from having to do any of the others" (370b)?  What are the implications of this position for Plato's ideal city?

3) Has Plato given a good account of why some poets are subversive to the community?  How might he be refuted?

Book III

1) What are Plato's criteria for aesthetic judgment?

2) Why does Plato urge censorship?  What is the main basis of Plato's hostility to poetry?

3) Do you object to Plato's use of the foundation myth in the Republic?  Besides "increasing loyalty," what other purposes does this myth serve?  Pay attention to the use of myth and stories throughout the work.

Book IV

1) How does "justice" as defined in Book I compare with "justice" as defined in Book IV?

2) Is Plato's extended analogy between the individual and the state valid?  What are some difficulties presented by this analogy? Why does Plato link the search for justice to the search for justice in the city?  Is he simply illustrating a point or is he making some larger assertion about the relationship between individuals and communities?Book V

1) Was Plato an early feminist?  By stating that women should be allowed to be guardians, is Plato also saying that men and women are equal?

2) What is Plato's definition of knowledge?  Are you satisfied with his distinctions between knowledge and opinion?  Why is having knowledge crucial to creating a just Republic?

Books VI - VII

1) How are we to understand "the good" as depicted in the similes of the Sun and the Cave and in the analogy of the Divided Line?

2) Match up the different kinds of knowledge described in Book VI with the stages described in the parable of the cave.

Book VIII

1) Why doesn't Plato like democracy?  Do you agree or disagree?  Come up with arguments to support your position.  Compare Plato's idea of democracy with our own.

2) Are you satisfied with Plato's typology of "imperfect societies?"  What are his criteria for judging each type of society?  What is the nature of the flaws in each?

Book IX

1) Book IX has been described as a reprise of Plato's response to Thrasymachus' moral skepticism in Book I.  Is he more successful here in developing the position that "justice pays more than injustice?"  How would you compare his form of argumentation in the two books?

2) Why is "pleasure" prominently featured in the latter half of the book?  Why is this important to Plato's definition of "justice?"

3) What new light do the conclusions arrived at in Book IX shed on the nature of the ever-present "majority"?

Book X

1) Think back to Plato's criteria for aesthetic judgment as outlined in Books II and III.  Why is Plato wary of poetry?  What are his justifications for the censorship of art?  Is Plato's theory of art here merely an elaborate restatement of what he has already said?  Where has he been more successful in pleading for the suppression of certain kinds of art?