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

37 Lawfulness Internalized, Legislation Minimized
See 423d-427c. Drawing their sketch of the good city to a close, Socrates
emphasizes the importance of maintaining the high educational ideals already
discussed and of guarding against lawlessness slipping in under the guise of
innovation. To this end, the rulers should also be concerned with the games
children play, “the silence appropriate for younger people in the presence of their
elders, the giving up of seats for them and standing up in their presence, the care
of parents, hairstyles, clothing, shoes, the general appearance of the body, and
everything of that sort.” Socrates takes these “seemingly insignificant
conventions” very seriously, and shows himself in this regard similar to
Confucius, the father of Chinese philosophy (roughly a contemporary of Socrates,
their births being within a hundred years of each other); both Socrates and
Confucius insist that the little details of life are morally significant, particularly for
young people learning to be good, who benefit from living in a way that has been
carefully and consistently ordered. But for all his concern about regulating
education, Socrates warns against passing laws regulating contracts, torts, taxes,
and things of that sort. He suggests that, in general, people rely too heavily on
legislation to solve social problems. Instead of becoming good themselves –
internally virtuous – people try to bring about goodness through laws and the
external compulsion that laws entail. It is like “sick people who, because they are
intemperate, are not willing to abandon their bad way of life,” but are always
seeking “some new drug that will make them healthy.” Education is the only true
cure for social problems. Anything else is “just cutting off a Hydra’s head.” With
respect to determining the proper religious practices for the city, Socrates admits
to having “no knowledge of these things,” and indicates that the god at Delphi,
Apollo, should be consulted.
Do the games children play affect their moral development? Do some
encourage crass materialism or discourage cooperation? Do some cultivate
desirable intellectual or emotional traits?
Does it perhaps not matter what children play but how they play? Consider