"Killing a man involuntarily is a lesser crime than misleading men about the nature of law and its relation to beauty, goodness, and justice." -Socrates
The Republic is a very detailed book. It involves a lot of thinking, a lot of questions, and a lot of big ideas being thrown at you all at once. You may have to read one paragraph ten times just to fully understand its meaning. However, most of the time, questions that are asked are never answered. Justice is never truly defined in the Republic, which was the main point of the dialogue. It is also important to realize that nothing in a Socratic dialogue is an accident- the place, time, characters, and everything else all have vital parts of the dialogue. Lastly, to really understand the book, it is imperative that you realize that the City in Speech is a representation of the human soul. When the group agrees to construct this city, they are creating the human soul. So, if they are creating the perfect city and defining what is just in order to guide the city, are they not in a sense creating the perfect soul and defining what is just in order to guide the soul?
The Republic is a very detailed book. It involves a lot of thinking, a lot of questions, and a lot of big ideas being thrown at you all at once. You may have to read one paragraph ten times just to fully understand its meaning. However, most of the time, questions that are asked are never answered. Justice is never truly defined in the Republic, which was the main point of the dialogue. It is also important to realize that nothing in a Socratic dialogue is an accident- the place, time, characters, and everything else all have vital parts of the dialogue. Lastly, to really understand the book, it is imperative that you realize that the City in Speech is a representation of the human soul. When the group agrees to construct this city, they are creating the human soul. So, if they are creating the perfect city and defining what is just in order to guide the city, are they not in a sense creating the perfect soul and defining what is just in order to guide the soul?