Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Socrates and the supremacy of virtue
- Chapter 2 Determining virtue in the here and now: Socrates in the Apology and Crito
- Chapter 3 The supremacy of virtue in the Gorgias
- Chapter 4 Trying (and failing) to determine what virtue is
- Chapter 5 Socrates and Thrasymachus: Republic 1
- Chapter 6 The benefits of injustice
- Chapter 7 Early education and non-philosophers in the Republic
- Chapter 8 Aiming at virtue and determining what it is
- Chapter 9 Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index locorum
- General index
Chapter 5 - Socrates and Thrasymachus: Republic 1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Socrates and the supremacy of virtue
- Chapter 2 Determining virtue in the here and now: Socrates in the Apology and Crito
- Chapter 3 The supremacy of virtue in the Gorgias
- Chapter 4 Trying (and failing) to determine what virtue is
- Chapter 5 Socrates and Thrasymachus: Republic 1
- Chapter 6 The benefits of injustice
- Chapter 7 Early education and non-philosophers in the Republic
- Chapter 8 Aiming at virtue and determining what it is
- Chapter 9 Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index locorum
- General index
Summary
It is difficult not to read almost all of Plato's dialogues either as preludes to the Republic, or as subsequent comments and reflections on it. I shall discuss aspects of the Republic on the assumption that one has read the dialogues we have previously discussed. As I have said, I do not assume that all of these must have been composed before the Republic; but I shall discuss how the positions presented in the Republic might usefully be understood in relation to views in those dialogues. As a device of convenience, I shall refer to the dialogues we have already discussed as “earlier,” without that committing me to a view about their relative date of composition. Perhaps, as some commentators argue, the Republic represents a new phase in Plato's philosophical thinking; perhaps, as others claim, many of its views are hinted at in other works which play a more propaedeutic role. With regard to the topics that I am focused on, I shall argue that the Republic elaborates views we have seen in the other dialogues in ways that are more detailed but nevertheless consistent with what we have found so far.
In this chapter I shall show that Plato has Socrates and the interlocutors in Book 1 move back and forth between debating the aiming principle SV and arguing about determining questions about just actions. Keeping the aiming/determining distinction in mind will help to explain and give order to the bewildering and rapid switching of interlocutors and, apparently, topics.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Aiming at Virtue in Plato , pp. 166 - 191Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008