Intro -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- The Republic's Two Main Questions -- The Structure of the Republic -- Arguing about Justice -- What to Expect in this Book -- 1. Fathers and Sons: Book I -- Polemarchus Wants You to Wait (1.327a-328c) -- Cephalus: Justice is Paying Your Debts and Telling the Truth (1.328c-331d) -- Polemarchus: Justice is Benefiting Friends and Harming Enemies (1.331d-336a) -- Is Justice a Craft? (1.332c-334b) -- Speaking of Friends… (1.334c-335a) -- But Does the Just Person Harm Anyone? (1.335b-336a) -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 2. Taming the Beast: Socrates versus Thrasymachus, Book I -- Enter Thrasymachus: Justice Is Whatever Benefits the Powerful (1.336a-39b) -- Five Arguments Against Thrasymachus' Definition of Justice -- The Error Argument (1.338c-343a) -- The Craft Argument (1.341c-348b) -- The Outdoing Argument (1.348b-350d) -- The Common Purpose Argument (1.350d-352d) -- The Function Argument (1.352d-354c) -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 3. A Fresh Start: Book II -- Three Kinds of Goods (2.357a-358a) -- Glaucon's Three Thrasymachan Theses (2.358a-362c) -- Thrasymachan Thesis #1: Justice is Conventional, Not Natural (2.358e-359b) -- Thrasymachan Thesis #2: Those Who Act Justly Do So Unwillingly (2.359b-360d) -- Thrasymachan Thesis #3: The Unjust Person is Happier than the Just Person (2.360e-362c) -- Adeimantus Ups the Ante (2.362d-367e) -- Socrates' Plan: Investigate Personal Justice by Investigating Political Justice (2.367e-369a) -- A False Start: Socrates' Rustic Utopia (2.369b-373a) -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 4. Blueprints for a Platonic Utopia: Education and Culture, Books II and III -- Supervising the Storytellers: Musical and Poetic Content (2.376c-3.392c) -- Supervising the Storytellers: Musical and Poetic Style (3.392c-401d).

The Aesthetically Beautiful and the Morally Beautiful (3.401d-403c, 412b-e) -- Physical Education-and Food (3.403c-405a) -- Symptoms of Poorly Educated Cities: Too Many Lawyers and Doctors (3.405a-408c) -- Harmony between Musical and Physical Education (3.410a-412b) -- The Noble Falsehood (3.414b-417b) -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 5. Starting to Answer theFirst Question: The Political Virtues, Book IV -- Happiness: Parts and Wholes, Individuals and Communities (4.419a-421c) -- The Ideal City: Finishing Touches (4.421c-427d) -- The Political Virtues (4.427d-434d) -- Cardinal Virtues -- Wisdom (4.428a-429a) -- Courage (4.429a-430c) -- Moderation (4.430d-432b) -- Justice (4.432b-434d) -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 6. The Republic's First Question Answered at Last: Personal Justice, Book IV -- Platonic Psychology: The Divided Soul (4.434d-441c) -- The Personal Virtues (4.441c-444e) -- Personal Justice: Intrapersonal Being versus Interpersonal Doing (4.443c-444e) -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 7. Questions about the Ideal Polis: The Three Waves, Book V -- Literary Artistry as a Way of Doing Philosophy (5.449b-d) -- The Three Waves (5.450a-451c) -- The First Wave: Can Women Be Guardians? (5.451c-457c) -- Is Plato a Feminist? -- The Second Wave: Extending the Household to the Polis (5.457c-471b) -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 8. Surfing the Third Wave: Plato's Metaphysical Elevator, the Powers Argument, and the Infallibility of Knowledge, Book V -- Philosopher-Kings and Political Animals (5.471c-474c) -- Philosophers and Non-Philosophers -- Plato's Metaphysical Elevator -- Marrying Metaphysics and Epistemology: The Powers Argument (5.476d-480a) -- Problems with the Powers Argument -- Plato's Fallible Conception of Infallibility -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 9. The Philosopher's Virtues: Book VI.

Loving the Truth -- Intellectual Virtues and Character Virtues -- Virtues of Personal Style -- A Game of Checkers (6.487b-d) -- The Ship of State Sails the Third Wave (6.487e-490e) -- Tending the Beast (6.490e-495a) -- Shelter from the Storm (6.496a-497c) -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 10. Metaphors to Think by: The Sun and Divided Line Analogies, Book VI -- What the Good Is Not (6.505a-d) -- The Analogy of the Sun (6.506d-509d) -- The Divided Line (6.509e-511e) -- Hypotheses and First Principles in the Divided Line -- Dialectic and Understanding -- Socrates' Hypothetical Method -- Dialectic: It's No Game -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 11. The Allegory of the Cave: Book VII -- Stages in the Cave Allegory -- Trouble in Paradise: The Powers Argument Casts a Shadow on the Cave Allegory -- Going Back Down into the Cave (7.519b-520b) -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 12. The Decline and Fall of the Ideal City-Soul: Books VIII-IX -- The Aristocratic City and Soul (8.543a-547c) -- The Timocratic City and Soul (8.547c-550c) -- The Oligarchic City and Soul (8.550c-555b) -- The Democratic City and Soul (8.555b-562a) -- Interlude: Necessary versus Unnecessary Appetites -- Democracy, Continued -- The Tyrannical City and Soul (8.562a-9.576b) -- Interlude: Lawless versus Lawful Desires -- Tyranny, Continued -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 13. The Republic's Second Question Answered: Three and a Half Arguments that the Just Life is Happier, Book IX -- Argument #1: Comparing Characters (9.576b-580c) -- Argument #2: The Soul's Distinct Pleasures (9.580d-583a) -- Argument #3: The Metaphysics of Pleasure (9.583b-588a) -- Contrary versus Contradictory Opposites -- Optical and Hedonic Illusions -- The Metaphysical Elevator and the Metaphysics of Pleasure -- Argument #3½: 'an image of the soul in words' (9.588b-590e).

Paternalism (9.590d) -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- 14. Are We There Yet?: Tying up Loose Ends in Book X -- The 'Ancient Quarrel' between Poetry and Philosophy (10.595a-608b) -- The Metaphysical Argument: Art Merely Makes Copies of Copies, and Thus is not Worth Taking Seriously -- The Epistemological Argument: Artists Literally Do Not Know What They Are Talking and Painting about -- The Moral Argument: Art Corrupts Even the Best of Us -- A Four-Part Soul? -- The Immortality of the Soul (10.608c-614b) -- The Myth of Er (10.614a-21c) -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- Afterword -- Some Suggestions for Further Reading -- List of Illustrations -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 -- Chapter 4 -- Chapter 5 -- Chapter 6 -- Chapter 7 -- Chapter 8 -- Chapter 9 -- Chapter 10 -- Chapter 11 -- Chapter 12 -- Chapter 13 -- Chapter 14 -- Afterword -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Team.

This book is a lucid and accessible companion to Plato's Republic, throwing light upon the text's arguments and main themes, placing them in the wider context of the text's structure. In its illumination of the philosophical ideas underpinning the work, it provides readers with an understanding and appreciation of the complexity and literary artistry of Plato's Republic. McAleer not only unpacks the key overarching questions of the text - What is justice? And Is a just life happier than an unjust life? - but also highlights some fascinating, overlooked passages which contribute to our understanding of Plato's philosophical thought.Plato's 'Republic': An Introduction offers a rigorous and thought-provoking analysis of the text, helping readers navigate one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory. With its approachable tone and clear presentation, it constitutes a welcome contribution to the field, and will be an indispensable resource for philosophy students and teachers, as well as general readers new to, or returning to, the text.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2022. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.