Republic
Plato's philosophical dialogue exploring justice, the ideal state, and the nature of the soul
The Meaning of Republic
The Republic, composed by Plato around 375 BCE, is framed as a conversation between Socrates and several interlocutors at the house of Cephalus in Piraeus. The dialogue begins with the question "What is justice?" and expands into a comprehensive vision of the ideal city-state. Socrates constructs a theoretical city governed by philosopher-kings — rulers trained in mathematics, dialectic, and the contemplation of the Form of the Good. Society is divided into three classes mirroring the three parts of the soul: rational rulers, spirited guardians, and productive artisans. The dialogue contains some of antiquity's most famous passages: the allegory of the cave, in which prisoners mistake shadows for reality; the allegory of the sun, comparing the Form of the Good to the source of all illumination; and the divided line, mapping the stages of knowledge from conjecture to pure understanding. Plato also controversially argues for censoring Homer and the poets from education, banishing mimetic art from the ideal state.
Parents
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Symbols
Fun Fact
Plato's allegory of the cave remains one of the most widely taught philosophical concepts in universities worldwide after nearly 2,400 years
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Dikē
💭 conceptreligion, ethics, law
Justice, right order, or the way things ought to be — both the divine personification of justice and the principle of cosmic and social rightness.
Neoplatonism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A late antique philosophical system teaching that all reality emanates from a transcendent, ineffable One
De Natura Deorum
💭 conceptLiterature
Cicero's philosophical dialogue examining Epicurean, Stoic, and Academic theories about the nature of the gods
Plato
💭 conceptPhilosophy, myth, forms
Athenian philosopher who both critiqued traditional myths and created powerful new ones in his dialogues
Symposium
💭 conceptPlato's dialogue on the nature of love
Plato's Symposium was a philosophical dialogue set at a drinking party where guests give speeches about Eros — including Aristophanes' myth that humans were once doubled beings split in two.
Stoicism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A Hellenistic school teaching virtue, rational self-control, and acceptance of fate as the path to flourishing
Aeschylus
💭 conceptTragedy, justice, divine law
Father of Greek tragedy who introduced the second actor and composed the Oresteia trilogy
Philosophy
💭 conceptLanguage and thought
An English word for the study of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, and ethics, derived from the Greek philosophia meaning love of wisdom
Antinomia
💭 conceptlaw, philosophy
A contradiction between two laws or principles — the tension when equally valid rules yield opposite conclusions in the same case.
Pythagoreanism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A philosophical and religious movement founded by Pythagoras centred on mathematics, harmony, and the soul
Epicureanism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A Hellenistic school teaching that pleasure through modesty, knowledge, and friendship is the highest good
Nous
💭 conceptPhilosophy and Mind
The Greek concept of pure intellect or mind, the highest faculty of the soul and the organizing principle of the cosmos.