greek · wisdom

The Republic — Politeia

c. 375 BCE · Classical Greece (4th century BCE) · Athens, Greece

Book I — The Question of Justice

1I went down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon, the son of Ariston,

2that I might offer up my prayers to the goddess, and also to see in what manner they would celebrate the festival,

3which was a new thing.

4I was delighted with the procession of the inhabitants;

5but that of the Thracians was equally, if not more, beautiful.

6Then Polemarchus said to me: I perceive, Socrates, that you and your companion are already on your way to the city.

7Sir, he replied, do you see how many we are?

8Of course.

9And are you stronger than all these? for if not, you will have to remain where you are.

10May there not be the alternative, I said, that we may persuade you to let us go?

11But can you persuade us, if we refuse to listen to you? he said.

12Certainly not, replied Glaucon.

13Then we are not going to listen; of that you may be assured.

Book II — The Ring of Gyges

14They say that the just man is not so because he wants to be just, but because he lacks the power to be unjust.

15Let us grant to the just and unjust the power to do what they will,

16and follow both of them and see whither desire will lead them:

17then we shall discover that even the just man will be found pursuing the same course as the unjust, from the natural love of gain.

18According to the tradition, Gyges was a shepherd in the service of the king of Lydia;

19there was a great storm, and an earthquake made an opening in the earth at the place where he was feeding his flock.

20Amazed at the sight, he descended into the opening, where, among other marvels,

21he beheld a hollow brazen horse, having doors, at which he stooping and looking in saw a dead body of stature, as appeared to him, more than human,

22and having nothing on but a gold ring; this he took from the finger of the dead and reascended.

23The shepherds met together, according to custom, that they might send their monthly report about the flocks to the king;

24into their assembly he came having the ring on his finger.

25As he was sitting among them he chanced to turn the collet of the ring inside his hand,

26when instantly he became invisible to the rest of the company.

27Whereupon he made himself invited to be the messenger of the shepherds to the court;

28where as soon as he arrived he seduced the queen, and with her help conspired against the king and slew him,

29and took the kingdom.

30Suppose now that there were two such magic rings, and the just put on one of them, and the unjust the other;

31no man can be imagined to be of such an iron nature that he would stand fast in justice.

Book VI — The Divided Line

32Understand then, I said, that as I was saying, there are two things,

33the visible and the intelligible.

34Then take a line divided into two unequal parts,

35one to represent the visible order, the other the intelligible;

36and again divide each of them in the same ratio.

37The two divisions of the visible are the images and the things imaged.

38The two divisions of the intelligible are the mathematical objects and the eternal Forms.

39The four classes have four corresponding faculties in the soul:

40reason answering to the highest, understanding to the second,

41faith or conviction to the third, and perception of shadows to the last.

Book VII — The Allegory of the Cave

42And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:

43Behold! human beings living in an underground den,

44which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den;

45here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained

46so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads.

47Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance,

48and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way;

49and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way,

50like the screen which marionette players have in front of them,

51over which they show the puppets.

52I see.

53And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels,

54and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials,

55which appear over the wall?

56Some of them are talking, others silent.

57You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.

58Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows,

59or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?

60True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?

61And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?

62Yes, he said.

63And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?

64Very true.

65And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side,

66would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?

The Prisoner Freed

67And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error.

68At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round, and walk and look towards the light,

69he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him,

70and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows.

71And then imagine some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion,

72but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence,

73he has a clearer vision.

74And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent,

75and held fast until he is forced into the presence of the sun himself,

76is he not likely to be pained and irritated?

77When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled,

78and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.

79He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world.

80And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water,

81and then the objects themselves;

82then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven;

83and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?

84Last of all he will be able to see the sun,

85and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place,

86and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.

The Return to the Cave

87And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners,

88do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?

89Certainly, he would.

90And if they were in the habit of conferring honours among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together;

91and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future,

92do you think that he would care for such honours and glories, or envy the possessors of them?

93Would he not say with Homer, "Better to be the poor servant of a poor master," and to endure anything,

94rather than think as they do and live after their manner?

95And if he were to come back into the cave, would not his eyes be full of darkness?

96And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den,

97while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady,

98would he not provoke laughter?

99And they would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes;

100and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.

The Meaning of the Allegory

101This entire allegory, I said, you may now append to the previous argument;

102the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun,

103and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world.

104Whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all,

105and is seen only with an effort;

106and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right,

107parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world,

108and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual;

109and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.

notes

Plato's Republic (Politeia) is generally regarded as the most influential single work in the history of Western political philosophy. Composed around 375 BCE, it is a dialogue in ten books, presenting a discussion between Socrates and several interlocutors — chiefly Glaucon and Adeimantus, Plato's own brothers — on the nature of justice, both in the individual and in the state. The dialogue begins with a discussion of what justice is, then constructs an ideal city (Kallipolis) as a way of writing justice "large" enough to examine, and returns finally to the individual, where justice is defined as the right ordering of the three parts of the soul (reason, spirit, and appetite). The Allegory of the Cave (Book VII, presented in substantial excerpt above) is one of the most famous passages in all of philosophy. It figures our ordinary condition as prisoners watching shadows on a wall, and the philosopher's task as the painful ascent from illusion to reality — culminating in the vision of the Form of the Good, the ultimate source of intelligibility and being. The philosopher who has ascended is then obliged to return to the cave — where his transformed vision will make him ridiculous to those still bound to the shadows, and may cost him his life. Plato's teacher Socrates had been executed by the Athenian democracy in 399 BCE, and this passage cannot be read without hearing that background. Translation: Benjamin Jowett, "The Dialogues of Plato," Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1871. Public domain.

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