Socrates' Second Sailing: On Plato's Republic

249 Pages·1989·4.3 MB·English

by  Seth Benardete

SOCRATES' SECOND SAILING

SOCRATES'
Second Sailing
On P l a t o 's
Republic
S E TH B E N A R D E TE
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO AND LONDON
Seth Benardete is Professor of Classics at New York University. Among his earlier
translations and commentaries are Sophocles' Antigone, TheAristeia ofDiomedesand
the Iliad; Herodotean Inquiries; and The Being of the Beautiful, this last published by
the University of Chicago Press in 1984.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 1989 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 1989
Printed in the United States of America
98 97 96 95 94 93 92 91 90 89 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Benardete, Seth.
Socrates' second sailing.
Includes index.
1. Plato. Republic. I. Title.
JC71.P6B47 1989 321'.07 88-27909
ISBN 0-226-04242-1
©The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
'All there is to thinking," he said, "is seeing
something noticeable which makes you see some-
thing you weren't noticing which makes you see
something that isn't even visible."
Norman F. Maclean, A River Runs Through It
»
C O N T E N TS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
PART I BOOK I
1 Socrates (327al-328c4) 9
2 Cephalus (328c5-331d3) 12
3 Polemarchus (331d4-336a8) 16
4 Thrasymachus I (336a9-347a6) 20
5 Thrasymachus II (347a7-354c3) 26
PART II BOOKS II-IV: THE BEAUTIFUL
6 Glaucon and Adimantus (357al-368c3) 35
7 The Two Cities (368c4-373e8) 44
8 Philosopher-Dogs (373e9-376c6) 54
9 Education (376c7-378e3) 58
10 Theology (378e4-383c7) 62
11 Courage and Moderation (386al-392c5) 65
12 Emulation and Imitation (392c6-398b9) 69
13 Music and Gymnastic (398cl-4l2b7) 72
14 The Noble Lie (4l2b8-4l7b9) 75
15 Happiness (4l9al-422a3) 78
16 War and Revolution (422a4-427c5) 81
17 Justice (427C6-434C6) 82
18 Leontius (434c7-44lc8) 91
19 Nature and Species (44lc9-445e4) 103
PART III BOOKS V—VII: THE GOOD
20 The Woman-Drama (449al-452e3) 109
21 Equality (45 2e4-457b6) 113
vii
CONTENTS
22 Communism (457b7-466tl5) 117
23 War (466d6-471 c3) 120
24 Speech and Deed (471C4-474C4) 123
25 Knowledge and Opinion (474c5-484dl0) 129
26 The Philosophic Nature (485al-487a6) 139
27 The Philosopher-King (487a7-502c8) 143
28 The Good (502c9-506dl) 153
29 Sun, Line, Cave (506d2-5l6c3) 157
30 Ascent and Descent (5l6c4-521bll) 177
31 Mathematics and Dialectics (521cl-54lb5) 181
PART IV BOOKS VIII-X: THE JUST
32 The Fall (543al-550c3) 189
33 Oligarchy (550c4-555b2) 194
34 Democracy (555b3-562a3) 199
35 Tyranny (562a4-576b6) 203
36 The Three Comparisons (576b7-588all) 207
37 Poetry (588bl-608bl0) 213
38 Soul(608cl-6l2b6) 223
39 The Myth ofEr (6l2b7-621d3) 225
General Index 231
Index of Republic Passages Discussed 237
viii
A C K N O W L E D G M E N TS
This book began as a review of Leo Strauss's The City and Man (The
Political Science Reviewer 1978, 1-20). Professor Reiner Schiirmann
gave me the opportunity to teach the Republic over three semesters
in the Philosophy Department of the Graduate Faculty of the New
School.
I also wish to thank Robert Berman, Ronna Burger, and Michael
Davis for reading and discussing the manuscript with me; Julie Farr
for helping to make it clearer; and Barbara Witucki for typing and
correcting it.
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