Socrates' Perception: Justice and Ideal City

In the Republic, by C.D.C. Reeve Socrates is trying to answer the question is justice greater than injustice. In order to provide an accurate answer, he must look at an ideal city. Socrates describes what would make an ideal city and how to make it just. Socrates believes that in order to have an ideal city, any stories that contain falsehood need to be thrown out because children are not capable of distinguishing the truth from the lie, can cause hatred, and ultimately lead to chaos in the city.
Based on the Harry Potter series, Socrates would say this book cannot be told in the city and that it needs to be banished. Harry Potter consists of a fiction book, that includes magic powers and enchanted castles. This book also contains many mythical

creatures that Socrates believes, “the young cannot distinguish what is allegorical from what is not. And the beliefs they absorb at that age are difficult to erase and tend to become unalterable” (Reeve 59). The Harry Potter Series puts fantasy characters into children’s imagination, that they will not be able to comprehend the truth from the lie. Socrates strongly believes that all falsehood stories should be banished completely or only told to a few people. He says “Only a few people should hear them people who are pledged to secrecy and have had to sacrifice something so great and scarce that the number of people who hear them is kept as small as possible” (Reeve 58). Socrates does not care if the false stories are told to children or adults, he just simply does not want them in his city and if it is, then to a minimum extent.
I believe the Harry Potter Series should be banished from the city overall, no expectations.

Although Harry Potter is a great series and is very interesting and captivating, it might catch the attention of young readers that do not fully able to grasp the idea of mythological creatures. This is dangerous because as the children grow up they will have a hard time distinguishing what is realistic and what is fictional. Children might grow up believing the forest contains demons that will take their soul, or that other society members can cast a spell on them. Although this might sound silly to an adult, children have a hard time facing reality and discovering the lies they have been told growing up. This is why I believe if children are told the truth from the beginning they will have more faith in their elders but also have a background knowledge based on facts and reality. This is important because children are the future generation so it is important to build a stable and secure foundation for them based on facts, then to build them on lies and fancy. The elders should also be banished from reading these books, because children will notice this and remember that the elders are getting special privileges than them, this will cause hatred and can lead to chaos overtime. This city would not be the ideal city if certain members are getting special favors. So overall I think this book should be banished in general to

everyone.
Determining the qualities that would ultimately make an ideal city is difficult and almost impossible. There always seems to be a gray area, although Socrates did not believe in that. Socrates tries to describe the characteristics and blueprints of how the city would look like, but it seems like the expectations are stretched out too much. It is difficult to plan every detail and know exactly how the city will look like.