Talking Points for Plato, REPUBLIC, Book I

(Note: Plato’s title for the work is more like “On Doing the Right Thing.”)

	Words to the Wise:
Techne	A craft. A particular skill at a particular activity.
Arête	Excellence
Episteme	Specific, disciplined knowledge, such as that possessed by a craftsman.
Pleonektein	The act of thwart, undermining, sabotaging. To try to win by making your opponent worse, rather than by making yourself better.
Psyche	Mind + soul (these are not separate faculties for the Greeks), the essence of what a person is.
Ergon	Function – what we use something for, what it does best/better than anything else does it.
Eudemonia	Flourishing – a state of being, not just an emotional state.

The Arguments

Opening Prologue

Literary foreshadowing of

• the death of Socrates
• the arguments with Thrasymachus
• the Cave and Navigator

Cephalus:

• Reduction ad absurdum: old age does not cause misery
• Character and happiness
• Justice is good as a means to peace of mind

Socrates:

• Justice is not defined by “truth-telling” and “promise-keeping”
• Sidebar: can morality be completely codified?

Polemarchus:

• Interpretation of Simonides
• Meaning of “giving every man his due”
• Who is able to help friends/harm enemies?

Socrates:

• Helping friends/hurting enemies requires TECHNE in concrete situations
• Justice requires ARETE
• Several stages of the argument:

· Is the just man useful in peace time?

· Is justice only useful when we are inactive?

· What if one’s friends are evil and one’s enemies are good?

· Do we praise the just man for skill in skullduggery?

· Is there a sense in which a just man would never harm another man? Note: doctrine of “just wars”

Thrasymachus:

• Justice = interest of ruler + obedience to ruler

Socrates:

§ The two parts of the definition lead to real-life contradictions

Thrasymachus:

§ Ruler is not really a ruler when he makes a mistake

Socrates:

§ Self-interest is not a defining part of any craft

Sidebar: Polemarchus & Cleitophan

Thrasymachus:

• Shepards do not tend the herd for the sake of the sheep
• The unjust life is better than the just life, in terms of excellence, strength, and happiness

Socrates:

§ Reiterates: self-interest is not a defining part of any craft

The 3-part rebuttal of the superiority of injustice

1. Excellence – S & T agree the man of knowledge is the excellent man. So who most resembles the man of knowledge… the just or unjust man?

As regards PLEONEKTEIN	With his own kind?	With his opposite?
Just	No	Not if avoidable
Unjust	Yes	Yes
Craftsman	No	Not if avoidable
Charlatan	Yes	Yes

2. Justice is a source of strength in that it promotes cooperative effort. Injustice is a source of weakness in that it promotes internal strife. Absolute injustice would lead to anarchy.
3. Happiness (eudemonia) – flourishing – consists of establishing the conditions for a good life, and having the ability and disposition to take full advantage of those circumstances/
• The excellence of anything that has a function (ergon) lies in the proper discharge of its function.
• The “ergon” of the psyche (mind, soul) is complex – life, attention, deliberation.
• The specific excellence of the psyche is to live well – the good life – which = proper discharge of life, which = doing the right thing (justice) and thereby establishing the conditions and character for flourishing (cf: initial argument of Cephalus)

Socrates:

But if “justice” remains undefined, we still know nothing!