Justice -- Early works to 1800; Political science -- Early works to 1800; Utopias -- Early works to 1800
Neither can we be absolutely certain that, Socrates himself taught the
immortality of the soul, which is unknown to his disciple Glaucon in
the Republic; nor is there any reason to suppose that he used myths or
revelations of another world as a vehicle of instruction, or that he
would have banished poetry or have denounced the Greek mythology. His
favorite oath is retained, and a slight mention is made of the
daemonium, or internal sign, which is alluded to by Socrates as a
phenomenon peculiar to himself. A real element of Socratic teaching,
which is more prominent in the Republic than in any of the other
Dialogues of Plato, is the use of example and illustration
('taphorhtika auto prhospherhontez'): "Let us apply the test of common
instances." "You," says Adeimantus, ironically, in the sixth book, "are
so unaccustomed to speak in images." And this use of examples or
images, though truly Socratic in origin, is enlarged by the genius of
Plato into the form of an allegory or parable, which embodies in the
concrete what has been already described, or is about to be described,
in the abstract. Thus the figure of the cave in Book VII is a
recapitulation of the divisions of knowledge in Book VI. The composite
animal in Book IX is an allegory of the parts of the soul. The noble
captain and the ship and the true pilot in Book VI are a figure of the
relation of the people to the philosophers in the State which has been
described. Other figures, such as the dog in the second, third, and
fourth books, or the marriage of the portionless maiden in the sixth
book, or the drones and wasps in the eighth and ninth books, also form
links of connection in long passages, or are used to recall previous
discussions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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