Imagine, he states, a cave, where men are chained at night and genuinely believe that brand new shadows they pick for the wall was facts, until included in this escapes towards the sunshine and sees this new physical business
Immediately following a religious event, Socrates try greeting with the family out-of a wealthy seller entitled Cephalus . Here, Socrates joins a discussion having Cephalus, Polemarchus , Glaucon , Adeimantus , together with Sophist Thrasymachus in regards to the characteristics of fairness. Socrates soon demonstrates you to Cephalus and you will Polemarchus’ conception out-of fairness as the informing possible and you will expenses what is actually owed is actually insufficient, in which he simultaneously disproves Thrasymachus’s religion one to fairness is actually almost any try of all of the advantage to the fresh new healthier people or some one. However, Socrates cannot state what their own thought of justice is actually. Rather, the guy proposes to “create” a fantastic town that will inform you fairness to your a large measure. After they possess outlined an only urban area, Socrates thinks, they will be capable view justice during the an individual.
Socrates’ best town utilizes degree, specialization, and you may personal formations define household members, behavior, and support for the area. Different people will focus on a particular profession, an occupation that is picked to them from the area centered to their aptitudes and you will abilities as pupils. Education, specifically of the guardians who’ll end up being the guards otherwise troops together with rulers, is the key into success of the metropolis. Imitative literature where journalist brings brand new sounds of different characters, “imitating” person decisions, try taboo. Books need to echo merely a beneficial behavior. People that would be laborers or craftsmen have a tendency to form the latest “producer” class. The best of the fresh guardians are given unique degree to set up these to rule. The rest in the first gang of guardians will become the fresh fighters into urban area. Spouses and children of your guardians are held in common. The fresh rulers tend to head simple existence, forbidden to touch gold otherwise silver or to own property. Their everyday need could well be came across from the almost every other people out of the town with the intention that guardians normally signal instead of distraction.
He comes to an end having a study of the fresh new tyrant, appearing that the tyrant was none just nor happier
Socrates turns to your question of just who would be to rule the town. To get his declare that the new philosopher is the best leader Socrates demonstrates to you the heart includes three parts, this new intellectual, the fresh new appetitive and the spirit. About merely kid, each part of the heart performs the form, brought by cause, so that the appetites and heart is regulated. Similar to the mental part of the spirit is always to rule over others, the rational an element of the urban area citizens, the fresh new philosopher, is laws across the fighters and you may firms. This will want you to definitely philosophers become leaders, or kings feel philosophers. Socrates presents the new allegory of your own cavern . The latest freed prisoner afterwards efficiency and you will tries to teach the remainder concerning the nature off truth.
Brand new philosopher is best leader because he understands that the latest objects of your real globe is duplicates, imitations, of the ideal Variations in the world of Info. The brand new philosopher, due to the fact the guy understands the new Variations, enjoys greater knowledge of that which you. Therefore, the newest guardians must be experienced inside viewpoints, along with mathematics and you may logic. In the event the guardians is adult, the amount includes the analysis away from dialectic, the skill of debate. After that, much like the prisoner yields into the cavern, the brand new guardians initiate public service in preparation getting later on rule. Only the best of the brand new guardians might be philosopher-leaders. Socrates identifies four kinds of cities, as well as the four types of someone equivalent to the new towns and cities, conclude to the bad, the new tyrant.
Socrates ends up toward misconception of Er , a beneficial soldier just who dies, but is returned to lives and you may records to your after life. He sees souls solved toward those who was in fact unjust, whom need after that suffer, and those who was indeed just, whom spend afterlife inside the satisfaction. After the allotted day, souls can like yet another lives. Socrates argues the heart, because it can’t be missing by passing, or because of the evil, is actually largefriends immortal.