URETA, CINDY E.

AB POLSCI 1O NOV 2020

POLSCI 04 TTH 7:30-9:30 AM
Answer the following questions based on the handout on Plato.

1. Compare and contrast Plato’s The Republic and Apology.

Plato’s The Republic was all about his primary concept about politics, society and justice which
later on proceed with his notion about individual justice. On his book, Plato was able to discuss
political justice as harmony in a structured body of politics. While on Apology, was about the
defense speech of Socrates in a trial to which he was charged for a reason of corrupting the
minds of the youth in Athens and by not knowing the gods. In Apology, Socrates defends himself
and his reputation and exposes the ignorance of the people inside the court about their false
wisdom of Justice. Both Plato’s work was about the social injustice, and the ignorance and lack of
wisdom of the people about politics.

2. Why is Plato described as an extremist?

Plato was an extremist because of his extreme vision of Polis. Aside from that, what makes Plato
an extremist is because of his discussion which includes reflective insights about the nature of
reality and the capacity of a human mind to understand the higher truth and on how truth is
rational and virtuous to human affairs.

3. What are the definitions of justice of the following interlocutors? What is the response
of Socrates in each definition of justice?
a. Cephalus

Justice for Cephalus represents the claims of age, tradition, and the family. Justice for him
is all about supported by wealth and the authority that wealth confers makes him the
natural lead-off batter. Socrates response for this is through attacking the embodiment of
the conventional opinions of Cephalus supporting the city. Socrates then told Cephalus’s
reputation for justice is not merely a consequence of his great wealth. That the pious man
practices justice by sacrificing to the gods into the proposition that justice means paying
one’s debts and returning what is owed.

b. Thrasymachus

Justice for Thrasymachus is the interest of the stronger that justice consists in the art of
convincing people to obey rules that are really in the interests of the rulers. Justice is based
on a kind of elaborate deception. We obey the rules of justice because we fear the
consequences of injustice. The true man or real man would be the one with the courage to
URETA, CINDY E. AB POLSCI 1O NOV 2020
POLSCI 04 TTH 7:30-9:30 AM
act unjustly for his own interests. Socrates challenges Thrasymachus through a question
and that is, if justice is the interest of the stronger, doesn’t it require some kind of
knowledge to know what it is in our interest to do? Interests are not brute facts but require
reflection – this is what made Thrasymachus blushed because embarrassment and
realization.

c. Polemarchus

Polemarchus is concerned to defend the honor and safety of the polis. He accepts the view
of justice as giving to each what is owed, but interprets this to mean doing good to your
friends and harm to enemies. Justice is a devotion to the good of one’s own family, friends,
and citizens. Socrates began to dissolve the bonds of the familiar as he challenged
Polemarchus about the possibility of political life by questioning our ability to distinguish
friend from enemy.

4. Did all of them have an agreement of what justice is? Expound your answer.

No, because each of them have different perception and basis about how they define their justice.
For example, on Cephalus, he believes that justice is about wealth and power, on Thrasymachus,
the idea of justice for him is consists in the art of convincing people to obey rules that are really in
the interests of the rulers, and lastly on Polemarchus, he believes that justice as giving to each
what is owed, but interprets this to mean doing good to your friends and harm to enemies. Each
ideas contradicts with each other for each one of them have different backgrounds and their basis
for this argument is according from what they have experienced.

5. Describe Glaucon and Adeimantus.

Glaucon and Adeimantus are both young aristocrats. Glaucon is the superior between the two and
Socrates described him as “most courageous,” which means manliest, virile and “always been full
of wonder at the nature”. While Adeimantus described as a man with self-control and self-
guardianship. He believes that justice is a virtue for the weak, lame, and unadventurous, that
justice is presented as good because of the consequences that will attend it. The brothers’ desire
to hear justice praised for itself alone is expressive of their freedom from utilitarian or mercenary
motives.

6. What is the “city in speech”? What is its relationship with the soul?
URETA, CINDY E. AB POLSCI 1O NOV 2020
POLSCI 04 TTH 7:30-9:30 AM
The city in speech is an investigation about the nature of the justice on a larger scale, and its
relationship to soul is that it shares commonality such as participation between the human being

and the state. It is how the city in speech distinct from a city coming into its being. This explains
that City in speech is not the natural city.

7. What is the first stage of the “city in speech”?

The first stage was proposed by Adeimantus, a simple city which was also knows as the “city of
the utmost necessity” that expresses the persona of Adeimantus’s soul. This city is limited to a
certain basic needs of satisfaction and is a kind of decent simplicity that treats its subjects as pure
bodies or creatures of limited appetites. The simple city is more of a combination of household
which are designed for a purpose to secure existence.

8. What are the defining characteristics of poetry and music as part of the education in the
“city in speech”?

The defining characteristics of poetry and music as part of education are both theological and
political for these stories shape us for the rest of our lives and receives an earliest and most vivid
impressions of heroes and villains, gods and the afterlife. Theological, in Plato’s critique that
poetry is theological in a sense that gods are not worth the worship for it has unideal image.
Political, in a sense that heroes in poetry are ignorant and passionate who were blinded by anger
and their desire for punishment or retribution.

9. What is the purpose of education in the city?

The purpose of education in the city is more on like a business created by the founders of the city
that also aims a radical departure from Greek educational practices and beliefs.

10. What are the three elements of the soul?

The three elements of the soul are the appetite, spirit and reason. The appetite soul according to
Plato represents the desire of a person, the reason soul represents the rational part of the human
being and the spirit soul carries the desires out that the reason dictates. These souls illustrate the
forces at work of an individual and active principles in a human being.

11. How can passion be controlled?

URETA, CINDY E. AB POLSCI 1O NOV 2020
POLSCI 04 TTH 7:30-9:30 AM
According to Plato’s The Republic, passion can be only controlled if we submit it to the control of
reason. This only allows us to achieve a level of balance, self- control, and moderation.

12. What are the “three waves”? Describe each of them.

The three waves are the restriction of private property, the abolition of the family, the
establishment of the philosopher-king.

First wave is the equality between men and women. It is where Socrates insist having an equal
education between men and women and both can take political roles in a society. Second wave is
the marriage and procreation. There is a strict oversight of sexual contact between men and
women and “romantic love” does not exist among the members of the guardian class. Socrates
also included that sexual relations are strictly intended for the sake of reproduction, with unwanted
fetuses aborted. The third wave is creating a unified guardian class who are capable of protecting
and defending the city. The purpose of marriage is to create soldiers; it is where the children
taught about the art of war.

13. Why is the Platonic idea of justice concerns harmony?

Plato’s idea of justice is a part of a human virtue to which connects the man to the society. It is the
harmony of the soul of an individual to fulfill its function to which justice must not only be applied to
a person but also to our state. The idea of justice concerns harmony for it gives a continuous
connection between the state and the its people

14. What is the “cave” and the “sun”? What do these things represent?

The cave and the sun are the allegories of Plato. The cave is like a dungeon to which the
prisoners was chained. These prisoners were described as people who centered their
understanding on ideologies. The cave represents the imaginary world that also signifies human
condition of their ignorance, perception and opinions to the situation between the fallen and risen
states. While sun represents the true meaning of good. According to Plato’s analogy of the sun,
the Good gives light to enlighten our knowledge and so our minds can see what is the higher truth
about reality.
URETA, CINDY E. AB POLSCI 1O NOV 2020
POLSCI 04 TTH 7:30-9:30 AM