© 1996, 1997 Bernard SUZANNE Last updated January 1st, 2006
Plato and his dialogues : Home - Biography - Works and links to them - History of interpretation - New hypotheses - Map of dialogues : table version or non tabular version. Tools : Index of persons and locations - Detailed and synoptic chronologies - Maps of Ancient Greek World. Site information : About the author.
Tetralogies : Republic's home page - 4th Tetralogy's home page - Text of dialogue in Greek or English at Perseus

Republic
(4th tetralogy : The Soul - 2nd dialogue of trilogy)

Plans of the Republic

Note : the numbers in parentheses after the Stephanus references to the beginning and end of each section or subsection give the approximate number of Stephanus pages of that section or subsection.

The "visible" plan of the Republic

Introduction : the five challenges
         Prologue : the setting
     -- Cephalus : ambiguity, social justice, fear of Hades
     -- Polemarchus : uncertainty, give each one his due
     -- Thrasymachus : duplicity, law of the stronger, justice for others
     -- Glaucon : evading responsibility, justice is a necessary evil, Gyges
     -- Adeimantus : make believe, ambiguity of poets, example of the Gods
327a-367e (37)
327a-328c ( 1)
328c-331d ( 3)
331d-336a ( 4)
336b-354c (18)
357a-362c ( 5)
362d-367e ( 5)
I. The building of the ideal city
     -- Genesis of the city
     -- Education of the guardians
     -- Administrators and laws of the city
367e-427c (56)
367e-376c ( 9)
376c-412b (34)
412c-427c (13)
II. Justice in city and soul
     -- Justice in the city
     -- The three parts of the soul
     -- Justice in the soul
427c-445e (18)
427d-434c ( 7)
434d-441c ( 7)
441c-445e ( 4)
A. 1st wave : same education for men and women
           (Against Cephalus : "phusis" vs. "ousia")
449a-457c ( 8)
 
B. 2nd wave : community of women and children
           (Against Polemarchus : "all in common" vs. "each one his due")
457d-471c (14)
 
C. 3rd wave : the philosopher-king
     1. The philosopher and the city
           (Against Thrasymachus : wisdom vs. strength)
     2. The yearning for the good
           (Against Glaucon : the cave vs. Gyges)
     3. The education of the philosopher-king
           (Against Adeimantus : dialectic vs. poetry)
471c-543c (63)
471c-502c (26)

502c-521b (17)

521c-543c (20)
 
III. Corruption of city and man
     -- From timocracy followed by oligarchy...
     -- ...to democracy followed by tyranny
543c-580c (35)

Conclusion : the five answers
     -- To Polemarchus : each part its due
     -- To Cephalus : true and false "ousia"
     -- To Thrasymachus : tamed strength
     -- To Adeimantus : true and false teachers
     -- To Glaucon : each one his chosen fate
580d-621d (38)
580d-583a ( 3)
583b-588a ( 5)
588b-592b ( 4)
595a-607b (12)
607b-621d (14)

According to the above plan, the Republic is made up of three somehow embedded blocks :

At all levels of this plan can be found a three-step pattern consonant with the threefold structure of the soul introduced in the middle of the middle section of the "middle" discussion : a desiring, passionate, part (which is actually manifold), the epithumiai, which is the "reflection" in us of nature, phusis, matter, biology and the like ; a reasoning part, the logos, which makes it possible for us to get in touch with the intelligible, with order, with the "forms" outside time and space, with the divine ; and in between, an intermediate part, the thumos, akin to the will, the field of choice, judgment, decision-making and the like.

Having said all this about this plan, we must realize that, though based on obvious divisions in the subject matter and explicit indications in the text (hence the title "visible" plan), it is somewhat "off balance" and "one-sided". It stresses ruptures rather than continuity, and doesn't respect the symmetry and proportion of parts (in terms of approximate number of Stephanus pages) that can so often be found in Plato's dialogues. And it is all built upon the analogy with the tripartite structure of the soul, which is only one side of the story.

A closer look at the dialogue reveals another way of arranging the same "building blocks", which erases the discontinuities and brings perfect symmetry to the plan, introducing the analogy of the line, an image of the doubly dual structure of the whole, as a counterweight to the tripartite structure of the soul. This other way of looking at the same "matter", with the eyes of the mind and not only the eyes and ears of the body, is presented below under the title of "intelligible" plan of the Republic. By so playing with the "form" of his dialogue, piling multiple structures on top of one another, Plato talks to us as much as through words, "staging" the distinctions he talks about between visible and intelligible "worlds", and the tripartite structure of the soul, except that he talks to our mind and requires our active participation in the deciphering of the dialogue. And it shows us that there are not two distinct "worlds" but two different ways of understanding a unique world both visible and intelligible. There are visible and audible words, and there are "forms" behind those words, that give logos (meaning) to these logoi (speeches).


The "intelligible" plan of the Republic

Introduction : the five challenges
         Prologue : the setting
     -- Cephalus : ambiguity, social justice, fear of Hades
     -- Polemarchus : uncertainty, give each one his due
     -- Thrasymachus : duplicity, law of the stronger, justice for others
     -- Glaucon : evading responsibility, justice is a necessary evil, Gyges
     -- Adeimantus : make believe, ambiguity of poets, example of the Gods
327a-367e (37)
327a-328c ( 1)
328c-331d ( 3)
331d-336a ( 4)
336b-354c (18)
357a-362c ( 5)
362d-367e ( 5)
I. The building of the ideal city
     -- Genesis of the city
     -- Education of the guardians
     -- Administrators and laws of the city
367e-427c (56)
367e-376c ( 9)
376c-412b (34)
412c-427c (13)
II. Justice in city and soul
     -- Justice in the city
     -- The three parts of the soul
     -- Justice in the soul
427c-445e (18)
427d-434c ( 7)
434d-441c ( 7)
441c-445e ( 4)
     The conditions of feasibility
            " People won't deem what I say feasible" (450c)
449a-502c (49)
 
      1. " Phusis" : same education for men and women
      2. "Koinônia" : community of women and children
449a-457c ( 8)
457d-471c (14)
            The paradigm : the philosopher-king
            " Won't by nature action have a lesser share with truth than speech ? " (473a)
471c-474c ( 3)
 
      3. " Dunamis" : knowledge vs. opinion, philosopher vs. friends of opinion
      4. "Theou moira" : the philosopher and the crowd
            " Our model of legislation, if feasible, is the best one,
                and, though hard to implement, yet is not impossible
" (502c)
474d-480a ( 6)
484a-502c (18)
 
 
III. The yearning for the good
     -- The image of the good
     -- The analogy of the line : visible and intelligible worlds
     -- The cave : the paradigm of education
502c-521b (17)
502c-509b ( 7)
509c-511e ( 2)
514a-521b (7)
IV. The becoming of city and man
     -- Education of the philosopher-king (monarchy)
     -- From timocracy and oligarchy...
     -- ...to democracy and tyranny
521c-580c (55)
521c-543c (20)
543c-555a (12)
555b-580c (23)
Conclusion : the five answers
     -- To Polemarchus : each part its due
     -- To Cephalus : true and false "ousia"
     -- To Thrasymachus : tamed strength
     -- To Adeimantus : true and false teachers
     -- To Glaucon : each one his chosen fate
580d-621d (38)
580d-583a ( 3)
583b-588a ( 5)
588b-592b ( 4)
595a-607b (12)
607b-621d (14)

This plan is no longer built solely on the odd number three (the number of the soul), but also on the even numbers two and four (the numbers of the line). It doesn't change the view on the "outer core" (introduction and conclusion), but rather rearranges the two blocs that make up the dialogue proper without getting "derailed" by the wave business that was used as a guide in the first plan. It unfolds in a perfect symmetry on either sides of the "material" center of the dialogue, where can be found the central message of the dialogue, which is also the central message of the whole set of the dialogues (the Republic is the central dialogue of the central trilogy, that is, the logical center of the whole work) : "unless either philosophers become kings in the cities, or those who are now called kings and rulers sincerely and adequately get to philosophize, and there can be found in the same person both political power and philosophy, the crowd of those who are nowadays driven by their nature toward either one exclusive of the other having been forcibly set aside, there can be no end, dear Glaucon, to the evils in cities, nor, methinks, to those of humankind." (473c-d)

Most of the reordering results from a closer analysis of the lengthy section on the philosopher-king, the "third wave", which is only befitting, as this section is supposed, by our earlier analyses, which are no more rendered obsolete by the second plan than the visible world is denied by the intelligible one, to provide the logos of the logos of the discussion : the three wave section as a whole, far from being a foreign body, stands to the rest of the dialogue as the logos to the rest of the soul, and, within this section, the third wave deals with the logos and its role in soul and society. We have already seen in the previous analyses that the discussion making up the third wave could be split in three parts. There remains to be seen how the first part relates to what comes before, and the third to what follows, to reach the new ordering of the topics.

We may now see how these two principles combine in this plan of the Republic. Each half of the dialogue proceeds in three "waves" in opposite directions, but not the "waves" Socrates points at :

(Another version of these plans is available, showing the distribution of roles between Adeimantus, Glaucon and the other speakers)


Plato and his dialogues : Home - Biography - Works and links to them - History of interpretation - New hypotheses - Map of dialogues : table version or non tabular version. Tools : Index of persons and locations - Detailed and synoptic chronologies - Maps of Ancient Greek World. Site information : About the author.
Tetralogies : Republic's home page - 4th Tetralogy's home page - Text of dialogue in Greek or English at Perseus

First published August 14, 1996 - Last updated January 1st, 2006
© 1996 Bernard SUZANNE (click on name to send your comments via e-mail)
Quotations from theses pages are authorized provided they mention the author's name and source of quotation (including date of last update). Copies of these pages must not alter the text and leave this copyright mention visible in full.