Platos Republic

SUMMARY OF PLATO’S REPUBLIC

Like Plato’s other works, this one is in the form of a dialogue. The narrator is Socrates himself, and the very first line that Plato puts into his mouth reveals something important about him: “I walked down to the Piraeus yesterday [emphasis added]...” What does the word “yesterday” tell us? That after what probably was an all-night conversation, the very next day Socrates is back in Athens, presumably at his hangout in the Agora, the large open-air market in that city.[1] In other words, he talked all night, walked back to Athens in the morning, and then with little or no sleep was back in his usual place, repeating from memory the equivalent of 250 pages of a dialogue that he had conducted the previous evening. Not only must he have been a prodigious talker, but his physical powers must have been considerable as well. Plato doesn’t hit the reader over the head with this information, but lets the reader infer it from the clues he provides.

Book I

Socrates gets playfully “kidnapped” on his way back to Athens from the port city of Piraeus, about five miles away, by some young men he is acquainted with and is persuaded to attend an all-night festival there. He will stay at the house of Cephalus, a retired manufacturer, and they will go out after dinner and watch the festival. What follows is the events of the evening and night. When they arrive at Cephalus’ home, the old man, seated comfortably, greets Socrates warmly, telling him how glad he is to see him and that he should come down to Piraeus more often. Then he starts telling him how much he is at peace in his old age and goes on for a little while in this self-satisfied manner while Socrates starts to pick holes in his reasoning. He soon realizes that Socrates is more than he bargained for and retires from the room, leaving the discussion to the young men, who are more capable of responding to Socrates’ close questioning and find it both enlightening and entertaining....