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The Republic
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Important Terms
Aporia -
Aporia is
the Greek term for the state of helplessness—the inability to proceed—that
ends all of Plato’s early dialogues. Through his pointed questioning,
Socrates succeeds in showing that his interlocutors have no appropriate
definition for the topic under consideration (be that topic piety,
love, courage, justice, or whatever else), but nor is he able to
supply one himself. In Book I of The Republic Socrates
brings his friends to a state of aporia on the topic of justice, but
then in the next nine books he manages to move beyond the aporia
and give an actual answer to the question at hand.
Appetite -
Appetite
is the largest aspect of our tripartite soul. It is the seat of
all our various desires for food, drink, sexual gratification, and
other such pleasures. It contains both necessary desires, which
should be indulged (such as the desire to eat enough to stay alive),
unnecessary desires, which should be limited (such as the desire
to eat a ten pound sirloin steak at every meal), and unlawful desires,
which should be suppressed at all costs (such as the desire to eat
one’s children). Though the appetite lusts after many things, Plato
dubs it “money-loving,” since money is required for
satisfying most of these desires. In a just man, the appetite is
strictly controlled by reason and reason’s henchman, spirit.
Auxiliary -
Plato
divides his just society into three classes: the producers, the
auxiliaries, and the guardians. The auxiliaries are the warriors,
responsible for defending the city from invaders, and for keeping
the peace at home. They must enforce the convictions of the guardians,
and ensure that the producers obey.
Belief -
Belief
is the second lowest grade of cognitive activity. The object of
belief is the visible realm rather than the intelligible realm.
A man in a state of belief does not have any access to the Forms,
but instead takes sensible particulars as the most real things.
Elenchus -
Elenchus is
the Greek term for Socrates’s method of questioning his interlocutors.
In an elenchus he attempts to show that their own
beliefs are contradictory, and thus to prove that they do not have knowledge
about some topic about which they thought they had knowledge.
Empirical -
When
something is an empirical question, that means that the question
can only be settled by going out into the world and investigating.
The question, “What percentage of the population of the United States
likes ice cream” is an example of an empirical question, which can
only be answered through empirical investigation. The question “What
is the square root of two,” on the other hand, is not an empirical
question. In order to answer this question all you have to do is think
about the mathematics involved; you do not have investigate evidence
in the world.
Epistemology -
The
branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge, belief, and thought.
Epistemological questions include: What is knowledge? How do
we form beliefs based on evidence? Can we
know anything?
Form -
According
to Plato’s metaphysical theory, there is an aspect of reality beyond
the one which we can see, an aspect of reality even more real than
the one we see. This aspect of reality, the intelligible realm,
is comprised of unchanging, eternal, absolute entities, which are
called “Forms.” These absolute entities—such as Goodness, Beauty,
Redness, Sourness, and so on—are the cause of all the objects we
experience around us in the visible realm. An apple is red and sweet,
for instance, because it participates in the Form of Redness and
the Form of Sweetness. A woman is beautiful because she participates
in the Form of Beauty. Only the Forms can be objects of knowledge (that
is, Forms are the only things we can know about).
Form of the Good -
Among the Forms, one stands out as most important.
This is the Form of the Good. Plato is unable to tell us exactly
what the Form of The Good is, but he does tell us that it is the
source of intelligibility and of our capacity to know, and also
that it is responsible for bringing all of the other Forms into existence.
He compares its role in the intelligible realm to the role of the
sun in the visible realm. The Form of the Good is the ultimate object
of knowledge; it is only once one grasps the Form of the Good that
one reaches the highest grade of cognitive activity, understanding. Therefore,
it is only after he grasps the Form of the Good that a philosopher-in-training
becomes a philosopher-king.
Guardian -
Plato
divides his just society into three classes: the producers, the
auxiliaries, and the guardians. The guardians are responsible for
ruling the city. They are chosen from among the ranks of the auxiliaries,
and are also known as philosopher-kings.
Hesiod -
Hesiod
was a famous Greek poet. His long poem Works and Days outlines
the traditional Greek conception of virtue and justice.
Imagination -
Imagination
is the lowest grade of cognitive activity. Someone in the state
of imagination takes mere images and shadows as the most real things.
Probably, this means that such a person derives his ideas about himself
and the world from products of art, such as poetry in Plato’s day
and movies and television in our own. See also Belief, Thought,
Understanding.
Instrumental reason -
Instrumental reason is reason used to attain some
end, by engaging in means-end analyses. These ends are dictated
by a part of the soul such as appetite or spirit, or even reason
itself.
Intelligible realm -
Plato divides all of existence up into two parts: the
visible realm and the intelligible realm. The intelligible realm
cannot be sensed, but only grasped with the intellect. It consists
of the Forms. Only the intelligible realm can be the object of knowledge.
Knowledge -
According
to Plato, knowledge can only pertain to eternal, unchanging truths.
I can know, for instance that two plus two equals four, because
this will also be the case. I cannot know, however, that Meno is beautiful.
For this reason, only the intelligible realm, the realm of the Forms
can be the object of knowledge. See also Opinion.
Lover of sights and sounds -
“Lovers of sights and sounds” is Socrates’s term
for the pseudo-intellectuals who claim to have expertise regarding
all that is beautiful, but who fail to recognize that there is such
a thing as the Form of the Beautiful, which causes all beauty in
the visible realm. Socrates is adamant that lovers of sights and
sounds be distinguished from philosophers, who grasp the Forms,
and thus have knowledge. Lovers of sights and sounds have no knowledge,
only opinion.
Metaphysics -
The
branch of philosophy concerned with asking what there is in the
world. The theory of Forms is a metaphysical theory, as is the theory
of the tripartite soul.
Opinion -
Since
only eternal, unchanging truths can be the objects of knowledge,
all other truths are relegated to opinion. Opinion is the highest
form of certainty that we can hope for when it comes to the visible
realm, the realm of sensible particulars.
Philosopher-king -
The philosopher-king is the ruler of the kallipolis.
Also called guardians, philosopher-kings are the only people who
can grasp the Forms, and thus the only people who can claim actual
knowledge. Since the philosopher-king yearns after truth above all
else, he is also the most just man.
Pleonexia -
A
Greek term meaning “the desire to have more,” pleonexia refers
to the yearning after money and power. In Book I, Thrasymachus presents
the popular view that justice is nothing more than an unnatural restraint
on our natural pleonexia.
Producers -
Plato
divides his just society into three classes: the producers, the
auxiliaries, and the guardians. The producing class is the largest
class of society; it is a catch-all group that includes all professions
other than warrior and ruler. Framers and craftsmen are producers,
as are merchants, doctors, artists, actors, lawyers, judges, and
so forth. In a just society, the producers have no share in ruling,
but merely obey what the rulers decree. They focus exclusively on producing
whatever it is that they are best suited to produce (whether that
be metal work, agriculture, shoes, or furniture).
Reason -
Reason
is one aspect of our tripartite soul. It lusts
after truth and is the source of all of our philosophic desires.
In the just man, the entire soul is ruled by reason, and strives
to fulfill reason’s desires. See also Appetite, Spirit.
Sensible particular -
Sensible particulars are the objects that we experience
all around us—trees, flowers, chairs—any physical objects. They
are “sensible” because we can sense them with our sight, smell,
hearing, taste, and touch; they are “particular,” because they are particular
items that undergo change over time, rather than universal, unchanging
ideas. According to Plato’s metaphysical picture, the visible realm
is made up of sensible particulars. According to his epistemological picture,
sensible particulars cannot be objects of knowledge but only of
opinion.
Sophist -
The
Sophists were teachers-for-hire who educated the wealthy men of
Athens in the fifth century B.C. Though they
were a diverse group with diverse opinions, they tended to share
a disregard for the notion of objective truth and knowledge. This
disregard extended to the notion of objective moral truth, which
means that they did not believe in such a things as “right” and “wrong.”
One of the guiding motivations in all of Plato’s work was to prove
the Sophists wrong: to show that there is such a thing as objective
truth, and that we can have knowledge of this objective truth.
Specialization -
The
principle of specialization states that every man must fulfill the
societal role to which nature best suits him, and should refrain
from engaging in any other business. Those naturally suited to farm
should farm, those naturally suited to heal should be doctors, those naturally
suited to fight should be warriors, those naturally suited to be
philosophers should rule, and so on. Plato believes that this simple
rule is the guiding principle of society, and the source of political
justice.
Spirit -
Spirit
is one aspect of our tripartite soul. It is the source of our honor-loving
and victory-loving desires. Spirit is responsible for our feelings
of anger and indignation. In a just soul, spirit acts as henchman
to reason, ensuring that appetite adheres to reason’s commands.
Thought -
Thought
is the second highest grade of cognitive activity. As with understanding,
the objects of thought are the Forms of the intelligible realm.
Unlike understanding, though, thought can only proceed
with the crutches of images and hypotheses (i.e. unproven assumptions).
See also Belief,
Imagination, Understanding.
Tripartite soul -
According to Plato, the human soul has three
parts corresponding to the three classes of society in
a just city. Individual justice consists in maintaining these three
parts in the correct power relationships, with reason ruling, spirit
aiding reason, and appetite obeying.
Understanding -
Understanding
is the highest grade of cognitive activity. Understanding involves
the use of pure, abstract reason, and does not rely on the crutches
of images and unproven assumptions. Understanding is only achieved
once the Form of the Good is grasped. See also Belief, Imagination,
Thought.
Visible realm -
Plato
divides existence up into two realms, the visible realm and the
intelligible realm. The visible realm can be grasped with our senses.
It is comprised of the world see around us—the world of sensible
particulars. The objects which comprise the visible realm are not
as real as those which comprise the intelligible realm; in addition,
they are not the proper objects of knowledge (i.e., we cannot “know”
anything about them), but of opinion.
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