HIST 3305 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Euripides
Plato’s Republic 9/8/2017
● Star: Socrates
○ Talks with a group of young men about justice and what justice is/means.
Book One: Different definitions of Justice.
● The group of young men ask Socrates of what Justice is and what is it like to be Just.
○ Socrates tells them to start an imaginary city and through that city, they will be
able to define justice this way opposed to finding justice through single
individuals.
○ The city is described as “simple”
○ Types of Jobs: people in the city are coming together to do jobs that are perfectly
suited for them.
● Struggle to find justice in the simple city. As a result, the group of men wanted to
develop the city more thus making the city more luxurious.
○ Types of people in the city included
○ The Warrior Class
■ (Needed to be gentle to the people in the city but fierce to those outside of
the city).
● Socrates created this myth that each person is born with a “mental” and which mental
you’re born in is what part of the city you belong to.
● Socrates says we are to prevent these guard dogs from becoming wolves.
○ In order to do so, a state of communism is placed on the guardians.
○ Socrates says we’re not looking to make people happy, but to want the city to be
happy as a whole.
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Document Summary
Talks with a group of young men about justice and what justice is/means. The group of young men ask socrates of what justice is and what is it like to be just. Socrates tells them to start an imaginary city and through that city, they will be able to define justice this way opposed to finding justice through single individuals. Types of jobs: people in the city are coming together to do jobs that are perfectly suited for them. Struggle to find justice in the simple city. As a result, the group of men wanted to develop the city more thus making the city more luxurious. Types of people in the city included. (needed to be gentle to the people in the city but fierce to those outside of the city). Socrates created this myth that each person is born with a mental and which mental you"re born in is what part of the city you belong to.
