Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Preliminaries: reading Plato
- THE DIALOGUES
- Introduction: The simile of the cave in the Republic
- 1 The Apology: Socrates' defence, Plato's manifesto
- 2 The Phaedo: Socrates' defence continued
- 3 ‘Examining myself and others’, I: knowledge and soul in Charmides, First Alcibiades, Meno, Republic, Euthyphro, Phaedrus
- 4 The moral psychology of the Gorgias
- 5 ‘Examining myself and others’, II: soul, the excellences and the ‘longer road’ in the Republic
- Appendix to Chapter 5: Socrates vs Thrasymachus in Republic I
- Interlude: A schedule of the genuine dialogues
- 6 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, I: knowledge and belief in Book v
- 7 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, II: the limits of knowledge
- 8 The Theaetetus, and the preferred Socratic–Platonic account of knowledge
- 9 The form of the good and the good: the Republic in conversation with other (‘pre-Republic’) dialogues
- 10 Republic and Timaeus: the status of Timaeus' account of the physical universe
- 11 Plato on the art of writing and speaking (logoi): the Phaedrus
- Epilogue: What is Platonism?
- Bibliography
- Index
Appendix to Chapter 5: Socrates vs Thrasymachus in Republic I
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Preliminaries: reading Plato
- THE DIALOGUES
- Introduction: The simile of the cave in the Republic
- 1 The Apology: Socrates' defence, Plato's manifesto
- 2 The Phaedo: Socrates' defence continued
- 3 ‘Examining myself and others’, I: knowledge and soul in Charmides, First Alcibiades, Meno, Republic, Euthyphro, Phaedrus
- 4 The moral psychology of the Gorgias
- 5 ‘Examining myself and others’, II: soul, the excellences and the ‘longer road’ in the Republic
- Appendix to Chapter 5: Socrates vs Thrasymachus in Republic I
- Interlude: A schedule of the genuine dialogues
- 6 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, I: knowledge and belief in Book v
- 7 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, II: the limits of knowledge
- 8 The Theaetetus, and the preferred Socratic–Platonic account of knowledge
- 9 The form of the good and the good: the Republic in conversation with other (‘pre-Republic’) dialogues
- 10 Republic and Timaeus: the status of Timaeus' account of the physical universe
- 11 Plato on the art of writing and speaking (logoi): the Phaedrus
- Epilogue: What is Platonism?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Much of the last chapter has depended on Socrates' being serious when he claims, at the beginning of Republicii, that he was satisfied with what he said to Thrasymachus in the preceding book, even if Glaucon and Adimantus quite evidently are not (368b5–7). However so poorly have many of the arguments in the book been received by modern interpreters that it might even appear more charitable to suppose that the remark is just part of a characteristic episode of Socratic self-deprecation.Glaucon and Adimantus have just restated the case for injustice, and Socrates says he is in a quandary:
On the one hand I don't have the resources to come to the aid [of justice] – I think I'm not up to it, and for that I have as evidence the fact that you haven't accepted from me what I said to Thrasymachus and thought showed that justice was a better thing than injustice; on the other hand, there is no way that I can not come to her aid, for I'm afraid that it may even be impious to stand by when witnessing justice being abused and not come to her aid when one can still breathe and utter articulate sounds.
(ii, 368b4–c3)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing , pp. 186 - 197Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007