The dialectic of community in Plato’s Republic

Abstract

Some scholars maintain that there is no logical progression between the first three cities constructed in Plato's Republic. In this paper I show that they are wrong. On the view I defend, the dialectic of Plato's civic architecture is centred on an account of justice as geometrical equality. The first city expresses this account by assigning social roles on the basis of τέχνη. The second city disrupts the geometrical schema in order to accommodate the human desires for greatness and self-knowledge, with the third city re-establishing the geometrical pattern by means of poetic catharsis, a noble lie, and the placement of an armed camp.

THE NEED FOR GOVERNMENTAL INEFFICIENCY IN PLATO’S REPUBLIC

“…The importance of supply is made even more apparent once we note the degree to which insufficiency plays a role throughout the discussion of the first two cities (Futter 2017). First, as already has been made clear, the insufficiency of each of our individual autarkic abilities to supply our own needs is what motivates the formation of the city.…”

“…The city does not automatically transform into a city of luxury because consuming more basic goods is not equivalent to consuming luxury goods. 15 Moreover, simply consuming more basic goods would not satisfy Glaucon, who wants for citizens to have not simply greater quantities of necessary goods but rather goods of greater quality-the type of amenities that he and his contemporaries have come to expect (Burnyeat 1997;Futter 2017;White 1989).…”