The Republic

by G.M.A. Grube

a god has given music and physical training to human beings not, except incidentally, for the body and the soul but for the spirited and wisdom-loving parts of the soul itself, in order that these might be in harmony with one another, each being stretched and relaxed to the appropriate degree.

Now, isn’t it obvious that the rulers must be older and the ruled younger? Yes, it is. And mustn’t the rulers also be the best of them? That, too.

By “the victims of theft” {90} I mean those who are persuaded to change their minds or those who forget, because time, in the latter case, and argument, in the former, takes away their opinions without their realizing it. Do you understand now? Yes. By “the compelled” I mean those whom pain or suffering causes to change their mind. I understand that, and you’re right. The “victims of magic,” I think you’d agree, are those who change their mind because they are under the spell of pleasure or fear. [c] It seems to me that everything that deceives does so by casting a spell.

R12303141700 Menticide.

what they believe to be best for the city.

R12303141702 Here it isn't clear what is best for the city, so I cannot see how one might agree.

First, none of them should possess any private property beyond what is wholly necessary. Second, none of them should have a house or storeroom that isn’t open for all to enter at will. Third, whatever sustenance moderate and courageous warrior-athletes require in order to have neither shortfall nor surplus in [e] a given year they’ll receive by taxation on the other citizens as a salary for their guardianship. Fourth, they’ll have common messes and live together like soldiers in a camp.

the eyes (which are the most beautiful part)

But if the guardians of our laws and city are merely believed to be guardians but are not, you surely see that they’ll destroy the city utterly, just as they alone have the opportunity to govern it well and make it happy.

poverty and wealth make a craftsman and his products worse.

in all likelihood our athletes will easily be able to fight twice or three times their own numbers in a war.

marriage, the having of wives, and the procreation of children must be governed as far as possible by the old proverb: Friends possess everything in common.

guardians must beware of changing to a new form of music, since it threatens the whole system.

our children’s games must from the very beginning be more law-abiding,

they always think they’ll find a way to put a stop to cheating on contracts and the other things I mentioned, not realizing that they’re really just cutting off a Hydra’s head.

The stronger self that does the controlling is the same as the weaker self that gets controlled, so that only one person is referred to in all such expressions.

exchange and meddling is injustice.

moderate, courageous, and wise

everything fine is difficult.

He struck his chest and spoke to his heart.

the appetitive part, which is the largest part in each person’s soul and is by nature most insatiable for money.

it is because of the spirited part, I suppose, that we call a single individual courageous, namely, when it preserves through pains and pleasures [c] the declarations of reason about what is to be feared and what isn’t.

And when he does anything, whether acquiring wealth, taking care of his body, engaging in politics, or in private contracts—in all of {120} these, he believes that the action is just and fine that preserves this inner harmony and helps achieve it, and calls it so, and regards as wisdom the knowledge that oversees such actions. And he believes that the action that destroys this harmony is unjust, and calls it so, and regards the belief that [444] oversees it as ignorance.

Virtue seems, then, to be a kind of health, fine condition, and well-being of the soul, while vice is disease, shameful condition, and weakness.

So even if someone can do whatever he wishes, except what will free him [b] from vice and injustice and make him acquire justice and virtue, how can it be worth living when his soul—the very thing by which he lives—is ruined and in turmoil?

One is the constitution we’ve been describing. And it has two names. If one outstanding man emerges among the rulers, it’s called a kingship; if more than one, it’s called an aristocracy.

the production of children—how they’ll be produced and, once born, how they’ll be brought up—and about the whole subject of having wives and children in common.

it’s a lesser crime to kill someone involuntarily than to mislead people about fine, good, and just institutions.

someone who kills involuntarily is free of guilt when he’s absolved by the injured party.

after the completion of the male drama, so to speak, we should then go through the female one

Do we think that the wives of our guardian watchdogs should guard what the males guard, hunt with them, and do everything else in common with them? Or should we keep the women at home, as incapable of doing this, since they must bear and rear the puppies, while the males work and have the entire care of the flock? Everything should be in common, except that the females are weaker [e] and the males stronger.

question us—whether in jest or in earnest

whether female human nature can share all the tasks of that of the male, or none of them, or some [453] {127} but not others, and to ask in which class the waging of war belongs?

“Can you deny that a woman is by nature very different from a man?” Of course not. “And isn’t it appropriate to assign different work to each in accordance with its nature?” Certainly. [c]

By god, it doesn’t seem to be an easy topic. It isn’t.

R12303211601 The issue of sex or gender has appraently been contentious for millennia, and unsurpisingly so.

With regard to what craft or way of life involved in the constitution of the city are the natures of men and women not the same but different?

Is there anything better for a city than having the best possible men and women as its citizens?

the beneficial is beautiful, while the harmful is ugly.

that the best men must have sex with the best women as frequently as possible, while the opposite is true of the most inferior men and women,

We’ll leave the number of marriages for the rulers to decide, but their aim [460] will be to keep the number of males as stable as they can, taking into account war, disease, and similar factors, so that the city will, as far as possible, become neither too big nor too small.

We said that the children’s parents should be in their prime. True. Do you share the view that a woman’s prime lasts about twenty years and a man’s about thirty? [e] Which years are those? A woman is to bear children for the city from the age of twenty to the age of forty, a man from the time that he passes his peak as a runner until he reaches fifty-five. At any rate, that’s the physical and mental prime for both. [461]

But the law will allow brothers and sisters to have sex with one another if the lottery works out that way and the Pythia13 approves.

Is there any greater evil we can mention for a city than that which tears it apart and makes it many instead of one? Or any greater good than that which binds it together and makes it one?

But our people, on the other hand, will think of the same things as their own, aim at the same goal, and, as far as possible, feel pleasure and pain in unison.

Shame will prevent him from laying a hand on his parents, and so will the fear that {140} the others would come to the aid of the victim, some as his sons, some as [b] his brothers, and some as his fathers.

First, enslavement. Do you think it is just for Greeks to enslave Greek cities, or, as far as they can, should they not even allow other cities to do so, and make a habit of sparing the Greek race, as a precaution against being enslaved by the barbarians? [c] It’s altogether and in every way best to spare the Greek race.

The name “civil war” applies to hostilities with one’s own, while “war” applies to hostilities with strangers.

in such circumstances Greece is sick and divided into factions

And won’t they quarrel like people who know that one day they’ll be reconciled?

whether it’s possible for this constitution to come into being and in what way it could be brought about.

Until philosophers rule as kings in cities or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophize, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many [d] natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils, Glaucon, nor, I think, will the human race.

the people we mean are fitted by nature both to engage in philosophy and to rule in a city, while the rest are naturally fitted to leave philosophy alone [c] and follow their leader.