The Republic

2019 ◽  
pp. 205-229
Author(s):  
Dominic Scott
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Individual Justice ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Political Right ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Ideal

This chapter presents a reading of Plato’s Republic. The Republic is among Plato’s most complex works. From its title, the first-time reader will expect a dialogue about political theory, yet the work starts from the perspective of the individual, coming to focus on the question of how, if at all, justice contributes to an agent’s happiness. Only after this question has been fully set out does the work evolve into an investigation of politics—of the ideal state and of the institutions that sustain it, especially those having to do with education. But the interest in individual justice and happiness is never left behind. Rather, the work weaves in and out of the two perspectives, individual and political, right through to its conclusion. All this may leave one wondering about the unity of the work. The chapter shows that, despite the enormous range of topics discussed, the Republic fits together as a coherent whole.

scholarly journals Platón, las pasiones y la crítica del populismo = Plato, passions and criticism of the populism

ΠΗΓΗ/FONS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Álvaro Pablo Vallejo Campos
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
First Time ◽  
The City ◽  
The Ideal

Resumen: La tesis principal de este artículo es que la trascendencia política de las pasiones determina en Platón sus planteamientos éticos y políticos. La primera vez que se ocupa de ellas más sistemáticamente, como ocurre en el Gorgias, aparecen directamente involucradas en la crítica del imperialismo y de los procedimientos retóricos propios de la democracia ateniense, y su tratamiento debe ser uno de los ingredientes esenciales de la política concebida como un arte. Pero en la República el estado ideal surge de una reflexión sobre la necesidad de realizar una purgación de las pasiones en la ciudad lujosa y afiebrada que se trata de reformar. La importancia de la cuestión se deriva del hecho de que una teoría de la justicia en el individuo y en el estado consiste, en definitiva, en formular un ideal normativo de las relaciones que deben establecerse entre la razón y las pasiones del alma. A consecuencia de ello, las formas degeneradas del estado ideal pueden interpretarse como una secuencia en sentido creciente de la ilegítima irrupción de las pasiones en la sociedad enferma que se opone a aquel.Palabras clave: Platón, pasiones, política, retórica, estado ideal, justicia, populismo.Abstract: The main thesis of this paper is that the political transcendence of passions determines Plato’s ethical and political points of view. The first time that he deals systematically with passions, as occurs in the Gorgias, they are directly implicated in the critic of imperialism and the rhetorical procedures of Athenian democracy. They are also an essential part of politics conceived as an art. In the Republic , the ideal city emerges as the necessity of practicing a purge of passions in the luxuriant or feverish city that has to be purged. The importance of this issue derives from the fact that the theory of justice in the individual and the city consists of a normative ideal on the relations that have to be established between passions and reason. As a consequence, the sequence of the degenerated forms of the ideal state can be interpreted as an increasing model of the illegitimate irruption of passions in the ill society opposed to it.Keywords: Plato, passions, politics, rhetoric, ideal state, justice, populism.

scholarly journals Reinvestigating the Political Position of the Citizen in Plato’s „Republic”

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-43
Author(s):  
Stephen Oppong Peprah
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Cooperative Interaction ◽  
The Political ◽  
Orthodox Interpretation ◽  
Political Position ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Ideal

In this paper, I argue that in the Republic Plato justifies the political authority of the guardians in light of the principle of partnership — a principle which fits coherently with other Platonic principles which undergird his political theory, including optimum functionality, social justice and power. Therefore, I argue that, by their respective professions, there is a cooperative interaction between the guardians and the producers as partners within the political structure of the ideal polis towards attaining the eudaemonistic goals of both the individual and the polis. I contrast this with the orthodox interpretation that Plato justifies political authority using the idea of the Good — an interpretation which holds that since the citizens cannot grasp the Good, they assume an insignificant political position, including the allegations that they are cogs, slaves, morally obtuse, and politically inept.

The Modification of Plan in Plato's Republic

1913 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 265-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Hackforth
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
General Plan ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Argument Proceeds ◽  
The Ideal

In a recent number of the Classical Quarterly Mr. F. M. Cornford argues against the commonly accepted view, according to which the tripartite social structure of the Republic is a corollary, in Plato′s mind, to the tripartition of the individual Soul. In the present paper I propose to examine the general plan of the dialogue, in the hope of showing that Plato′s conceptions of State and Soul were not, as generally assumed and as assumed by Mr. Cornford, ready-made and clearly formulated in his mind before he began to write the Republic: that, on the contrary, we can detect profound and vital modifications of his original views as the argument proceeds: and that the conceptions of the Ideal State and the rightly constituted human soul grow out of one another and react on one another in such a way that it is impossible to give a simple answer, affirmative or negative, to the question ‘ Which is prior, the tripartition of State or the tripartition of Soul ?’

scholarly journals Ser y utopía en la República

ΠΗΓΗ/FONS ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Álvaro Pablo Vallejo Campos
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Existential Meaning ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Ideal

Resumen: El objetivo principal de este trabajo consiste en examinar la relación entre la concepción del ser y el proyecto utópico que Platón defiende en la República. Respecto a esto último, no se trata de una mera estrategia literaria o irónica, sino de un proyecto que Platón considera realizable y deseable como el mejor régimen político posible. Ahora bien, esta propuesta se basa en un paradigma cuya validez no está condicionada por la existencia y lo que defendemos es que esto es plenamente congruente con la concepción del ser que Platón sostiene en la obra, la cual no depende del significado existencial del eînai sino de sus valores predicativos o verídicos. Además hay que tener presente que la figura del filósofo gobernante como tal, de quien depende la posibilidad del estado ideal, queda delimitada por su capacidad para contemplar el ser, ya que este conocimiento ontológico es para Platón el más justo título del poder.Palabras clave: Platón, República, utopía, paradigma, filósofo-gobernante, significados del verbo ser Abstract: The main aim of this paper is to examine the relation between Plato’s concept of being and the utopian project that he sustains in the Republic. In relation to the latter, his political proposal is not a mere literary or ironical strategy, but a political system that he considers possible and desirable as the best form of a political constitution. This proposal is based on a paradigm whose validity does not depend on existence and my thesis is that this character is absolutely congruent with Plato’s concept of being as exposed in the Republic, that does not depend on the existential meaning of eînai but on its predicative and veridical values. We must also take into account that the philosopher ruler, on whom the possibility of the ideal state depends, is delimitated as such by his capacity to contemplate being, for this ontological knowledge is in Plato’s view the best basis for the legitimation of power.Keywords: Plato, Republic, utopia, paradigm, philosopher-ruler, meanings of being

Comedy in Callipolis: Animal Imagery in the Republic

1978 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 888-901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlene W. Saxonhouse
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Society ◽  
Animal Imagery ◽  
Animal Images ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The City ◽  
The Ideal

The political society founded by Socrates in the Republic has been seen by many as Plato's conception of the ideal political community, his Callipolis. However, a study of the language used by Socrates as he builds his perfect city reveals an unusually heavy concentration of animal images. This language seems to undercut the ostensible perfection of Socrates' city and illustrates rather its connections to the comic world of Aristophanes, whose comedy the Birds offers the model according to which the Republic is built. It is suggested that the city of the Republic is comic and ugly, indicating the limitations of politics rather than its potentialities. The Republic argues for the need to reorient the concept of justice away from social life and towards the individual. Ultimately, the Republic suggests that the notion of social justice is laughable and fit for the comic Stage.

scholarly journals SIX LECTURES ON THE PREVENTION OF ENCEPHALITIS EPIDEMICS IN SIBERIA

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-110
Author(s):  
Lev Goldfarb
Keyword(s):  
Western Siberia ◽  
Clinical Presentation ◽  
Eastern Siberia ◽  
Sustained Reduction ◽  
Deadly Disease ◽  
Extensive Effort ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Control ◽  
First Time

This review summarizes the work of large teams of researchers to prevent two separate encephalitis epidemics in Siberia. The first three lectures sum up an extensive effort to study and control the Tick-borne enceph-alitis (TBE) epidemic in the Kemerovo region of Western Siberia. The study has helped to create a mathematical model that details the TBE epidemic process and offers a quantitative approach to the development of strategies for preventing TBE epidemics. Ten-year effort to combat TBE in the Kemerovo region led to a significant and sustained reduction in TBE morbidity and mortality. Fifty years after completion of this work, the proposed strategy has not been tested in other endemic regions, although the incidence of TBE worldwide has almost doubled, taking hundreds of lives and causing disability in thousands. The second disease described here is Viliuisk encephalomyelitis (VEM), first discovered 150 years ago in a small rural population of Eastern Siberia. The disease later spread to densely populated areas of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), reaching epidemic proportions. The three lectures on VEM provide an overview of multi-year studies on clinical presentation, neuropathology, pathogenesis, etiology, and epidemiology of VEM. We report here for the first time how a prolonged hospitalization of VEM patients during the acute and subacute phases of the disease prevent-ed transmission to susceptible individuals in their families and communities, which has helped to put an end to the further spread of this deadly disease. VEM is a new example of a local disease that has spread to a large territory and could potentially invade other countries if left unchecked. This review is based on a series of lectures delivered to different audiences at different times. The purpose of combining discrete topics in a single review is to emphasize approaches to solving problems, to illustrate the main results of the fight against Siberian epidemics and, when possible, reflect on the individual contribution of each researcher.

Equality, sexual values and permissive legislation: the English experience

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. R. McGregor
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Memorial Lecture ◽  
Sexual Values ◽  
Evolutionary Theories ◽  
The World ◽  
Democratic Equality ◽  
The Individual ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Ideal

I have the honour to address you today in this lecture founded to cherish the memory of L. T. Hobhouse, who was the first professor of sociology in this University and in these islands. He devoted his life to extending the study of social development within the framework of those evolutionary theories which had contained so much of Victorian social thought. He discerned a ‘self-conscious evolution of humanity’, found ‘therein a meaning and an element of purpose for the historical process which has led up to it’, and concluded that the ‘slowly wrought out dominance of mind in things is the central fact of evolution’. His fundamental thesis was that humanity had for the first time reached the stage of self-direction. Hobhouse's approach to sociology was itself a protest against sterile separatism either among the several social sciences or between them and the world of everyday affairs. He was a main contributor in his day to the principles of constructive liberalism and a leading exponent of the ideal of democratic equality. He sought for himself a unity of academic theory and social practice through his lifelong commitments as a journalist and commentator as well as an active participant in the work of Trade Boards and other institutions of the labour market. I do not therefore feel that I should apologize for taking as the theme of this memorial lecture present-day anxieties, enthusiasms and confusions about sexual conduct in their bearing upon Hobhouse's ideals of the liberation of the individual, of self-direction and of democratic equality.

Plato's Utopianism: The Political Content of the Early Dialogues

1983 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Klosko
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
The Political ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Precise Relationship ◽  
The Ideal

One reason the political theory of Plato's Republic is widely misunderstood is that its precise relationship to the political content of the early dialogues is not generally recognized. That the political views of the Republic are frequently misconstrued seems apparent. In recent years many scholars have argued that the ideal state put forward in the work is completely “utopian.” This word is used in different senses, but the sense I will concentrate on in this paper is its bearing upon questions of political reform. As I use the term, a “utopian” political theory contains proposals that are not intended to be taken seriously in terms of political reform. When I say that the ideal state discussed in the Republic is not “utopian” as these scholars maintain, I mean that Plato designed it with political reform in mind, and that he thought seriously about how to bring it into existence. This does not, however, imply that the ideal state is likely to be realized, or that Plato ever thought it was, but only that Plato wished to bring it into existence and thought this was possible, should extraordinary good fortune bring the necessary conditions into existence.

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