Plato's Vision of Society in 'The Republic'

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“The Republic” was written by a man using the pseudonym “Plato” in 360 B.C.E.; “his first name was Aristocles, son of Ariston of the deme Colytus” (Mark, 2009). Plato was a Greek Philosopher. “Plato can from an aristocratic family; they were well-connected politically in Athens” (Mark, 2009). Plato’s background gave him the foundation for “The Republic” additionally, Plato used his own family members as characters. According to Joshua Mark in his article “Plato” he states that “it seems Plato was expected to pursue a career in politics but Plato’s interests were in the arts and writing”. During the time that Plato lived Athens had experienced several wars; these wars and their outcomes along with the effects a corrupt politician had on an individual and on society as a whole played a role in how Plato saw the world.
“In the Republic” the reader gets a sense of what Plato felt a society should be and how it should …show more content…

Because of this the idea of what is shame, and pleasures are different for each of these people. Socrates and Glaucon are deciding what method to use to tell if a person is telling the truth and the importance of truth. “Socrates: Consider the matter this way: how should we judge things if we want to judge them well? Isn’t it by experience, knowledge, and argument? Or could someone have better criteria than these?”( Plato, 2012). Socrates has asked Glaucon where truth lies and how a person learns different varieties of truth. This means that to each person the meaning of truth and justice is different additionally the knowledge that we learn will be different with each person. The two men go on to look at how each type of man has learned truth, knowledge and his experiences. They find in the end that the philosopher is the one with all of these criteria and is the most well rounded of them

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