The Republic

What is justice? And why should you choose it—when the unjust so often seem to flourish? Around 380 BC, Plato set down the most famous philosophical conversation ever written. The Republic is not a treatise. It is a drama: a single, sprawling, relentless night of argument in the Piraeus, the port of Athens. Socrates is the star. His sparring partners range from the gentle old Cephalus to the snarling sophist Thrasymachus, who storms in like a lion and declares that justice is nothing but "the advantage of the stronger." If Thrasymachus is right, then the smart life is the selfish life. The tyrant, bathed in wealth and fear, is happier than the just man who minds his own business. Socrates cannot let this stand. But to prove him wrong, he must do something astonishing. He must build a city from scratch. Kallipolis—"the beautiful city"—rises in speech. The Republic is the ur-text of Western political philosophy. It is also a profound investigation into the human soul. For Plato, the city is the soul writ large. To ask "How should we govern?" is to ask "How should I govern myself?" The just man is the man whose reason rules his spirit and appetite—not through tyranny, but through harmony. This edition presents Benjamin Jowett's classic, unabridged translation.