CTI 302 — Republic Books II–III | Sep 7–11 Study Questions

37 concise cards covering every question in the Week of September 7 Canvas announcement: Wednesday Sep 9 (Republic II, 369a–383c) and Friday Sep 11 (III, 386a–392a and 412b–417b). Interpretive evaluations are marked as discussion points. Questions: https://utexas.instructure.com/courses/1458104/discussion_topics/5819708 . Texts: https://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.3.ii.html ; https://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.4.iii.html ; https://www.platonicfoundation.org/translation/republic/republic-book-3/ ; Aristotle comparison: https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html

Why does Socrates build a city in speech to study individual justice? (369a)

Justice may be easier to see on the larger scale of a city, like reading larger letters before smaller ones. Watching a city develop may also reveal how justice arises.

Is the city–individual analogy a good method?

Discussion point: it makes social roles and conflicts easier to examine, but Socrates must still show that justice has the same structure in a city and an individual. Size alone does not prove the analogy.

Why do cities originate, according to Socrates? (369b–c)

Individuals are not self-sufficient: they need food, shelter, clothing, and other goods. They gather as partners and exchange work because mutual assistance benefits them.

Why does Socrates introduce specialization? (370a–c)

People differ in natural aptitude, and work is done better when each person concentrates on one suitable task at the right time. Interdependent occupations make the city possible.

Is mutual need an adequate explanation of political community?

Discussion point: it explains cooperation and exchange well, but may understate kinship, friendship, shared moral judgments, honor, and the desire to govern. It is a starting model, not a demonstrated history.

How does Socrates' account of the city compare with Aristotle's Politics?

Both connect community with human needs and self-sufficiency. Aristotle traces households and villages into the polis: it begins for life but exists for living well. Humans are naturally political, and speech enables shared judgments of justice.

What is life like in the 'city of sows'? (372a–d)

People work at necessary trades, eat simple food, drink moderately, celebrate with family, and sing to the gods. They limit population to their resources and live peacefully and healthily without luxury.

Who calls the first city a city of sows, and how does Socrates describe it?

Glaucon uses the insulting label because he dislikes its plain comforts. Socrates calls it the true or healthy city; the luxurious city that follows is feverish.

Could people really live as the first city's inhabitants do?

Discussion point: modest cooperative living is plausible, but universal contentment and lasting peace are idealizations. Competition, ambition, and outside threats could disrupt it.

Why is justice hard for Adeimantus to locate in the first city? (371e–372a)

Interpretation: the account describes useful occupations and voluntary exchanges without displaying an obvious conflict or injustice to solve. Adeimantus can point to interactions but cannot yet identify justice precisely.

Where does Adeimantus suggest justice and injustice arise? Is this persuasive?

He tentatively places them in citizens' dealings with one another. Discussion point: exchange is a plausible setting for fairness or cheating, but naming the setting does not define justice.

Why does Glaucon object to the city of sows? (372d–e)

He wants the customary comforts of civilized life, including couches, tables, and richer food. Bare necessities do not satisfy his conception of a desirable human life.

How does Glaucon's objection fit his earlier speech defending injustice?

Interpretation: both reveal concern with getting more than bare necessities and with an attractive human life. His challenge to justice must address powerful desires, though he does not personally endorse injustice.

How does luxury lead to war and guardians? (373a–374a)

More desires require more occupations, resources, and land. The enlarged city encroaches on neighbors, producing war. Specialized soldiers are needed because warfare, too, requires training and full attention.

Why are guardians absent from the healthy city but needed later?

Its limited wants avoid the expansion that generates war in Socrates' model. Luxury creates conflict requiring defense. Discussion point: even a modest city could face an aggressive neighbor, a gap in the model.

What natural qualities must guardians have? (374e–376c)

Keen perception, speed, strength, courage, and spiritedness, combined with gentleness toward their own people and a love of learning. Their strength must protect citizens rather than threaten them.

Why does Socrates compare guardians to good dogs?

Dogs can be fierce toward strangers yet gentle toward familiar people. They illustrate how apparently opposite traits can coexist in one nature.

Why are dogs—and thus guardians—called philosophical? (376a–b)

The dog distinguishes friend from stranger by knowing or not knowing them. Socrates playfully treats this reliance on knowledge as love of learning, linking it to philosophy.

What is questionable about the dog–philosopher analogy?

Discussion point: recognizing familiar people is not the same as knowing who is good or just. The analogy suggests trainability and selective gentleness, but does not establish genuine philosophical judgment.

What main claims about the gods should citizens learn? (377e–383c)

The gods are good and cause only good; they do not engage in shameful wrongdoing or mutual warfare; they are perfect and do not change form; they are truthful and do not deceive through words, appearances, or dreams.

Why cannot a good god be responsible for evil? (379b–380c)

What is good benefits rather than harms. Evil therefore needs another cause. If divine punishment is portrayed, it must be just and beneficial to the person corrected, not gratuitous harm.

Why does Socrates say gods do not change? (380d–381c)

What is best is least vulnerable to outside alteration. A perfect god cannot improve and would not voluntarily become worse, so transformations are inappropriate portrayals.

Why does Socrates reject divine deception? (382a–383c)

Gods neither possess ignorance nor need the motives that can make human falsehood useful. They therefore do not mislead people through speech, disguises, or deceptive dreams.

Is Socrates' theology proposed as true or as educationally useful?

Both. He argues from divine goodness and perfection as truths, while selecting stories that cultivate courage, piety, and restraint. Discussion point: the educational goal may shape which theological arguments he accepts.

Why criticize Homer's frightening pictures of Hades? (386a–387c)

They teach fear of death, undermining courage in battle. Guardians should fear defeat and slavery more than death; education must support that resolve.

Why is Homer's portrayal of Achilles educationally dangerous? (387d–391c)

Achilles displays uncontrolled grief, rage, greed, cruelty, and disrespect toward gods. Revered heroes behaving badly give young guardians models and excuses for their own failures of self-control.

What alternative to these Homeric portrayals does Socrates want?

Stories of courageous, moderate heroes who endure loss and hardship with restraint, respect the gods, and resist corrupting pleasures and gifts. Admirable characters should model the guardians' virtues.

Why does Socrates criticize excessive laughter? (388e–389a)

Being overcome by laughter undermines self-command and tends toward a violent emotional reversal. Gods and worthy people should not be portrayed as losing control this way.

When may rulers tell lies? (389b–d)

Only for the city's benefit, in dealing with enemies or citizens, like physicians administering medicine. Private citizens may not claim the same license or deceive their rulers.

What are the two parts of the noble lie? (414b–415c)

Earthborn origin: citizens were formed beneath their homeland and are siblings. Metals: gold suits rulers, silver auxiliaries, and bronze or iron producers.

What is the purpose of the earthborn story?

To make citizens regard their land as their mother and one another as family, encouraging unity and defense of their homeland.

What is the purpose of the myth of metals?

To justify different civic roles by natural aptitude. Children may be promoted or demoted regardless of parents; unsuitable guardians supposedly doom the city.

What story reinforces the guardians' rejection of wealth? (416e–417a)

Their souls already contain divine gold and silver; acquiring ordinary precious metals would pollute it. This supports their ban on monetary wealth.

Who are the auxiliaries? (414b)

The military guardians who assist the selected rulers, defend the city, and enforce their decisions. Guardians in the strictest sense are the rulers themselves.

How are rulers chosen from the guardians? (412b–414a)

Candidates must be capable and consistently devoted to the city's good. Tests involving hardship, fear, pleasure, and deception reveal who preserves that commitment under pressure.

What private-property rules apply to the guardians? (416d–417b)

Only necessities; no closed private houses or stores, and no gold or silver. They share meals and housing, supported by citizens. These restrictions target guardians, not everyone.

Why restrict the guardians' property? (417a–b)

To prevent protectors becoming self-interested owners and oppressive masters. Private wealth could turn their military power against fellow citizens.