Plato’s Socrates thinks his companions will find it ridiculous that he favours giving women the same education as men in the kallipolis (Plato 2004, 138-146).
An alternative version of this form of citation to be used when the lines of the text are numbered, as they are in the case of Plato’s Republic, is as follows:
Plato’s Socrates thinks his companions will find it ridiculous that he favours giving women the same education as men in the kallipolis (Plato 2004, line 451).
You must append to your paper a bibliography giving the complete reference. The bibliographic entry for the examples given above would read as follows:
Plato 2004, Republic, C.D.C. Reeve, trans. Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett Publishing Co.
If you want to know more about how to reference a work, consult a style guide (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style).
Questions:
1. In the Republic, Socrates persuades his interlocutors and perhaps the reader through reasoned discussion. The political order that he proposes, however, seems to rest upon trickery and the use of force: the myth of the metals, the exiling of everyone over 10-years-old, the expropriation of private property and the careful guarding against outsiders. What do you make of the use of deception and compulsion in the Republic? Do the means used to establish the Kallipolis prevent it from being just?
2. “In the Republic Plato’s Socrates is less a utopian political theorist delivering the blueprint for an ideal city than an acerbic social critic and moralist. He guides his companions in the ‘founding’ of kallipolis, the beautiful city, in order to deliver a stinging critique of actual regime-types and their effects on the soul of man. He is especially concerned to reveal the flaws of the democratic city and democratic man. It makes no difference, then, that kallipolis does not exist and never will.” Anonymous scholar.
Do you agree or disagree with this reading of Plato’s Republic? Why? You must supply textual evidence in support of your position.
