WEBVTT 00:02.060 --> 00:07.010 Professor Steven Smith: There is one person in here, 00:07.014 --> 00:11.634 I don't know who it is, and you will not know who it is 00:11.627 --> 00:16.667 yet, but there is one person in here for whom the reading of 00:16.668 --> 00:21.958 Plato's Republic will be the most important intellectual 00:21.964 --> 00:25.044 experience you have at Yale. 00:25.040 --> 00:28.090 00:28.090 --> 00:33.350 It is a book that one of you will go back to time and time 00:33.345 --> 00:37.305 again and it will stick with you forever. 00:37.310 --> 00:41.910 What I would like you to do is to remember this and four years 00:41.906 --> 00:45.746 from now, when most of you are ready to graduate, 00:45.750 --> 00:51.710 if that one person in here would email me and let me know 00:51.713 --> 00:53.633 who it is, okay? 00:53.630 --> 00:56.650 00:56.650 --> 00:59.480 Maybe it will be you. 00:59.480 --> 01:01.610 Maybe? Possibly. 01:01.610 --> 01:04.740 Or you. Okay. 01:04.739 --> 01:07.779 This is the book that started it all. 01:07.780 --> 01:10.880 The Apology, the Crito, 01:10.875 --> 01:15.345 these are warm-ups to the big theme, to the big book, 01:15.346 --> 01:17.406 the Republic. 01:17.409 --> 01:22.149 Every other book in this political science that has since 01:22.153 --> 01:25.463 been written, beginning with Aristotle's 01:25.456 --> 01:30.196 Politics and moving on to the present day is, 01:30.200 --> 01:35.690 in one way or another, an answer, a response to 01:35.688 --> 01:38.788 Plato's Republic. 01:38.790 --> 01:42.440 It started the whole thing. 01:42.440 --> 01:47.030 The first and most obvious thing to say about the 01:47.031 --> 01:51.241 Republic is that it is a long book. 01:51.239 --> 01:55.849 Not the longest book you will ever read, but long enough. 01:55.849 --> 01:58.789 In fact, in part, because of this, 01:58.791 --> 02:02.981 we are only reading approximately half the book, 02:02.980 --> 02:07.080 the first five books, to be more specific. 02:07.079 --> 02:13.179 The first five books that deal with and culminate in the best 02:13.176 --> 02:17.836 city, Plato's ideal city, what he calls Kallipolis, 02:17.843 --> 02:20.383 the just city, the beautiful city, 02:20.382 --> 02:22.692 ruled by philosopher-kings. 02:22.689 --> 02:27.569 The second half of the book turns in somewhat different, 02:27.565 --> 02:31.195 certainly equally important directions, 02:31.199 --> 02:34.909 but would take us much more time than the time we have 02:34.910 --> 02:36.590 allotted to deal with. 02:36.590 --> 02:38.400 So you will read that on your own. 02:38.400 --> 02:42.080 You can take another course, what have you. 02:42.080 --> 02:45.860 The Republic is a very perplexing book, 02:45.860 --> 02:47.540 you will find out. 02:47.539 --> 02:54.689 Its meaning will not be evident to you on a first reading. 02:54.690 --> 02:58.580 It may not be clear to you on a tenth reading, 02:58.578 --> 03:03.928 unless you approach it with the proper questions and the proper 03:03.934 --> 03:06.834 frame of mind. So let's start by asking a 03:06.832 --> 03:09.702 simple question. What is the Republic 03:09.703 --> 03:13.223 about? What does this book deal with? 03:13.220 --> 03:18.030 03:18.030 --> 03:23.420 This is a question that has perplexed and divided readers of 03:23.422 --> 03:26.532 Plato almost from the beginning. 03:26.530 --> 03:33.120 Is it a book about justice, as the subtitle of the book 03:33.117 --> 03:37.247 suggests? Is it a book about what we 03:37.251 --> 03:42.191 today might call moral psychology and the right 03:42.189 --> 03:48.119 ordering of the human soul, which is a prominent theme 03:48.119 --> 03:50.619 addressed in this work? 03:50.620 --> 03:55.600 Is it a book about the power of poetry and myth, 03:55.595 --> 04:01.945 what we would call the whole domain of culture to shape souls 04:01.948 --> 04:05.228 and to shape our societies? 04:05.229 --> 04:10.379 Or is it a book about metaphysics and the ultimate 04:10.380 --> 04:15.530 structure of being, as certainly many of the later 04:15.530 --> 04:19.840 books of the Republic suggest? 04:19.839 --> 04:23.419 The theory of the forms, the image of the divided line 04:23.422 --> 04:24.912 and so on and so on. 04:24.910 --> 04:31.030 Of course, it is about all of these things and several others 04:31.029 --> 04:34.229 as well. But at least at the beginning, 04:34.230 --> 04:38.300 when we approach the book, we should stay on its surface, 04:38.300 --> 04:41.280 not dig at least initially too deeply. 04:41.279 --> 04:46.829 As one of the great readers of Plato of the last century once 04:46.831 --> 04:51.921 said, "Only the surface of things reveals the essence of 04:51.919 --> 04:54.499 things." The surface of the 04:54.500 --> 04:58.340 Republic reveals that it is a dialogue. 04:58.340 --> 05:02.400 It is a conversation. 05:02.399 --> 05:06.409 We should approach the book, in other words, 05:06.407 --> 05:11.807 not as we might a treatise, but as we might approach a work 05:11.813 --> 05:14.333 of literature or drama. 05:14.329 --> 05:20.389 It is a work comparable in scope to other literary 05:20.394 --> 05:24.734 masterworks--Hamlet, Don Quixote, 05:24.725 --> 05:30.785 War and Peace, others you might think of. 05:30.790 --> 05:34.020 As a conversation, as a dialogue, 05:34.023 --> 05:38.373 it is something the author wants us to join, 05:38.368 --> 05:43.058 to take part in. We are invited to be not merely 05:43.062 --> 05:46.342 passive onlookers of this conversation, 05:46.337 --> 05:51.417 but active participants in that dialogue that takes place in 05:51.423 --> 05:55.823 this book over the course of a single evening. 05:55.820 --> 06:01.160 06:01.160 --> 06:05.880 Perhaps the best way to read this book is to read it aloud, 06:05.882 --> 06:09.872 as you might with a play, to yourself or with your 06:09.872 --> 06:10.852 friends. 06:10.850 --> 06:13.870 06:13.870 --> 06:16.470 Let's go a little further. 06:16.470 --> 06:22.230 The Republic is also a utopia, a word that Plato does 06:22.232 --> 06:27.902 not use, was not coined until many, many centuries later by 06:27.896 --> 06:32.226 Sir Thomas More. But Plato's book is a utopia. 06:32.230 --> 06:36.240 It is a kind of extreme. 06:36.240 --> 06:38.800 He presents an extreme vision of politics. 06:38.800 --> 06:41.800 He presents an extreme vision of the polis. 06:41.800 --> 06:45.660 The guiding thread of the book is the correspondence, 06:45.658 --> 06:50.038 and we will look at this in some length and you will discuss 06:50.036 --> 06:52.556 it in your sections, no doubt. 06:52.560 --> 06:56.800 The guiding thread of the book is the correspondence, 06:56.804 --> 07:01.874 the symmetry between the parts of the city and the parts of the 07:01.865 --> 07:04.715 soul. Discord within the city, 07:04.717 --> 07:09.127 just as discord within the soul, is regarded as the 07:09.129 --> 07:13.189 greatest evil. The aim of the Republic 07:13.188 --> 07:18.138 is to establish a harmonious city, based on a conception of 07:18.135 --> 07:20.615 justice that, so to speak, 07:20.618 --> 07:26.208 harmonizes the individual and society, how to achieve that. 07:26.209 --> 07:31.819 The best city would necessarily be one that seeks to produce the 07:31.823 --> 07:35.123 best or highest type of individual. 07:35.120 --> 07:39.260 Plato's famous answer to this is that this city--any 07:39.256 --> 07:42.416 city--will never be free of conflict, 07:42.420 --> 07:46.050 will never be free of factional strife until, 07:46.045 --> 07:50.245 in his famous formula, kings become philosophers and 07:50.247 --> 07:52.717 philosophers become kings. 07:52.720 --> 08:00.120 08:00.120 --> 08:04.400 The Republic asks us to consider seriously, 08:04.403 --> 08:08.953 what would a city look like ruled by philosophers? 08:08.950 --> 08:12.120 08:12.120 --> 08:15.360 In this respect, it would seem to be the sort of 08:15.361 --> 08:18.121 perfect bookend to the Apology. 08:18.120 --> 08:22.280 Remember, the Apology viewed the dangers posed to 08:22.281 --> 08:26.901 philosophy and the philosopher and the philosophical life from 08:26.896 --> 08:30.476 the city. The Republic asks us, 08:30.478 --> 08:35.668 what would a city be like if it were ruled by Socrates or 08:35.674 --> 08:37.534 someone like him? 08:37.529 --> 08:39.569 What would it be like for philosophers to rule? 08:39.570 --> 08:43.410 Such a city would require, so Socrates tells us throughout 08:43.411 --> 08:48.031 the opening books, the severe censorship of poetry 08:48.026 --> 08:51.926 and theology, the abolition of private 08:51.925 --> 08:56.855 property and the family, at least among the guardian 08:56.864 --> 09:00.434 class of the city, and the use of selected lies 09:00.431 --> 09:03.861 and myths, what would today probably be 09:03.863 --> 09:08.973 called ideology or propaganda, as tools of political rule. 09:08.970 --> 09:15.060 It would seem that far from utopia, the Republic 09:15.062 --> 09:21.162 represents a radical dystopia, a satire, in some sense, 09:21.155 --> 09:23.745 of the best polity. 09:23.750 --> 09:29.470 In fact, much of modern political science is directed 09:29.470 --> 09:32.220 against Plato's legacy. 09:32.220 --> 09:36.060 The modern state, as we have come to understand 09:36.064 --> 09:41.334 it, is based upon the separation of civil society from governing 09:41.329 --> 09:44.899 authority. The entire domain of what we 09:44.895 --> 09:48.655 call private life separated from the state. 09:48.659 --> 09:54.469 But Plato's Republic recognizes no such separation or 09:54.474 --> 09:58.814 no such independence for a private sphere. 09:58.809 --> 10:03.209 For this reason, Plato has often been cast as a 10:03.205 --> 10:08.265 kind of harbinger of the modern totalitarian state. 10:08.270 --> 10:11.290 10:11.289 --> 10:16.539 A famous professor at a distant university was said to have 10:16.535 --> 10:21.415 begun his lectures on the Republic by saying, 10:21.419 --> 10:23.579 "Now we will consider Plato, the fascist." 10:23.580 --> 10:27.030 10:27.029 --> 10:30.399 This was, in fact, the view popularized by one of 10:30.398 --> 10:34.398 the most influential books about Plato written in the last 10:34.397 --> 10:37.947 century, a book written by a Viennese 10:37.947 --> 10:43.457 émigré by the name of Karl Popper, who in the very early 10:43.459 --> 10:46.569 1950s, right at the height of the Cold 10:46.568 --> 10:51.038 War and of course the end of the conclusion of the Second World 10:51.044 --> 10:53.684 War, wrote a book called The Open 10:53.683 --> 10:55.683 Society and Its Enemies. 10:55.679 --> 11:01.219 He wanted to know what were the causes or who was responsible 11:01.224 --> 11:04.744 for the experiences of totalitarianism, 11:04.735 --> 11:09.535 both in Stalin's Russia and in Hitler's Germany. 11:09.539 --> 11:13.759 In the course of this inquiry, he concluded that not only 11:13.756 --> 11:18.346 Hegel and Marx were important in that particular genealogy, 11:18.350 --> 11:23.430 but this went back to Plato as well, Plato principally. 11:23.429 --> 11:30.459 Plato, who Popper accuses in a passionate, albeit not very well 11:30.459 --> 11:34.789 written book, accuses Plato of being the 11:34.791 --> 11:40.461 first to establish a kind of totalitarian dictatorship. 11:40.460 --> 11:45.920 Is that true? Plato's Republic is, 11:45.923 --> 11:52.243 we will discover as you read, a republic of a very special 11:52.243 --> 11:55.913 kind. It is not a regime like ours 11:55.910 --> 12:01.970 devoted to maximizing individual liberties, but it is one that 12:01.966 --> 12:05.736 puts the education of its citizens, 12:05.740 --> 12:09.760 the education of its members, as its highest duty. 12:09.760 --> 12:13.500 12:13.500 --> 12:18.150 The Republic, like the Greek polis, 12:18.147 --> 12:21.727 was a kind of tutelary association. 12:21.730 --> 12:25.420 Its principal good, its principal goal, 12:25.422 --> 12:30.472 was the education of citizens for positions of public 12:30.474 --> 12:35.434 leadership and high political responsibilities. 12:35.430 --> 12:38.550 12:38.549 --> 12:44.079 It is always worthwhile to remember that Plato was, 12:44.084 --> 12:46.634 above all, a teacher. 12:46.629 --> 12:52.129 He was the founder of the first university, the Academy, 12:52.129 --> 12:56.429 the Platonic Academy, where we will find out later 12:56.428 --> 13:00.138 Aristotle came to study, among many others--Aristotle 13:00.140 --> 13:02.210 being but the most famous. 13:02.210 --> 13:04.590 Plato was the founder of this school. 13:04.590 --> 13:08.300 This, in turn, spawned other philosophical 13:08.299 --> 13:12.279 schools throughout the Greek world and later, 13:12.280 --> 13:16.210 the Roman world. With the demise of Rome, 13:16.209 --> 13:20.799 in the early Christian centuries, these philosophical 13:20.801 --> 13:23.981 academies, these philosophical schools, 13:23.979 --> 13:27.239 were absorbed into the medieval monasteries. 13:27.240 --> 13:32.090 These, in turn, became the basis of the first 13:32.092 --> 13:36.942 European universities in places like Bologna, 13:36.944 --> 13:41.044 Paris, Oxford. These were, in turn, 13:41.038 --> 13:47.258 later transplanted to the New World and established in towns 13:47.260 --> 13:51.900 like Cambridge and, of course, New Haven. 13:51.899 --> 13:57.819 We can say today that this university is a direct ancestor 13:57.821 --> 14:02.601 of the platonic republic of Plato's Academy. 14:02.600 --> 14:06.410 We are all here the heirs of Plato. 14:06.410 --> 14:11.590 Think of that. Without Plato, no Yale. 14:11.590 --> 14:13.750 We would not be here today. 14:13.750 --> 14:17.260 14:17.260 --> 14:19.490 I think that is a fact. 14:19.490 --> 14:25.740 14:25.740 --> 14:26.700 Just ponder that for a moment. 14:26.700 --> 14:32.660 14:32.659 --> 14:36.059 In fact, let me even say a little more about this. 14:36.059 --> 14:40.129 The institutional and educational requirements of 14:40.125 --> 14:45.205 Plato's Republic share many features with a place like 14:45.207 --> 14:47.127 Yale. For example, 14:47.129 --> 14:51.569 in both the Platonic Kallipolis, the just city, 14:51.574 --> 14:56.684 as well as this place, men and women--men and 14:56.681 --> 15:03.411 women--are selected at a relatively early age because of 15:03.408 --> 15:09.428 their capacities for leadership, for courage, 15:09.431 --> 15:15.381 for self-discipline, and responsibility. 15:15.379 --> 15:23.509 They spend several years living together, eating together in 15:23.505 --> 15:28.975 common mess halls, exercising together, 15:28.980 --> 15:35.100 and studying together, of course, far from the 15:35.100 --> 15:39.180 oversight of their parents. 15:39.179 --> 15:45.739 The best of them are winnowed out to pursue further study and 15:45.738 --> 15:51.308 eventually assume positions of public leadership and 15:51.313 --> 15:55.063 responsibility. Throughout all of this, 15:55.059 --> 15:59.409 they are subjected to a course of rigorous study and physical 15:59.414 --> 16:03.994 training that will lead them to adopt prominent positions in the 16:03.987 --> 16:07.687 military and other branches of public service. 16:07.690 --> 16:11.850 Does this sound at all familiar to you? 16:11.850 --> 16:16.270 It should. Let me put it another way. 16:16.269 --> 16:20.509 If Plato is a fascist, what does that make you? 16:20.510 --> 16:26.510 16:26.509 --> 16:29.979 Plato, of course, is an extremist. 16:29.980 --> 16:33.720 He pushes his ideas to their most radical conclusions. 16:33.720 --> 16:37.180 That's what it is to be a philosopher. 16:37.179 --> 16:40.399 But he is also defining a kind of school. 16:40.399 --> 16:44.419 He regards the Politea or the Republic, 16:44.423 --> 16:48.453 because that is the original Greek title of the book, 16:48.446 --> 16:50.686 Politea or regime. 16:50.690 --> 16:55.450 He regards the politea as a school whose chief goal is 16:55.454 --> 16:59.984 preparation for guidance and leadership of a community. 16:59.980 --> 17:04.130 If you don't believe me about this, maybe you will consider 17:04.130 --> 17:07.780 the words of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the great 17:07.779 --> 17:10.569 readers of Plato's Republic. 17:10.569 --> 17:12.939 Rousseau wrote in his Emile, 17:12.935 --> 17:16.335 "To get a good idea of public education," he says, 17:16.344 --> 17:18.714 "read Plato's Republic. 17:18.710 --> 17:22.280 It is not a political treatise, as those who merely judge books 17:22.276 --> 17:25.466 by their title think, but it is the finest, 17:25.468 --> 17:29.738 most beautiful work on education ever written." 17:29.740 --> 17:35.580 Rousseau. So, there we go. 17:35.580 --> 17:39.290 17:39.289 --> 17:46.409 Let's now peek into the book itself. 17:46.410 --> 17:51.050 Just peek. We won't go too far. 17:51.050 --> 17:51.900 Let's start with the first line. 17:51.900 --> 17:54.940 17:54.940 --> 17:58.050 Who remembers what the first line is? 17:58.050 --> 18:00.920 Oh, come on. You should know this. 18:00.920 --> 18:02.350 You're looking at the book. 18:02.350 --> 18:06.290 You're cheating. "I went down to the Piraeus." 18:06.290 --> 18:08.470 I went down to the Piraeus. 18:08.470 --> 18:12.110 Why does Plato begin with this line? 18:12.110 --> 18:13.500 There's a story that I heard. 18:13.500 --> 18:17.270 I'm not sure if it's altogether true, but it's a good story, 18:17.268 --> 18:20.528 at least, about the famous German philosopher Martin 18:20.525 --> 18:23.125 Heidegger, who said that on his first 18:23.125 --> 18:27.385 teaching of the Republic, he went through the whole book, 18:27.390 --> 18:33.770 taught the whole book in one seminar, one semester. 18:33.769 --> 18:37.329 The last time he taught it, the final time he taught it, 18:37.327 --> 18:41.077 he never got beyond the first sentence, "I went down to the 18:41.079 --> 18:42.459 Piraeus." What does it mean? 18:42.460 --> 18:45.380 Why does he begin with this? 18:45.380 --> 18:47.270 "I went down," a going down. 18:47.269 --> 18:50.289 The Greek word for this is catabasis. 18:50.290 --> 18:53.630 "I had made a descent." 18:53.630 --> 18:56.640 There is a book by a famous contemporary to Plato. 18:56.640 --> 19:00.110 It's a man named Xenophon, who wrote a book called the 19:00.111 --> 19:03.481 Anabasis. The anabasis means a 19:03.478 --> 19:05.178 going up, an ascent. 19:05.180 --> 19:09.670 But Plato begins this dialogue with this stigma. 19:09.670 --> 19:14.910 "I went down." The descent to the Piraeus. 19:14.910 --> 19:20.240 It is clearly modeled on Odysseus' descent to Hades in 19:20.238 --> 19:22.348 the Odyssey. 19:22.349 --> 19:27.219 In fact, the work is a kind of philosophical odyssey that both 19:27.222 --> 19:31.112 imitates Homer, but also anticipates other 19:31.112 --> 19:36.182 great odysseys of the human mind, works by those like 19:36.177 --> 19:38.317 Cervantes or Joyce. 19:38.319 --> 19:40.749 The book is full, you will see, 19:40.746 --> 19:43.816 of a number of descents and ascents. 19:43.819 --> 19:48.139 The most famous climb upward, although we will not actually 19:48.144 --> 19:52.594 read these parts for this class, concerns the climb to the 19:52.594 --> 19:55.964 divided line, the famous image of the divided 19:55.964 --> 19:59.704 line in Book VI, and the ascent to the world of 19:59.703 --> 20:01.533 the imperishable forms. 20:01.529 --> 20:04.759 Then, in the last book of the Republic, 20:04.757 --> 20:07.977 Book X, there is, once again, a descent to the 20:07.984 --> 20:10.714 underworld, to the world of Hades. 20:10.710 --> 20:14.070 The work is not, in a sense, written simply as a 20:14.073 --> 20:17.083 sort of timeless philosophical treatise, 20:17.079 --> 20:23.019 but as a dramatic dialogue with a setting, a cast of characters 20:23.018 --> 20:26.848 and a firm location in time and place. 20:26.849 --> 20:32.239 Let's say a little more about that time and place already 20:32.238 --> 20:37.818 indicated in the sentence, "I went down to the Piraeus." 20:37.819 --> 20:44.059 Plato was born in 427, which is four years after the 20:44.057 --> 20:48.947 commencement of the Peloponnesian War. 20:48.950 --> 20:54.370 He was a young man of 23 when the democracy in Athens was 20:54.366 --> 20:57.566 defeated. He was only 28 when the 20:57.569 --> 21:02.219 restored democracy executed his friend and teacher, 21:02.219 --> 21:04.079 Socrates, in 399. 21:04.080 --> 21:08.280 21:08.279 --> 21:11.939 Almost immediately after the trial of Socrates, 21:11.944 --> 21:16.884 Plato left Athens and traveled extensively throughout the Greek 21:16.883 --> 21:19.073 world. Upon his return, 21:19.070 --> 21:24.110 he established this school at Athens he called the Academy, 21:24.109 --> 21:26.889 for the training of philosophers, 21:26.889 --> 21:29.669 statesmen, and legislators. 21:29.670 --> 21:33.600 Plato lived a long time. 21:33.600 --> 21:35.850 He lived until the age of 80. 21:35.849 --> 21:40.629 Except for two expeditions to Sicily, where he went at the 21:40.630 --> 21:45.660 request of Dionysius to help try to establish a philosophical 21:45.663 --> 21:51.343 kingship in Syracuse, he remained in Athens teaching 21:51.339 --> 21:56.079 and writing. The Republic belongs to 21:56.079 --> 22:01.819 that period of Plato's work after his return to Athens, 22:01.819 --> 22:05.539 after the execution of Socrates. 22:05.539 --> 22:09.639 The dominant feature of Plato's political theory, 22:09.639 --> 22:12.969 David Grene, a great reader of Plato, 22:12.970 --> 22:18.450 has said is "the root and branch character of the change 22:18.447 --> 22:22.627 it advocates and existing institutions." 22:22.630 --> 22:26.460 Plato's desire for a kind of radical makeover, 22:26.457 --> 22:31.557 of Athenian and Greek political institutions and cultures, 22:31.559 --> 22:39.329 grew out of his experience of political defeat and despair. 22:39.329 --> 22:43.039 The utopianism of the book is, in many ways, 22:43.040 --> 22:48.300 the reverse side of the sense of profound disillusionment that 22:48.304 --> 22:54.004 he felt at the actual experience of the Athenian polis. 22:54.000 --> 22:59.770 This was not only true of his experience at home, 22:59.765 --> 23:06.365 but of his failed efforts to turn Dionysius' kingship in 23:06.372 --> 23:13.462 Sicily into a successful example of philosophical rule. 23:13.460 --> 23:18.340 In fact, we have--and I want to read to you in just a moment--a 23:18.341 --> 23:22.911 lengthy transcript of Plato's own account of why he came to 23:22.907 --> 23:25.267 write the Republic. 23:25.269 --> 23:27.489 One thing, of course, you note in the 23:27.491 --> 23:29.961 Republic, is that Plato is nowhere 23:29.959 --> 23:32.529 present. He is not a participant in his 23:32.534 --> 23:34.614 own dialogue. He is the author, 23:34.612 --> 23:36.412 but not the participant. 23:36.410 --> 23:40.160 We don't know precisely what Plato thought, 23:40.159 --> 23:43.729 but we are helped, at least, by a kind of 23:43.729 --> 23:49.799 intellectual autobiography that he wrote and that we still have, 23:49.799 --> 23:55.039 in what is conventionally referred to as The Seventh 23:55.044 --> 23:58.244 Letter. Plato wrote a series of letters 23:58.243 --> 24:01.013 that we have. People have argued over the 24:01.005 --> 24:04.215 authenticity of them, although I think by now it is 24:04.219 --> 24:06.339 established that they are his. 24:06.339 --> 24:10.139 In the most famous of these letters, the lengthy seventh 24:10.135 --> 24:11.925 one, he gives us, again, 24:11.930 --> 24:15.930 something of an autobiography and tells us a little bit about 24:15.930 --> 24:18.130 why he came to write this book. 24:18.130 --> 24:22.280 Isn't this amazing that 2,000-2,500 years ago, 24:22.279 --> 24:27.719 we still have the letters of the man who wrote this book? 24:27.720 --> 24:31.970 Let me read to you what Plato says about how he came to write 24:31.970 --> 24:34.800 this book. "When I was a young man," he 24:34.803 --> 24:37.993 said--and this is written as he is very old. 24:37.990 --> 24:41.500 "When I was a young man, I felt as yet many young men 24:41.502 --> 24:44.032 do. I felt at the very moment I 24:44.032 --> 24:48.582 attained my majority I should engage in public affairs. 24:48.579 --> 24:54.019 And there came my way an opportunity that I want to tell 24:54.022 --> 24:57.022 you about. The democratic constitution, 24:57.024 --> 25:00.334 then loudly decried by many people, was abolished. 25:00.329 --> 25:04.019 And the leaders of the revolution set themselves up as 25:04.019 --> 25:07.429 a government of 30 men with supreme authority." 25:07.430 --> 25:12.740 He's referring to the Tyranny of the Thirty that existed after 25:12.736 --> 25:14.646 the Athenian defeat. 25:14.650 --> 25:18.850 "Some of these men , you must understand, 25:18.845 --> 25:23.665 were relatives of mine and well known to me. 25:23.670 --> 25:27.040 And what is more, they actually invited me at 25:27.037 --> 25:30.787 once to join them, as though politics and I were a 25:30.788 --> 25:34.078 fit match. I was very young then and it is 25:34.080 --> 25:36.730 not surprising that I felt as I did. 25:36.730 --> 25:40.510 I thought that the city was then living a kind of life which 25:40.514 --> 25:44.244 was unjust and that they would bend it to a just one and so 25:44.235 --> 25:46.155 administer it more justly. 25:46.160 --> 25:50.210 So I eagerly watched to see what they would do. 25:50.210 --> 25:53.160 And you must know, as I looked on, 25:53.160 --> 25:58.610 I saw those men in a short time make the former democracy look 25:58.613 --> 26:00.673 like a golden age." 26:00.670 --> 26:05.920 He is referring to his relatives, men like Critias and 26:05.918 --> 26:11.958 Charmides, who turned Athenian politics into a tyranny and, 26:11.960 --> 26:14.720 which he says, makes the "democracy look like 26:14.717 --> 26:18.437 a golden age." Let me continue in Plato's 26:18.438 --> 26:20.288 words. "I looked at this, 26:20.286 --> 26:23.016 you see, and at the men who were in politics, 26:23.015 --> 26:24.685 at the laws and customs. 26:24.690 --> 26:27.820 And the more I looked and the older I grew, 26:27.822 --> 26:32.072 the more difficult it seemed to me to administer political 26:32.073 --> 26:35.473 affairs justly. For you cannot do so without 26:35.467 --> 26:38.007 friends and comrades you can trust. 26:38.009 --> 26:40.079 In such men it was not easy to find. 26:40.079 --> 26:43.989 For the city, you see, no longer lived in the 26:43.994 --> 26:47.024 fashion and ways of our fathers. 26:47.019 --> 26:49.749 Eager as I had once been to go into politics, 26:49.749 --> 26:53.529 as I look at these things and saw everything taking any course 26:53.532 --> 26:56.202 at all with no direction or management, 26:56.200 --> 26:59.030 I ended up feeling dizzy. 26:59.029 --> 27:02.639 I did not abandon my interest in politics to discover how it 27:02.635 --> 27:06.115 might be bettered in other respects, and I was perpetually 27:06.118 --> 27:07.828 awaiting my opportunity. 27:07.829 --> 27:11.329 But at last, I saw that as far as all states 27:11.329 --> 27:16.049 now existing are concerned, they are all badly governed. 27:16.049 --> 27:21.219 For the condition of their laws is bad almost past cure, 27:21.224 --> 27:24.804 except for some miraculous accident. 27:24.799 --> 27:29.179 So I was compelled to say, in praising true philosophy, 27:29.178 --> 27:34.448 that it was from it alone that was able to discern any justice. 27:34.450 --> 27:38.430 And so I said that the nations of the world will never cease 27:38.425 --> 27:42.535 from trouble until either the true breed of philosophers shall 27:42.535 --> 27:46.775 come to political office or until that of the rulers shall, 27:46.779 --> 27:50.639 by some divine law, take the pursuit of 27:50.638 --> 27:55.978 philosophy." There you see in that wonderful 27:55.981 --> 28:02.311 and a kind of probing self-examination of his early 28:02.307 --> 28:09.487 motives and expectations, you see the disillusionment of 28:09.492 --> 28:16.052 the older Plato looking on what the Tyranny had done. 28:16.049 --> 28:21.159 But also looking at the states, the nations of his time, 28:21.162 --> 28:26.342 seeing their management, seeing their decay and conflict 28:26.336 --> 28:31.846 and saying and suggesting that no justice will ever be expected 28:31.849 --> 28:34.269 until, as he says at the end, 28:34.266 --> 28:37.786 kings become philosophers and philosophers kings, 28:37.793 --> 28:41.103 a direct reference to the Republic. 28:41.100 --> 28:44.150 28:44.150 --> 28:48.070 This little autobiography, goes on at considerably greater 28:48.068 --> 28:49.648 length, I should say. 28:49.650 --> 28:52.020 But this provides a kind of introduction, 28:52.024 --> 28:54.224 as it were, to the Republic. 28:54.220 --> 28:59.790 We have in Plato's own words here, the way he viewed politics 28:59.788 --> 29:04.148 and his reasons for his political philosophy. 29:04.150 --> 29:08.510 Yet, in many respects, if the Republic was the 29:08.514 --> 29:13.474 result of comprehensive despair and disillusionment with the 29:13.465 --> 29:17.965 prospects of reform, the dialogue itself points back 29:17.974 --> 29:23.054 to an earlier moment in Plato's life and the life of the city of 29:23.045 --> 29:26.145 Athens. This remarkable letter was 29:26.150 --> 29:31.460 written when Plato was very old, approximately 50 years after 29:31.459 --> 29:34.909 the trial and execution of Socrates. 29:34.910 --> 29:38.620 But the action of the Republic takes place long 29:38.616 --> 29:42.596 before the defeat of Athens, before the rise of the Thirty 29:42.602 --> 29:44.912 and the execution of Athens . 29:44.910 --> 29:49.990 It refers to that period that Plato says in the letter looked 29:49.989 --> 29:53.539 like "a golden age, when many things seemed 29:53.544 --> 29:56.724 possible." That brings us back to the 29:56.723 --> 29:59.563 opening, the descent to the Piraeus. 29:59.559 --> 30:04.409 The action of the dialogue begins at the Piraeus, 30:04.414 --> 30:10.184 the port city of Athens, somewhere around the year 411, 30:10.180 --> 30:13.380 during what was called the Peace of Nicias, 30:13.381 --> 30:16.741 that is to say, the peace that endured a kind 30:16.736 --> 30:19.916 of respite, truce that was established 30:19.920 --> 30:23.610 during the fighting between Sparta and Athens. 30:23.609 --> 30:27.909 At the very beginning of the dialogue, we see Socrates and 30:27.906 --> 30:29.486 his friend Glaucon. 30:29.490 --> 30:31.430 What are they doing? 30:31.430 --> 30:31.830 What are they doing? 30:31.830 --> 30:35.240 30:35.240 --> 30:39.610 Do you remember? What are they doing at the very 30:39.608 --> 30:42.438 beginning? Student: Professor 30:42.438 --> 30:44.238 Steven Smith: Where? 30:44.240 --> 30:46.050 Student: [inaudible] Professor Steven Smith: 30:46.046 --> 30:48.026 Right. Let me put it a slightly--yes, 30:48.025 --> 30:50.895 they are walking back to Athens from the Piraeus. 30:50.900 --> 30:55.130 But maybe to put it a slightly different way, 30:55.130 --> 30:58.400 they're trolling the waterfront. 30:58.400 --> 31:00.900 What is the Piraeus? 31:00.900 --> 31:03.930 It is the harbor of Athens. 31:03.930 --> 31:05.830 What do you expect from harbors? 31:05.830 --> 31:08.970 What are harbor cities like? 31:08.970 --> 31:14.680 What do you find down at harbors? 31:14.680 --> 31:15.650 Student: [inaudible] Professor Steven Smith: 31:15.651 --> 31:18.151 Water, yeah. They're seedy, aren't they? 31:18.150 --> 31:23.160 You find various kinds of disreputable and maybe unseemly 31:23.162 --> 31:25.312 things going on there. 31:25.309 --> 31:29.859 We are forced to ask ourselves: What are Socrates and Glaucon 31:29.858 --> 31:33.338 doing there? Why are they there together? 31:33.340 --> 31:34.950 What are they doing? 31:34.950 --> 31:38.890 What do they expect to find? 31:38.890 --> 31:42.630 These seem to be questions that immediately come to mind. 31:42.630 --> 31:47.250 We learn shortly afterwards that they have taken this 31:47.247 --> 31:52.927 descent to the Piraeus to view a festival, a kind of carnival. 31:52.930 --> 31:58.190 It sounds like something one might expect to see in a Fellini 31:58.186 --> 32:00.356 film. A kind of carnival, 32:00.356 --> 32:02.976 a carnivale, a Mardi Gras, 32:02.978 --> 32:05.598 where a festival is going on. 32:05.599 --> 32:08.999 What's more, a new goddess is being 32:09.000 --> 32:13.200 introduced into the pantheon of deities. 32:13.200 --> 32:16.560 This seems to suggest that--referring back to the 32:16.559 --> 32:19.499 Apology, that it is not Socrates, 32:19.500 --> 32:25.580 but the Athenians who innovate, who create and introduce new 32:25.579 --> 32:28.909 deities. Socrates remarks that the 32:28.909 --> 32:34.519 Thracians, the display of the Thracians, put on a good show, 32:34.519 --> 32:37.919 showing that his own perspective is not simply bound 32:37.924 --> 32:39.264 by that of a city. 32:39.259 --> 32:41.249 It suggests, from the beginning, 32:41.245 --> 32:44.445 a kind of loftiness and impartiality of perspective 32:44.446 --> 32:46.876 characteristic of the philosopher, 32:46.880 --> 32:49.860 but not necessarily the citizen. 32:49.859 --> 32:54.989 On their way back from this festival, from this carnival, 32:54.994 --> 32:59.674 on their way back they're accosted, you remember. 32:59.670 --> 33:03.220 They're accosted by a slave who's been sent on by 33:03.222 --> 33:07.812 Polemarchus and his friends and who orders Socrates and Glaucon 33:07.811 --> 33:11.851 to wait. "Polemarchus orders you to 33:11.851 --> 33:14.641 wait," the slave says. 33:14.640 --> 33:15.630 He orders you to wait. 33:15.630 --> 33:17.600 He is coming up behind you. 33:17.600 --> 33:18.860 Just wait. 33:18.860 --> 33:22.760 33:22.759 --> 33:25.759 "Of course we'll wait," Glaucon replies. 33:25.759 --> 33:29.059 When Polemarchus and his friends arrive, 33:29.058 --> 33:32.948 we find that his friends include Adeimantus, 33:32.950 --> 33:37.070 who is Glaucon's brother and Niceratus, who is the son of 33:37.070 --> 33:41.780 Nicias, the general who has just brokered the peace that they are 33:41.779 --> 33:45.369 now enjoying. That's the famous Peace of 33:45.369 --> 33:48.119 Nicias. They challenge Socrates. 33:48.119 --> 33:51.719 "Stay with us or prove stronger." 33:51.720 --> 33:53.180 Stay with us or prove stronger. 33:53.180 --> 33:55.390 "Could we not persuade you?" 33:55.390 --> 33:58.110 Socrates asked. "Could we not persuade you to 33:58.111 --> 34:01.501 let us go?" "Not if we won't listen," 34:01.501 --> 34:03.591 Polemarchus says. 34:03.589 --> 34:07.049 Instead, they reach a compromise. 34:07.049 --> 34:12.199 But Socrates and Glaucon come with Polemarchus and the others 34:12.202 --> 34:15.382 to the home of Polemarchus' father, 34:15.380 --> 34:19.410 where dinner will be provided for them, and later, 34:19.408 --> 34:24.668 a return to the festival where there will be a horseback race. 34:24.670 --> 34:29.300 "It seems," Glaucon says, "we must stay." 34:29.300 --> 34:33.200 And Socrates concurs. 34:33.199 --> 34:37.329 Why does the book begin with this, let's say, 34:37.325 --> 34:42.335 opening gambit? Is it simply a ruse to get the 34:42.342 --> 34:49.072 reader's attention in some sense or to rope you in with some 34:49.073 --> 34:52.613 promise of what's to follow? 34:52.610 --> 34:57.930 Already from the very opening lines we see in this a clue to 34:57.926 --> 35:01.166 the theme that is going to follow. 35:01.170 --> 35:03.860 Who has the title to rule? 35:03.860 --> 35:06.990 Is it Polemarchus and his friends who claim to rule by 35:06.990 --> 35:08.290 strength of numbers? 35:08.290 --> 35:10.200 "Can we persuade you?" 35:10.199 --> 35:13.039 "Not if we don't listen," he says. 35:13.039 --> 35:16.919 Or Socrates and Glaucon, who hope to rule by the powers 35:16.924 --> 35:19.374 of reason, speech, and argument? 35:19.370 --> 35:21.120 Can we convince you? 35:21.120 --> 35:23.670 Can we persuade you? 35:23.670 --> 35:27.020 Can democracy that expresses the will of the majority, 35:27.021 --> 35:30.881 the will of the greater number be rendered compatible with the 35:30.878 --> 35:34.418 needs of philosophy and the claims to respect only reason 35:34.419 --> 35:36.189 and a better argument? 35:36.190 --> 35:41.080 That seems to be the question already posed in this opening 35:41.084 --> 35:43.964 scene. Can a compromise be reached 35:43.962 --> 35:47.692 between the two? Can the strength of numbers, 35:47.688 --> 35:52.198 as well as respect for reason and a better argument be, 35:52.198 --> 35:54.618 in some sense, harmonized? 35:54.620 --> 35:58.020 Can they be brought together? 35:58.019 --> 36:01.709 Is the just city, perhaps, that Socrates will 36:01.706 --> 36:05.476 later consider, a combination of these two--of 36:05.476 --> 36:07.986 both force and persuasion? 36:07.989 --> 36:10.939 That will be something left to see. 36:10.940 --> 36:17.120 But I think you can see the big themes of the book already very 36:17.117 --> 36:21.797 present in the opening scene of the dialogue. 36:21.800 --> 36:28.200 The first book is really a kind of preamble to everything that 36:28.200 --> 36:29.250 follows. 36:29.250 --> 36:34.670 36:34.670 --> 36:39.340 Okay? Are you with me so far on this? 36:39.340 --> 36:43.760 Let's talk a little bit about the participants in this 36:43.762 --> 36:46.712 dialogue. It is a dialogue. 36:46.710 --> 36:53.400 It has a fairly large number of characters, although only a 36:53.401 --> 36:59.171 relatively few number of them speak in the book. 36:59.170 --> 37:03.920 Yet, it's something very important, as we would want to 37:03.917 --> 37:07.167 know in any play or novel or movie. 37:07.170 --> 37:13.170 We want to note something about the particular people who 37:13.165 --> 37:19.585 inhabit this dinner party that Socrates and Glaucon have been 37:19.588 --> 37:23.248 promised. Who are they and what do they 37:23.249 --> 37:24.109 represent? 37:24.110 --> 37:28.660 37:28.659 --> 37:32.919 There is Cephalus, who we will see very quickly, 37:32.920 --> 37:38.540 the father of Polemarchus and whose home they are attending. 37:38.539 --> 37:41.059 The venerable paterfamilias, 37:41.058 --> 37:43.798 the venerable father of the family. 37:43.800 --> 37:47.050 Polemarchus, his son, a solid patriot who 37:47.048 --> 37:51.838 defends not only his father's honor, but that of his friends 37:51.840 --> 37:53.790 and fellow citizens. 37:53.789 --> 37:59.009 We will also see Thrasymachus, a cynical intellectual who 37:59.010 --> 38:05.070 rivals Socrates as an educator of future leaders and statesmen. 38:05.070 --> 38:08.530 Of course, it is the exchange between Socrates and 38:08.525 --> 38:13.175 Thrasymachus that is one of the most famous moments of the book. 38:13.179 --> 38:17.719 There is, in the first set of dialogues, a distinct hierarchy 38:17.719 --> 38:20.159 of characters, you might say, 38:20.161 --> 38:25.091 who we see later on express those distinctive features of 38:25.090 --> 38:27.290 the soul and the city. 38:27.289 --> 38:31.189 Cephalus, we learn, has spent his life in the 38:31.187 --> 38:32.867 acquisitive arts. 38:32.869 --> 38:35.189 That is to say, he's a businessman. 38:35.190 --> 38:39.480 He's been concerned with satisfying the needs of his body 38:39.475 --> 38:40.925 and making money. 38:40.929 --> 38:45.159 He represents what will later be called in the Republic 38:45.161 --> 38:48.561 the appetitive part of the soul, the appetites. 38:48.559 --> 38:52.429 Polemarchus, whose name actually means 38:52.426 --> 38:56.646 "warlord." Think of that. 38:56.650 --> 39:02.540 The warlord is preoccupied with questions of honor and loyalty. 39:02.539 --> 39:04.939 He tells us, to get a little bit ahead of 39:04.943 --> 39:08.433 ourselves, that justice is helping your friends and harming 39:08.428 --> 39:11.098 your enemies. He seems to represent what 39:11.099 --> 39:14.719 Plato or Socrates will later call the spirited part of the 39:14.715 --> 39:17.565 soul, something that we want to return to. 39:17.570 --> 39:19.990 Thrasymachus, a visiting sophist, 39:19.994 --> 39:24.164 seeks to teach and educate, anticipating what the 39:24.162 --> 39:27.802 Republic will call the rational soul, 39:27.800 --> 39:29.380 the rational part of the soul. 39:29.380 --> 39:32.380 Each of these figures, in many ways, 39:32.382 --> 39:36.932 prefigure the relatively superior natures of those who 39:36.930 --> 39:39.590 come later in the dialogue. 39:39.590 --> 39:43.030 The two brothers, Glaucon and Adeimantus, 39:43.025 --> 39:46.455 whose exchange with Socrates occupies, 39:46.460 --> 39:49.960 for the most part, the rest of the dialogue from 39:49.955 --> 39:52.925 Book Two onward, the two brothers who, 39:52.929 --> 39:57.209 incidentally, are the brothers of Plato. 39:57.210 --> 39:59.880 I should say, to my knowledge, 39:59.879 --> 40:04.759 we know nothing more about Glaucon and Adeimantus from 40:04.757 --> 40:09.357 history, but Plato put them into his dialogue. 40:09.360 --> 40:12.880 They will always be remembered as the two brothers in the 40:12.878 --> 40:15.838 dialogue. Again, they seem to represent 40:15.838 --> 40:17.948 something quite different. 40:17.949 --> 40:21.229 Bear this in mind as you are reading the book, 40:21.229 --> 40:25.459 because it is easy to kind of forget who's talking and what 40:25.455 --> 40:26.835 they represent. 40:26.840 --> 40:30.030 40:30.030 --> 40:32.590 Adeimantus is, we will find, 40:32.586 --> 40:37.696 the kind of hedonistic and pleasure-seeking brother. 40:37.699 --> 40:43.349 Glaucon, whose name means something like "gleaming", 40:43.346 --> 40:49.986 "shining," is the fierce and war-like of the two brothers. 40:49.989 --> 40:53.059 Of course, there is the philosophically-minded Socrates. 40:53.059 --> 40:57.349 Again, each of them seems to represent, in a superior way, 40:57.346 --> 41:00.276 the key components of the human soul, 41:00.280 --> 41:03.470 the appetitive, the war-like or spirited, 41:03.473 --> 41:04.993 and the rational. 41:04.989 --> 41:12.039 Together, these figures form a kind of microcosm of humanity. 41:12.039 --> 41:16.319 Each of the participants in the dialogue represents one of the 41:16.323 --> 41:20.683 specific classes or groups that will eventually occupy the just 41:20.676 --> 41:25.026 city to which Plato or Socrates gives the name Kallipolis, 41:25.030 --> 41:26.540 the beautiful city. 41:26.540 --> 41:29.840 41:29.840 --> 41:29.970 Alright? 41:29.970 --> 41:36.060 41:36.059 --> 41:40.789 In the five minutes or so that remain, let's just talk for a 41:40.793 --> 41:44.883 moment about the first conversation with the head of 41:44.884 --> 41:46.894 the family, Cephalus. 41:46.889 --> 41:49.889 We don't need to look at this at great length. 41:49.889 --> 41:53.819 You can, I'm sure in your sections, you might want to talk 41:53.816 --> 41:57.876 about the arguments a little more specifically that are used 41:57.881 --> 42:02.291 in these first three sets of conversations between Cephalus, 42:02.290 --> 42:04.640 Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus. 42:04.639 --> 42:06.269 The question, more importantly-- the 42:06.265 --> 42:08.675 question, I don't know that it's more importantly, 42:08.679 --> 42:12.819 but the question that I want us to examine a little bit here in 42:12.822 --> 42:16.152 the time remaining is what, again, these characters 42:16.153 --> 42:19.533 represent. Cephalus, as his name implies, 42:19.534 --> 42:21.034 Cephalus. What does that mean? 42:21.030 --> 42:24.220 Do you know? Head, yes, Cephalus, 42:24.221 --> 42:30.391 head, the head of the household, but also clearly the 42:30.388 --> 42:33.588 claims of age, of tradition, 42:33.591 --> 42:36.801 of family. At the beginning of the 42:36.799 --> 42:40.279 dialogue when Polemarchus brought his friends back to the 42:40.278 --> 42:42.948 house, we see the aged father, Cephalus. 42:42.949 --> 42:45.679 He is just returning from prayer. 42:45.679 --> 42:49.689 He has just returned from performing certain acts of 42:49.687 --> 42:51.177 ritual sacrifice. 42:51.179 --> 42:53.709 He greets Socrates, in many ways, 42:53.711 --> 42:55.691 as a long, lost friend. 42:55.690 --> 42:59.510 Perhaps you have had this experience yourself, 42:59.512 --> 43:02.742 always a slightly uncomfortable one. 43:02.739 --> 43:07.589 When you bring a group of your friends back to your house, 43:07.590 --> 43:10.910 you're expecting to have a good time, 43:10.909 --> 43:14.189 and your grandparent is there and says, "Oh, 43:14.185 --> 43:17.685 it's so good to see a bunch of young people. 43:17.690 --> 43:19.880 I want to talk with you." 43:19.880 --> 43:23.470 It's always a slightly uncomfortable moment, 43:23.473 --> 43:27.993 you might say. We all have experienced this 43:27.987 --> 43:32.297 kind of thing. Everybody knows it from either 43:32.295 --> 43:34.055 end. I'm not a grandparent, 43:34.063 --> 43:37.253 thank god. But I feel the same thing often 43:37.246 --> 43:41.946 when my son brings his friends, maybe that I've known for a 43:41.954 --> 43:44.884 long time. "Oh, how are you doing?" 43:44.880 --> 43:48.830 and they want to get away. 43:48.829 --> 43:53.379 Socrates does something rather abrupt. 43:53.380 --> 43:58.810 "Tell me, Cephalus, what's it like to be so old?" 43:58.809 --> 44:01.499 "What is it like to be like you?" 44:01.500 --> 44:06.160 "Do you still feel the need for sex?" 44:06.159 --> 44:11.019 Can you imagine saying that to someone's grandfather? 44:11.019 --> 44:14.279 It gives you a little idea of the character of Socrates. 44:14.280 --> 44:17.200 Cephalus is so happy. 44:17.199 --> 44:20.299 "Oh, thank god I'm past that," he says. 44:20.300 --> 44:23.820 "Thank god I no longer feel this erotic desire. 44:23.820 --> 44:27.390 At my old age, I can spend my time--" "When I 44:27.389 --> 44:30.309 was a young man, that's all I did. 44:30.309 --> 44:33.089 I was thinking about sex all the time and when I wasn't 44:33.094 --> 44:35.264 thinking about that, I was making money. 44:35.260 --> 44:40.390 But now I've had my fill of both and I can spend my later 44:40.388 --> 44:45.648 years, the twilight of my life, turning to the things about the 44:45.647 --> 44:49.397 gods, performing sacrifices commanded by the gods." 44:49.400 --> 44:52.770 Why does Plato begin this way? 44:52.769 --> 44:56.029 Well, Cephalus is, as should be clear, 44:56.031 --> 44:59.471 the very embodiment of the conventional, 44:59.469 --> 45:02.289 in both senses of that term. 45:02.289 --> 45:04.899 He's not a bad man, by any means. 45:04.900 --> 45:07.870 But he is a thoroughly unreflective one. 45:07.869 --> 45:13.099 In attacking Cephalus as he does, Socrates attacks the 45:13.095 --> 45:18.515 embodiment of conventional opinion, the Nomos supporting 45:18.518 --> 45:21.808 the city. Note the way Socrates 45:21.806 --> 45:26.006 manipulates the dialogue, the conversation. 45:26.010 --> 45:30.920 Cephalus says that the pious man, the just man practices 45:30.924 --> 45:34.234 justice by sacrificing to the gods. 45:34.230 --> 45:38.640 Socrates turns that into the statement that justice means 45:38.638 --> 45:42.888 paying your debts and returning what is owed to you. 45:42.889 --> 45:47.059 Cephalus, in an easygoing manner, agrees and then Socrates 45:47.056 --> 45:51.146 says, "What would you think about returning a weapon that 45:51.150 --> 45:55.390 you had borrowed from a friend or someone who was in a very 45:55.390 --> 45:59.630 depressed"--we might say a depressed "frame of mind. 45:59.630 --> 46:01.480 Would that be just? 46:01.480 --> 46:03.390 How do you explain that? 46:03.389 --> 46:06.679 Would you do that if justice means paying your debts and 46:06.683 --> 46:08.843 giving back to each what is owed?" 46:08.840 --> 46:13.340 At that moment, Cephalus excuses himself from 46:13.339 --> 46:17.229 the dialogue and says, rather abruptly, 46:17.225 --> 46:23.765 "I have to go out and continue my sacrifices in the garden." 46:23.769 --> 46:27.399 Socrates, in other words, has broken the bond of 46:27.400 --> 46:31.800 tradition and traditional authority that holds the ancient 46:31.803 --> 46:34.973 city and the ancient family together. 46:34.969 --> 46:37.499 Cephalus is banished from the dialogue. 46:37.500 --> 46:43.260 Tradition is banished and we never hear another word about it 46:43.262 --> 46:46.242 for the next 400 or so pages. 46:46.239 --> 46:50.459 That's the way Socrates begins this dialogue, 46:50.463 --> 46:55.073 or that's the way Plato has Socrates begin it. 46:55.070 --> 46:59.850 We'll look a little more at some of these in our class for 46:59.846 --> 47:04.866 next time and then move into the characters of Adeimantus and 47:04.874 --> 47:07.914 Glaucon. Anyway, start your reading. 47:07.910 --> 47:08.980 Continue your reading. 47:08.980 --> 47:14.000 Your sections are going on this week, so enjoy yourselves.