PLATO NOTES

BOOK I
Social Darwinism (pg. 21)- the person who rules has advantages.
Justice is up to the person in charge.
"Might Makes Right."
1/3 of all US businesses don't pay taxes.
Unjust= smarter, happier- Ignorance is bliss? (positive connotation of words)
Just= poor (martyrs?)
Spoils System- relatives want money
Pure Confirmation Bias
Sardonic
Syllogism- Musical people are prudent. Prudent people are good. Musical people are good.
Homer's gods kill you, play tricks on you- if "Divine Will."
Socrates believes in god, but does not necessarily belive in Homer's gods (they wage war!) etc.
Juvenal- description of Tyrant
vi:223
"What I want, I take. Let my will take the place of reasoned argument."
unjust men- get what they want through dishonesty. Therefore they are "unjust."
just city- just soul and virtues
(pg. 25): "What Thrasymachus now says is in my own opinion a far bigger thing- he asserts that the life of the unjust man is stronger than that of the just man."
Socrates doesn't agree with Thrasymachus.
(pg. 28): Socrates attempts to change his argument. "Surely the musical man is prudent and the unmusical man thoughtless."
(pg. 29): "The just man is like the wise and good, but the unjust man like the bad and unlearned." Socrates got Thrasymachus to admit that the just man is wise and the unjust man is bad.
"And the gods, too, my friend, are just?" (Socrates, 31)
References to: eyes- see; ears- hear (pg. 32)
Therefore, each thing has its own purpose.
Pursuing a virtue as it acts in pure form: "Is there then a virtue of eyes, too?" (32)
Vice stands in way of virtue.
Soul- exists, living, guides in decision making
-deliberate
-rule
-think
"And, further, what about living? Shall we not say that it is the work of a soul?" (33)
If you let your soul be guided by virtue, then vice is eliminated.
Virtuous soul pursues justice.
Vice soul pursues unjustice.
What happens if your virtue is to be a robber?
-That is not your soul's virtue.

BOOK II
Bad stories about gods must be eradicated, so children get the right ideas about the gods.
"Children are plastic-" (pliable)
-want kids to be virtuous for a just city
Guardians/Philosopher's Kings lead city- will be taught gymnastics for their bodies and music for their souls.
Gymnastics- Greek culture- civilized
"You include speeches in music, don't you?" I said. -speech=logos translated to mean: speech, thought, idea- "logic." (54)
Socrates is against Homer's tales because Homer portrays the gods as "war mongers."
You must represent how things are and not use imagination. Do not expose children to harsh images: "When a man in speech makes a bad representation of what gods and heroes are like, just as a painter who paints something that doesn't resemble the things whose likeness he wished to paint." (55)
"First," I said, "the man who told the biggest lie about the biggest things didn't tell a fine lie- how Uranus did what Hesoid says he did"- (Uranus ate children.) (55)
You can not teach Homer to kids because kids must not figure things out on own.
Eradicate people who tell bad tales.
"Of the bad things, some other causes must be sought and not the god" (57) ("gods are good")
You can't tell lies to children because they will grow up believing them.

BOOK III
Philosopher Kings- have gold inside them- led by wisdom
Auxilaries- defend city- Generals/soldiers
Farmers/Craftsmen- iron/bronze
"Proving himself to possess rhythm and harmony on all these occassions- such a man would certainly be most useful to himself and the city" (93).
Test the children- see if they are useful to himself and city.
You're either born with it or not.
The different classes of people must be separated into military camps.
Parents must be removed because they get in way of their children.
Societies should not mix.
(95): Marx- opposed to Utopian ideas
Communism (95-96): "The sustenance, as much as is needed by moderate and courageous men who are champions of war, they'll receive in fixed installments from the other citizens as a wage for their guarding, in such quantity that there will be no surplus for them in a year and no lack either."

BOOK IV
auxiliaries- led by courage
farmers/craftsmen- led by moderation
just city = just soul
The dye is fixed in them- (gold/silver)
"There are still two left that must be seen in the city, moderation and that for the sake of which we are making the whole search, justice" (108).
"Meddling among the classes, of which there are three, and exchange with one another is the greatest harm for the city and would most correctly be called extreme evil-doing" (113)
Classes can not mix.
The soul is divided in 3 ways. (121)
"Isn't it proper for the calculating part to rule, since it is wise and has forethought about all of the soul, and for the spirited part to be obedient to it and its ally?" (121)
"But in truth justice was, as it seems, something of this sort; however, not with respect to a man's minding his external business, but with respect to what is within, with respect to what truly concerns him and his own. He doesn't let each part in him mind other people's business or the three classes in the soul meddle with each other, but really sets his own house in good order and rules himself; he arranges himself, becomes his own friend, and harmonizes the three parts, exactly like three notes in a harmonic scale, lowest, highest, and middle" (123)

BOOK V
Role of women in society
"Now music and gymnastic were given to the men."
"Yes."
"Then these two arts, and what has to do with war, must be assigned to the women also, and they must be used in the same ways." (130)
Women can be guardians. They are included in Plato's Republic.
*Human emotion is led by desire- won't get too attached- no self-involvement, communal living, overcome desire= just city. (Buddhism)

BOOK VI
Guardians rule city- wisdom- calculate
Auxilaries- courage- irrational- function on everyone's survival
Farmers/Craftsmen- moderation- spirit
(pg. 119): 3 parts to a soul
-calculating- guardians
-irrational- auxilaries
-spirit- farmers/craftsmen

BOOK VII
How you educate the Guardians
"make an image of our nature in its education and want of education, likening it to a condition of the following kind. See human beings as though they were in an underground cavelike dwelling with its entrance, a long one, open to the light across the whole width of the cave. They are in it from childhood with their legs and necks in bonds so that they are fixed, seeing only in front of them, unable because of the bond to turn their heads all the way around. Their light is from a fire burning far above and behind them. Between the fire the prisoners there is a road above, along which see a wall, built like the partitions puppet-handlers set in front of the human beings and over which they show the puppets." (193)
The people underground laugh/mock the person who has gone above ground and discovered new life. The underground people are ignorant- (is ignorance bliss?) Therefore they are comfortable down in their underground layer. However, once you have knowledge you do not go back to being ignorant. You want to explore what is above and beyond your past realm of knowledge.
(pg. 193) The chained people only see the shadow of the wall
Once a guardian has gone on a certain path, he/she can not go back.