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

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77 The Democratic City See 555b-558c. The upper class in an oligarchic city is generally “not willing to enact laws to prevent young people who have become intemperate from spending and wasting their wealth.” On the contrary, they encourage debt among the young, “so that by buying and making loans on the property of such people, they “themselves can become even richer and more honored.” (Think of the credit card applications hanging from the walls of college campuses nowadays alongside ads for Spring Break bacchanals in the tropics.) As more and more people are reduced to poverty and “drone” status, resentment builds, until it eventually occurs to the lower class that it would be easy enough to overthrow their bourgeois oppressors and seize control of the government. The oligarchic city falls in a democratic revolution. (“Democratic” means, literally, ruled by the people.) Socrates’ description of the city that results is especially interesting, for Athens was at the time one of the most democratic in the world. He describes a city “full of freedom and freedom of speech.” Everyone has “license . . . to do whatever one wants,” and to “arrange his own life in whatever way pleases him.” (That Socrates intends this claim to include slaves, women, aliens, and children becomes clear a few pages later, at 562e-563b. Of course, he may be exaggerating a bit.) The democratic city, like a “cloak embroidered with every kind of ornament,” has in it “every sort of character,” and so, of cities, it “would appear to be the most beautiful.” Everyone belongs. Are you a timocratic sort of person? You can join the hawks in the public assembly and argue for an expansionist foreign policy. Is money-making what you love? There is a faction in the assembly that cares for little else but the state of the economy. Are you an aristocratic person with a thirst for wisdom? The philosophers meet every morning under the colonnade off to the side of the agora. Do you just want to attend religious festivals, dinner parties, trials in the law courts, and get drunk? You will find plenty of companions. Liberty! Égalité! Tolerance! These principles characterize life in the democratic city. “Isn’t that a heavenly and pleasant way to pass the time, while it lasts?” Socrates asks. “It probably is,” Adeimantus replies, “while it lasts.”
Back Freedom of speech, freedom to arrange one’s life as one pleases, freedom from the censure of one’s neighbors – this passage strikes a chord with contemporary Americans. We have as national symbols a Statue of Liberty and a Liberty Bell. We put “Liberty” on all our coins. “Give me Liberty or give me Death!” rings through our nation’s history. What is Socrates’ problem? How can this be unjust? Who doesn’t appreciate freedom? To be free is to be unbound or unblocked with respect to something one cares about. Is there a kind of freedom that Socrates has in mind in his characterization of the aristocratic city and soul? If so, how might he characterize it? What is it to be a good leader in a democracy? Compare your answer with what Socrates says back at 426c.
Page 2 and 3:
The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guid
Page 4 and 5:
19 Luxuries in the Just City 20 The
Page 6 and 7:
Book IX 80 Lawless Desires 81 The R
Page 8 and 9:
Book I
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Back Is it possible to persuade a
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3 Treasure for Heaven See 329d-331b
Page 14 and 15:
5 The Craft of Justice See 332b-334
Page 16 and 17:
6 Benefiting Friends and Harming En
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7 The Advantage of the Stronger See
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8 The Good Shepherd See 339a-348b.
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9 The Blushing Argument See 348b-35
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10 Function, Virtue, and the Soul S
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Book II
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12 The Social Contract Theory of Ju
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14 The Challenge See 360e-362c. Soc
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15 The Teaching of Justice See 362c
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16 Glaucon’s Lover See 368a. Not
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18 Making the Most of Differences S
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20 The Good Soldier See 374a-376e.
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22 Gods Causing Bad Things See 377d
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23 Gods in Disguise or Speaking Fal
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24 Fear and Grief See 386a-388e. So
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Back Can a distinction be made bet
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27 Narrative Style and Personal Int
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28 The Emotional Power of Tune and
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29 Love of the Fine and Beautiful S
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sexually attractive the lovers may
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31 Doctors and Judges See 405a-410a
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32 Harmony in the Soul See 410a-412
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33 Rulers See 412b-414b. It has bee
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35 Private Property, Private Intere
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36 The City as a Whole See 419a-423
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37 Lawfulness Internalized, Legisla
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38 Wisdom in the City See 427d-429a
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40 Temperance in the City See 430d-
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Back families you may be fortunate
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pleasures of the body, with sensual
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43 The Spirited Part of the Soul Se
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Back sufficient to prove that Socra
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Back appetitive part can be educate
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Book V
Page 84 and 85: 47 The Natures of Men and Women See
Page 86 and 87: Back Consider school sports teams.
Page 88 and 89: Back
Page 90 and 91: 50 The Waging of War See 466c-471e.
Page 92 and 93: 51 Philosophers and Knowledge of th
Page 94 and 95: Back imagined on the other? If so,
Page 96 and 97: 52 The Virtues of the Philosopher S
Page 98 and 99: Back Is the kind of understanding
Page 100 and 101: Back Do the people who would make
Page 102 and 103: Back provided to ordinary students?
Page 104 and 105: 57 The Form of the Good See 504a-50
Page 106 and 107: 58 Every Soul Pursues the Good See
Page 108 and 109: 60 Degrees of Clarity (the Line) Se
Page 110 and 111: Book VII
Page 112 and 113: Back lead them out of the cave? Wh
Page 114 and 115: 63 The Craft of Education See 518b-
Page 116 and 117: 65 Numbers as Summoners See 521c-52
Page 118 and 119: 66 Further Mathematical Studies See
Page 120 and 121: 68 Selecting Students for Philosoph
Page 122 and 123: 70 Completing the Education of the
Page 124 and 125: Book VIII
Page 126 and 127: Back authority, or would it be harm
Page 128 and 129: (chivalry and bushido respectively)
Page 130 and 131: 75 The Oligarchic City See 550c-552
Page 132 and 133: 76 The Oligarchic Soul See 553a-555
Page 136 and 137: 78 The Democratic Soul See 558c-562
Page 138 and 139: 79 The Tyrannical City See 562a-569
Page 140 and 141: Book IX
Page 142 and 143: 81 The Right Way to Fall Asleep See
Page 144 and 145: Back Imagine a person who is obses
Page 146 and 147: Back What about the democratic cit
Page 148 and 149: 85 The Third Proof: True Pleasures
Page 150 and 151: Back Socrates likens the people wh
Page 152 and 153: 87 An Emblem of the Soul See 588b-5
Page 154 and 155: 88 Will the Just Person Take Part i
Page 156 and 157: 89 Return to Poetry See 595a. In Bo
Page 158 and 159: truth are highly entertaining. Cons
Page 160 and 161: 92 A Call to Poetry’s Defenders S
Page 162 and 163: 94 The Soul Without Barnacles See 6
Page 164 and 165: 96 Suffering, Philosophy, and the C
Page 166 and 167: INDEX Numbers are to the 96 section
Page 168 and 169: Definition, 4, 5, 6, 7, 17, 29, 38,
Page 170 and 171: 43, 74, 90, 96 Homosexuality, 16 Ho
Page 172 and 173: Painters and painting, 19, 29, 56,
Page 174 and 175: 79, 82, 83 Suffering, 6, 12, 14, 22
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The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guide to Plato’s Republic, 2016a

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