Librarian

An Annotated Bibliography of Plato's __Republic__
12 September 2008

In Plato’s Republic, there are many arguments. Two helpful articles on Plato’s //Republic// include: “Plato’s Women” by Richard Lewontin and R.J. Nelson, and “Teaching Plato in Translation” by Susan Gorman.

In “Plato’s Women," R.J. Nelson and Richard Lewontin disagree about Plato’s views on women. R.J. Nelson believes that Plato, through Socrates, is promoting women’s rights and affirmative action for women. Nelson states, “According to Socrates, men and women have the same pursuits, 'but all in all of them woman is inferior to man.'” Nelon says that Plato believes in “affirmative action” which means that women should be able to join the same pursuits as men, such as guardianship of the state, philosophy, and war (Plato’s Women). Nelson contends that Plato never disputed affirmative action (Plato’s Women). The differences don’t matter when it comes to such pursuits as education or government position. The differences between men and women doesn’t mean that they should not receive the same education; furthermore, men and women should engage in the same pursuits. On the other hand, Richard Lewontin believes that Plato, through Socrates, is not standing up for women. Lewontin’s reply to Nelson is that men and women’s natures are the same, their pursuits and excellence are the same, and the difference between both sexes has nothing to do with the good State (Plato’s Women).

In her article, Susan Gorman explores the concepts of morality and justice in Book 1 of //Republic//. In Book 1, there are different views of morality, which in definition is what someone does. If someone is doing something that they were told to do, but they do not believe in doing it themselves, the person is still just (Gorman). With this bend of morality, it doesn’t matter what type of soul or kind of person you have. Because of justice, morality is external (Susan Gorman). External justice has three main problems. The first problem is that “This way of thinking about justice, that it is based on performance rather than internal order, may lead to complacency." The second problem is that external morality does not lead to any thought." The third problem is that "external justice is too plausibly filled with scepticism” (Gorman). Socrates believes that there should be internal justice, rather than external justice. The answer to what internal justice is, is still asked today.

In //Republic//, Plato compares women and men as to dogs as an explanation of how women are inferior to men. Plato writes that female dogs have less important genes than male dogs and that male dogs have more useful abilities than female dogs. Because of this comparison, Plato seems to have a strong view on the different natures of men and women as discussed bt both R.J. Nelson and Richard Lewontin. //Republic// is also concerned with justice. Gorman includes in her article an important question about what Socrates believes should be justice. Who and why should someone be external just?

Posted by Julian West (Adele)