Book IV - Republic

Adeimantus interrupts Socrates to point out that being a ruler sounds unpleasant. Since the
ruler has no private wealth, he can never take a trip, keep a mistress, or do the things that
people think make them happy. Socrates responds by reminding his friends that their goal in
building this city is not to make any one group happy at the expense of any other group, but
to make the city as a whole as happy as it can be. We cannot provide the guardians with the
sort of happiness that would make them something other than guardians. He compares this
case to the building of a statue. The most beautiful color in the world, he states matter-of-
factly, is purple. So if our intention were to make the statue’s eyes as beautiful as possible,
we would paint them purple. Since no human being actually has purple eyes this would
detract from the beauty of the statue as a whole, so we do not paint the eyes purple. On the
statue, as in the city, we must deal with each part appropriately, in order to make the situation
best for the whole.

Socrates proceeds to address several topics regarding the lifestyle of the guardians. He tells
the money-loving Adeimantus that there will be no wealth or poverty at all in the city since
there will be no money. Adeimantus objects that a city without money cannot defend itself
against invaders, but Socrates reminds Adeimantus that our city will have the best warriors
and points out that any neighbouring city would be happy to come to our aid if we promised
them all the spoils of war. Socrates limits the size of the city, warning against it becoming so
large that it can no longer be governed well under the current system. He suggests that
guardians guard their own elementary education above all else, and that they share everything
in common among them, including wives and children. He declares that the just city has no
use for laws. If the education of guardians proceeds as planned, then guardians will be in a
position to decide any points of policy that arise. Everything we think of as a matter of law
can be left to the judgement of the properly educated rulers.

Socrates declares the just city complete. Since this city has been created to be the best city
possible, we can be sure that it has all the virtues. In order to define these virtues, all we need
to do is look into our city and identify them. So, we will now look for each of the four
virtues: wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice.

We find wisdom first. Wisdom lies with the guardians because of their knowledge of how the
city should be run. If the guardians were not ruling, if it were a democracy, say, their virtue
would not translate into the virtue of the city. But since they are in charge, their wisdom
becomes the city’s virtue. Courage lies with the auxiliaries. It is only their courage that
counts as a virtue of the city because they are the ones who must fight for the city. A
courageous farmer, or even ruler, would do the city no good. Moderation and justice, in
contrast to wisdom and courage, are spread out over the whole city. Moderation is identified
with the agreement over who should rule the city, and justice, finally, is its complement—the
principle of specialization, the law that all do the job to which they are best suited.
So now we have reached one of our two aims, at least partially. We have identified justice on
a city-wide level. Our next task is to see if there is an analogous virtue in the case of the
individual.

Now that Socrates has identified societal justice, he turns to look for individual justice.
Justice in the individual, as in the city, involves the correct power relationship among parts,
with each part occupying its appropriate role. In the individual, the “parts” are not classes of
society; instead, they are aspects of the soul—or sources of desire.

In order to make the case that individual justice parallels political justice, Socrates must claim
that there are precisely three parts of the soul. By cataloguing the various human desires, he
identifies a rational part of the soul that lusts after truth, a spirited part of the soul that lusts
after honor, and an appetitive part of the soul that lusts after everything else, including food,
drink, sex, and especially money. These three parts of the soul correspond to the three classes
in the just city. The appetite, or money-loving part, is the aspect of the soul most prominent
among the producing class; the spirit or honor-loving part is most prominent among the
auxiliaries; and reason, or the knowledge-loving part, is dominant in the guardians.

Just relations between the three parts of the soul mirror just relations among the classes of
society. In a just person the rational part of the soul rules the other parts, with the spirited part
acting as helper to keep the appetitive in line. Compare this to the city where the truth-loving
guardians’ rule, with the honor-loving auxiliaries acting as their helpers to keep the money-
loving producers in line. What it means for one part of the soul to “rule” the others is for the
entire soul to pursue the desires of that part. In a soul ruled by spirit, for instance, the entire
soul aims at achieving honor. In a soul ruled by appetite, the entire soul aims at fulfilling
these appetites, whether these be for food, drink, sex, fine material goods, or hordes of
wealth. In a just soul, the soul is geared entirely toward fulfilling whatever knowledge-loving
desires reason produces.

Socrates points out that since our just person is ruled by a love of truth, he will not be in the
grips of lust, greed, or desire for honor. Because of this, Socrates claims, we can rest assured
that he will never steal, betray friends or his city, commit adultery, disrespect his parents,
violate an oath or agreement, neglect the gods, or commit any other acts commonly
considered unjust. His strong love of truth weakens urges that might lead to vice.

Socrates concludes Book IV by asserting that justice amounts to the health of the soul: a just
soul is a soul with its parts arranged appropriately, and is thus a healthy soul. An unjust soul,
by contrast, is an unhealthy soul. Health is something desirable in itself, so if justice is the
health of the soul then it too should be desirable.