Teaching Plato in Translation
by Susan Gorman, Boston University
Original text © 2004 Susan Gorman
The Republic
What is the point of Book 3?
In Book 3, we come to the nitty-gritty of the discussion of the just city. We explore the "guardians", those people who will become rulers of the just city. We begin to understand the hierarchy of the society. Importantly, we are given the means through which that hierarchy is established and preserved.
We were told in Book 2 that education in this just city must be a moral education. There are subjects which must be studied and those that must be ignored. In the class in which I taught these Platonic texts, I enjoyed reviewing the texts of other authors we had read and having the students figure out which texts would help them to become guardians of this idealized Republic and which texts would hurt them in terms of becoming guardians. Particularly interesting for us was the treatment of Homeric epic. In going over these other texts, we not only reviewed them (important in terms of exams or writing cohesive papers) but figured out criteria through which to judge art. Later books delve more deeply into the judgment of art, but I like to introduce it early on so that the students will be thinking about it.
The lifestyle of the guardians is examined at the end of Book 3. This life seems like a joyless existence, which is paradoxical considering the fact that we need guardians precisely because Socrates' interlocutors were unhappy with the life devoid of aesthetic pleasure that was first described. What are the trade-offs for power? What values are considered important for a ruler of this just city? The key idea of the Republic is justice. Is it just to have guardians? Is it just to require them to live communally? These questions are especially interesting to ask in light of contemporary government. When a bit later Plato elaborates upon the different types of government and the analogous soul types, democracy falls fairly low upon the list, just above tyranny. It is important not to fall in to the trap of judging harshly these guardians and their lives according to modern, democratic ideals. But, despite that, it is interesting to think about how, even though the values of justice and fairness, strong political leadership, and education have not changed, the methods for achieving them may have.
