Plato's Republic has long defied classification: it is a philosophical masterpiece; it is acute political theory; it is great literature. Although certain inconsistencies have been subsequently discovered, philosophical and otherwise, there can be no doubt that The Republic is a work of genius. It has as its central problem the nature of justice. In a word, what is justice? From this common origin, however, the book divides at a broader level. There is first of all the mundane, represented in the first books by the refutation of proverbial morality and traditional society. But the middle books belong almost exclusively to pure philosophy. In these Plato examines the figure of the philosopher, metaphysics, and epistemology, an extended investigation that culminates in the allegory of the vision, visibility, and the sun as symbol of the good, or justice. It not until the delineation of the famous "Myth of the Cave" in Book VII, however, that the two realms: material and ideal, polity and philosophy, historical State and ideal State, virtue and ethics truly come together. The image of the liberated prisoner forsaking the light, compelled whether by force or obligation?Plato would say duty?to rejoin his companions in the murky darkness of the cave, is perhaps the key to the underlying unity of The Republic. It is in the individual that the two realms meet. Plato's aim, then, was to realize social and political stability on a foundation of moral and spiritual absolutes by which every man may live.
The seed of The Republic was probably planted in the philosopher's early manhood in Athens. While still an aspiring politician, Plato was befriended by the elder Socrates and quickly became his informal pupil. In the aftermath of the Peloponnesian war, an oligarchic tyranny, called the "Thirty Tyrants," ruled Athens for eight months and attempted to enlist both Plato and Socrates. Plato never made up his mind, but Socrates was forced to openly refuse. Nonetheless, Socrates subsequently gained a reputation for anti-democratic beliefs, extremely dangerous under the radical democracy that had newly overthrown the Thirty. When, in 399, Plato witnessed the trial and execution of Socrates at the hands of the restored Athenian democracy, under charges of corrupting the youth, introducing new gods to the city, atheism, and unusual religious practices, his disillusionment was complete. Fearing for his own life, Plato left Athens to travel, abandoning his political career and a state he would no longer be able to serve.
