Plato - The Republic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Plato - The Republic - stress Exampleas a real philosopher named Plato and was somewhat of a contemporary of Plato (Socrates died when Plato was but twenty-five), the ideas accredited to Socrates are generally thought to be Plato originals and Reeve acknowledges as much (Reeve 2004 P xi). So through his stimulate observations of the Republic Reeve puts forth an interesting argument that Plato felt strongly in the goodness of Kallipolis (in Hellenic the beautiful or noble city) and was very eager to broadcast his ideas through the argument/debate make for written in the Republic.In the introduction, Reeve points out that Platos main theme in Kallipolis is non the bylaws which govern the city. Instead, the speaker talks of the value of a social structure based entirely on virtue, achieved in ways non the least of which is the education of all people (Reeve 2004 P xix). This includes females, which is not a very favourable idea among his conversationalists. So almost from the fir st Plato realizes this vision of utopia (a term coined by Sir doubting Thomas Moore almost 1,900 years later) would never actually exist.In the Republic, Book 1 finds Socrates and his companion Glaucon returning from a religious festival only to find themselves literally forced to spend at least the shadow with a man named Polemarchus, his brothers and his aged father Cephalus. Wiling away the time the men get into a profoundly philosophical discussion concerning politics and money. As happens with the elderly, Cephalus is happy with the money he has made and expounds that at his age, having virtues (i.e. not cheating or lying) is far more important than the wealth he has accumulated (Reeve 2004 P 5). So the conversation naturally turns to virtue and two subjects brought up are paying ones debts and portion a friend with his enemy (your enemy is my enemy). Plato rejects these, not on the basis of not being and ideas, but rather that they are mostly hard to define, for each situa tion is different (in battle, at sea, etc.) and says he