44 pages • 1 hour read
The Republic
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Key Figures
Plato
Plato (427-347 BC) was an Athenian philosopher of the Classical period in ancient Greece and author of The Republic. A student of Socrates, Plato also founded the first academy in the western world, a forerunner to the modern university, in Athens. Its most famous member was Aristotle (384-322 BC), a student of Plato. How much of The Republic represents Socrates’ views and how much Plato’s is hard to determine because Socrates did not preserve his philosophy in written form. Nevertheless, Plato’s influence on western thought and philosophy has been huge. His writings were critical in the development and codification of Christianity and the early Christian church. He is also credited with founding western political philosophy through The Republic.
His other major works, all of which are in dialogue form and mostly have Socrates as the main character, include, Symposium (385 BC), Phaedrus (370 BC) and Theaetetus (369 BC).
Socrates
Socrates (470-399 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, teacher of Plato, and the central protagonist of The Republic. As he produced no written texts, our ideas about who he was, and what he thought or said, comes principally from Plato’s Socratic dialogues. Other Greeks such as his students Xenophon and Antisthenes, and playwright Aristophanes, also wrote about him.
In the western world he is perhaps best known for his founding role in moral philosophy and for embodying the philosophical ideals of wisdom and virtue. He is also known as the founder of the Socratic or elenctic method. This is a mode of philosophical enquiry based on cooperative dialogue and the posing of answers and responses.
His death is notorious. After being tried for impiety, he was obliged to commit suicide by drinking hemlock. Despite his legendary status and influence, not all philosophers have seen him as unambiguously positive. Most notably, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) criticises him in The Birth of Tragedy (1872) for overvaluing rationality and contributing to the demise of ancient Greek tragedy.
Homer
Homer (800-701 BC) is an ancient Greek poet, and author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. These are two epic poems that helped shape ancient Greek culture and literature. In The Republic, Homer is the focus of Socrates’ attacks on art in general and on poetry in particular. Socrates argues that Homeric poetry promotes immorality and undermines reason. This culminates in chapter thirteen in Homer (and virtually all art) being banned in Plato’s ideal community. Nevertheless, Homer is an important foil for Socrates throughout the text.
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