Socrates studies justice in a whole city because he says it’…
Socrates studies justice in a whole city because he says it’s like reading large letters instead of small ones, so it will be easier to see [Book II, 368c–369a]. Explain what he means. Then take a position on a question readers have argued about ever since: is the Republic mainly a book about politics, or mainly a book about the individual person? Use specific evidence to argue how the book should best be read.Weigh at least these passages against each other.For the political reading: Socrates argues at length that the city could actually exist and explains what it would take to bring it about [Book V, 471c–473e]. He spends Books II and III on education, property, and the arrangement of classes [376e–412b, 415d–417b], Book V on the community of women and children [449a–466d], and all of Book VIII on how real regimes decay [543a–569c]. That is a great deal of practical political detail for a book that is only using the city as an illustration.For the individual reading: At the end of Book IX, Socrates says it makes no difference whether the city exists anywhere on earth, since the person who understands will found it within himself [592a–b]. The three parts of the soul are also argued for on their own terms, using the example of a thirsty man who refuses to drink, without any reference to the city [Book IV, 436a–441c]. And the payoff of the whole argument is a claim about which individual life is happiest, not about which city is best [Book IX, 576b–580c].
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