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The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guide to Plato’s Republic, 2016a

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71 Establishing Justice<br />

See 540d-541b. “Everyone in the city who is over ten years old they will send<br />

in<strong>to</strong> the country. <strong>The</strong>y will take over the children, and far removed from current<br />

habits, which their parents possess, they will bring them up in their own ways and<br />

laws, which are the ones we described before.” This, Socrates and Glaucon agree,<br />

would be “the quickest and easiest way” <strong>to</strong> establish the sort of city they have<br />

been discussing; and with this last burst of speculation, they judge that enough has<br />

been said about the just city and the just soul. Book VIII will begin where Book<br />

IV left off, with an exploration of unjust cities and unjust souls.<br />

In expressing his opinion that sending away the parents and raising the<br />

children in isolation is how a just city “would come in<strong>to</strong> existence, if it ever<br />

did,” is Glaucon saying, in effect, that such a city, while theoretically<br />

possible, is practically impossible?<br />

What is the difference between being practically impossible and being<br />

actually impossible?<br />

Consider an example of something that once was, but has ceased <strong>to</strong> be,<br />

practically impossible. What changed?<br />

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