REPUBLIC: SUMMARY of BOOK 4

Here, I first summarize Book 4 of Republic and then argue whether human justice and justice of the city are two parallel concepts.

Adeimantus points out the fact that even though the guardians own the city, they cannot derive anything good from it, because it is forbidden for the guardians to own any kind of private wealth. Socrates’ responds to this objection by stating that the main goal of the city is not to make only a group of people outstandingly happy, the goal is to make everyone happy. If they give the guardians that kind of happiness, the guardians would not be guardians anymore. Therefore the guardians and leaders need to be persuaded to not to desire any wealth. Socrates also claims that because poverty and richness makes a craftsman and his products worse, the city needs to be protected from them. Adeimantus objects to this by stating that a city that has no wealth cannot protect itself from its’ enemies. Socrates reminds him that the guardians of their city will be the best in the world because of their education and therefore will defeat their enemies easily. Also, he points out that because the guardians cannot possess any kind of wealth, the loot of the war would be left to their allies and therefore the city would have a lot of allies.

Socrates and Plato discussing

Socrates limits the boundaries of the city, because if the city gets too big the guardians would not be able to control it. The guardians also need to protect their education well, because with good education the offsprings of the city would be better than their predecessors. If the good education is preserved than there would be no need for legislation, because it would be pointless to dictate something to people who are good, they’ll know what is good for them. The same is true for a wretched city as well. If the people of the city are wretched, it would be pointless to legislate as people would just find ways to avoid the laws.

Socrates declares the city complete and starts to define the four virtues the city possesses which are wisdom, courage, moderation and justice. The first virtue Socrates finds in the city is wisdom. The city is wise not because the carpenters’ are doing their job well, but because the rulers are wise. The courageous part of the city is its’ auxiliary guardians, because they are the ones who will protect the city from the enemies. Moderation is present in everyone. The agreement between who will rule and who will be ruled is called moderation. When the leaders, who are rational, rule over others the state is harmonious.

Finally we come to the last virtue which is justice. Just like moderation, justice is spread out throughout the city. Justice according to Socrates is everyone doing what they are best at and not meddling with others work. This meddling won’t cause much harm to the city if the exchange is between two people in the same class. However, an exchange between classes would be the worst thing that can happen to a city. So, the producers would continue performing their crafts, the soldiers would protect the city from the enemies and the leaders would rule over the city.

According to Socrates, this division of classes in the state is present in humans as well. However, they are not called classes, but parts of the soul. To prove that human justice is similar to the justice of the city, he states that just like the three classes in the city there are three parts of the soul. These are the rational part, spirited part and appetitive part. The rational part seeks for the truth. The appetitive part is composed of desires such as sex, eating, money. The spirited part is composed of our emotions, such as anger, honor etc. These three parts correspond to the three classes in the city. The rational part is present in the guardians, the spirited part is most prominent in the auxiliary guardians and the appetitive part is most prominent in the producers.

For a person to be just these three parts should be in harmony. The rational part has to rule the spirited and appetitive part. The spirited part, with proper education from birth, can help the rational part in controlling the appetitive part. However, if a person cannot tame his spirited part, the spirited part would help the appetitive part in controlling the rational part. If the appetitive part rules the other parts than that person would be the slave of his appetites.

Socrates finishes by stating that a man is just in the same way as a city and this justice is every part doing what they are best at. With proper education the rational and spirited part would rule the appetitive part, which is the biggest part. A just person would not let any part of him to meddle with the other parts. If this harmony is destroyed than that person becomes unjust. Socrates continuous his inquiry by looking into what injustice is. This inquiry continues in the proceeding books.

PARALLEL CONCEPTS: HUMAN JUSTICE and JUSTICE of the CITY

The city is composed of individuals and is not something independent. The city needs humans to exist and therefore without people it would be pointless to talk about it. As a result in order to find the human justice, Socrates started his inquiry by examining how a just city would be, which he rightly did so. Just like Socrates claims, I think that human justice and justice of the city are two parallel concepts.

Since humans started living as communities, there always have been social classes. This is a part of the human nature, because starting with childhood, people live in different environments. Also people have inherent inequalities as well; for example some people are better endowed from birth than others. There is no point in denying that. Even though some philosophers have argued for a classless society, this is more of a utopia then reality. Because denying the hierarchical structure of the society is illogical, the best thing that can be done is amending it to its best. By formulating three classes for the society Socrates wants to achieve the best system for an ideal city. According to him the well-endowed from birth, when equipped with a good education, will be successful leaders (Plato, 104). If individuals are investigated, it is not too difficult to find out which part of a person is/should be praised the most. Common sense leads us to the rational part of the soul. Therefore, it is obvious that the leaders should possess the most praised part. If incompetent people are the leaders, namely people who are ruled by their spirited or appetitive part, the city would perish. Because, both the spirited and appetitive part of the soul are inclined to making mistakes and forming obsessions. A person controlled by his appetite would do any harm to anyone to satisfy his needs. For example, a person who has cravings for chocolate might kill someone even though it is irrational. A person controlled by his spirited part would do bad things with good intentions. For instance, despite being outnumbered a rash person would charge into the enemy, kill numerous enemy soldiers and die in the process. However, a rational person would have waited for the reinforcements to arrive and then strike the enemy. It is easy to see that without the rational part both people and the city would be unjust. The examples demonstrated how the people would perish. So what about the city? In the introduction, I stated that the city is composed of individuals and without individuals there is no point in talking about a city. In other words, it is the qualities of the human beings that define the city. Therefore, if the citizens are unjust, the city automatically becomes unjust. No other entity in the city can make a city just. Good buildings or obedient dogs do not make a city just. As a result justice of the city and human justice are two parallel concepts.