Outline and Study Guide for Plato’s Republic

Book I

Introduction: What is Justice?  Consider the dramatic setting of the dialogue?  How does this setting relate to justice?

Dialogue with Cephalus (328c-331d)

--Why is Cephalus the first questioned?  What does Socrates ask Cephalus? (328c)

--Why does Cephalus invoke Sophocles in his response to Socrates?  What did Sophocles say?  (329a)

--What does Cephalus say concerning the greatest benefit of wealth?  (330d-331c)

--What is the first definition of justice proposed?  (331c)

--How does Socrates argue that this definition is flawed? (331c)

--Why does Cephalus leave the argument? (331d)

Dialogue with Polemarchus (331d-336a)

--Why is Polemarchus the one to pick up the argument?  (331d)

--What is Polemarchus’ account of justice?

--Why does Socrates bring in Simonides?  How does Polemarchus understand Simonides’ statement that “it is just to give to each what is owed”? (331e-332c)

--How does Socrates win over Polemarchus?

Dialogue with Thrasymachus (336b-354c)

--Why is Thrasymachus angry with Socrates? (336-337)

--What is Thrasymachus’ first account of justice? (338c-339a)

--How does Socrates refute this argument?

--Why does Thrasymachus blush? (350d)

--What is the “work” of the soul? (353d)

Book II

Dialogue with Glaucon (357a-362c)

--What are the three types of goods mentioned by Glaucon?  (357a-d)

--What type of good is justice according to Socrates?

--What type of good does Glaucon think justice is for most people? (358a)

--What is the story of Gyges ring and how is it relevant for Glaucon’s argument? (359c-360d)

--Does Glaucon really believe that the life of the unjust person is better than that of the just person? (360e-362d)

Dialogue with Adeimantus (362d-367e)

--What is Adeimantus’ problem with the poetic account of justice?

--What does Ademantus think is required for proving that justice is stronger than injustice? (367d-e)

--How Adeimantus describe the basic problem with those who claim that just life is to be pursued for itself?  (366e-367a)

Shift from the individual to the city (369a)

--Why does Socrates propose that they now consider justice in the city?

--What is Socrates’ healthy city? (372a-372e)

--Why does Glaucon object to this city?  What does Glaucon call this city? (373c)

--What sort of city do the young men want?

--What does Socrates call this type of city? (372e)

--What is the consequence of establishing a city according to the desires of the young men? (373e)

The problem of the Guardians and their Education (375b-412b)

--Why are guardians necessary for the city? (374a)

--What is the problem of the guardians? (375b)

--What role does poetry play in the education of the guardians?

--Why is poetry important for the guardians education?

--What are the two models for poetry (377c-383c)

Book III: The Education of the Guardians continued . . . Music Education

--Why does Socrates bring in the passage from Homer’s Iliad regarding Achilles’ fear of death? (386c)

--Why does Socrates think Homer is dangerous?

--Does Socrates have anything good to say about Homer?

--Is it always wrong to lie? (389b-c)

--Is it possible for evil to be produced by the gods? (391e)

--Why is poetic style important to the education of the guardians?

--What style does Socrates recommend? (392c-398a)

--What is wrong with tragedy?  Why is epic better than tragedy?

--What type of music is best for the education of the guardians? Why? (398d-403a)

--Why is gymnastics important for the education of the guardians (403c)

--What is the noble lie?  Why is it necessary? (414c)

--What is Socrates’ proposal for the guardians and private property? (416d)

Build IV: The Education of the Guardians continue

--What is the problem of the guardian’s happiness according to Adeimantus? (419a)

--What is Socrates’ response to Adeimantus? (420a-421c)

--What is Socrates’ proposal about the possession of women, children and marriage? (423e)

--What is Socrates’ position on innovation in music and gymnastics? (424b-425)

--With what is the true lawgiver concerned? (425b-427)

--What is the procedure for finding justice in the city: wise, courageous, moderate and just? (427e-428a) What are _____?

            --wisdom (428b-429a)

            --courage (429a-430c)

            --moderation (430d-432a)

            --justice (433a-434d)

--Justice in a single man—Justice in the soul (434e-441c)

--What are the three parts of the soul? (436a-441)

--What is the relationship between the three parts of the soul and the three parts of the city?

Book V: The Education of the Guardians continued . . . The Three Waves

--Community of women and children (449c-)

--First wave: equality of women (451d-457c)

            What is Socrates’ reasoning for the equality of women?

--Second wave: women and children belong to all men in common (457d-)

            What is Socrates’ reasoning for holding women and children in common?

            What are the problems arising with this idea?

--Third wave: Philosopher king (472a->>thru Book VII)

            Why is the third wave the most difficult to accept?

--What part of wisdom does a philosopher desire (475b-c)

--Is there a relationship between knowledge and opinion?  Why is opinion between knowledge and ignorance? (476-480a)

Book VI: The Philosopher: The Politics of Philosophy and the Problem of Knowledge

--What is the difference between the philosopher and the non-philosopher? (484a-487a)

--What are the two charges against the philosopher?  (1. useless – 487b-489d; 2. vicious 489e-497a)

--What is the difference between the sophist and the philosopher? (492a-493d)

--Which of the current regimes is suited for the philosopher king? (497b)

--What is the most fitting study for the education of the philosopher? The idea of the Good. (505a)

--What is the Good? (506b)

--Can we speak about the Good itself? (506e-509a)

--What does the divided line tell us about the problem of philosophy? (509c-511e)

Book VII: The Image of the Cave and the Problem of Education

--What is the relationship between the different levels of the cave and the problem of the divided line? (514a-518b)

--Why is philosophy an ascent or “turning around”? (518c-521d)

--What studies lead to the ascent? (521d-534e)

--What is the difference between sophistry and dialectic?

--Who is suited to receive a philosophic education? (535a-536b)

--What is the harm caused by the practice of dialectic? (537d-e)

--What is to be done with all those over the age of ten? (541a)

Book VIII: Regime Types and Private Men

“We have already described the man who is like the aristocracy, a man of whom we rightly assert that he is both good and just.” (554e)

--How does the kingship become corrupt?

Four Corrupt Regimes

--Timocracy and the timocratic man.  (545d-550b)

What is the disposition of a Timocracy and timocratic man?  How does a Timocracy degenerate into oligarchy?

--Oligarchy and the oligarchic man (550c-555a)

   What is the disposition of an oligarchy and an oligarchic man?  How does an oligarchy degenerate into democracy?

--Democracy and the democratic man (555b-562a)

   What is the disposition of a democracy and democratic man?  How does a democracy degenerate into a tyranny?

--Tyranny and the tyrant (562a-579e)

   What is the disposition of a tyranny and tyrant man?

Book IX: Tyranny and Philosophy

--The soul of the tyrant (571a-579e)

--What is the difference between democracy and tyranny?

--How does a democracy degenerate into a tyranny?

--Choosing among the five regimes (580b-c)

--How do the three parts of the city and the three parts of the soul provide further proof that kingship is the best regime? (588d-592b)

--Where does the best city exist? (592b)

--What does Socrates mean when he says that the best city is a “model . . . for anyone who wants to look at it and to make himself its citizen.”  (592b)

Book X: The Ancient Quarrel between Poetry and Philosophy

--What does Socrates seem to admire about Homer?  (595b-c; 607a-608b)

--What is imitation?  What is an imitator? (595c-597e)

--What is Socrates’ objection to tragic poetry, especially to Homer? (598e-608b)

--What is the old quarrel between philosophy and poetry? (607b)

--Why does poetry produce a “bad regime in the soul of each private man?”  (604d-605c)

--Why does Socrates raise the issue of immortality? (608c-621d)

--Why does Socrates tell the “Myth of Er?”  (614b-621d)

--Who is the last hero Er meets in Hades?  What does he tell Er?  Why is this significant?