Justice in the city: each part of the city
performing its natural function
Justice in the individual: each part of
the soul performing its natural
function
.



Socrates argues that the soul is divided into three
parts, just like the city (reason, spirit and
appetite).
Socrates claims that a person who is just in his
sense will also act “justly”—not steal, murder,
etc.
Is Socrates right?
Going back to the City



What is the role of women in the ideal city?
What sort of sexual relations ought the upper
classes have and how should their children be
raised?
What is the true character of the guardian class?
Role of Women
Socrates says the principle of specialization
applies to women as well as men. Each woman
will have the task they are by nature suited for.
A person’s role in the city is determined by their
soul, not by their sex ( cf. long haired vs. short
haired men)

Is Plato a proto-feminist?


In the ideal city roles will not be determined by
gender.
But he makes clear he believes in fact women
are, in general, inferior to men.
What about children?




Analogy with Glaucon’s hunting dogs.
Only the best of the gold and silver souled will
be allowed to reproduce, by means of a rigged
“lottery.”
This will ensure that future generations will have
the best characteristics of the preceding one.
What, if anything, is wrong with Socrates
reasoning?
How should the children be raised


They should be raised collectively.
No one will know who their biological parents
or children are.
Advantages of communal child
raising



Eliminates favoritism based on blood ties
Encourages unity and cohesiveness
Avoids factionalism
Some problems
Children may need to bond with one person to be
psychologically healthy
Factionalism may still exist based on informal
friend groups
It is extremely hard for mothers to voluntarily
give up their babies at birth
Philosopher Kings



The last and final difficulty to confront
Socrates: who will rule the city?
There will be no end of evils until philosophers
become kings or kings learn to become
philosophers
But most people will laugh at the idea that
philosophers, of all people, will make the best
rulers.
What is philosophy?



But we need to know what philosophy really is
to answer the question
Philosophy is the love of wisdom
A philosopher is insatiable for all kinds of
learning.


Glaucon: but in that case there will be some very
strange philosophers– the lovers of sights and
sounds. Festival goers.
Socrates: these are not philosophers but they are
like philosophers.
belief and Knowledge
Belief and knowledge are powers.
They are distinguished by their objects.
Knowledge is about what is.
Belief is about what both is and is not.
What does this mean?
belief




Belief is about facts or information. It aims at
particular things
But particular things are contradictory—they
both are and are not.
An object is beautiful—here and now, from this
point of view
But is also not beautiful at another time, or from
another point of view



Heraclitus: You cannot step into the same river
twice.
Cratylus: you cannot step into the same river
ONCE.
Plato agreed with heraclitus: the sensible world
is constantly changing. Change pervades the
world of sense
Knowledge


But knowledge is about what really is. What
does not change, what is permanent.
If you understand the nature of beauty, what
you understand or grasp simply is—it will not
change. Sensible things come and go, beauty
itself remains the same. It just is what it is.
The philosopher is not a person who wants to
accumulate lots of facts
 The philosopher aims to understand general
truth.s
 “this is a picture of a circle”—this is a belief
About a particular thing.
Understanding the definition of a circle—that is
knowledge.



“Joe is a just person” this is a belief
Understanding what justice is—what it is in
virtue of which Joe and every other just person
is just—this is knowledge.