PHL 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Socratic Dialogue, Thrasymachus, Glaucon
12 Jan 2017
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In the republic, plato, speaking through his teacher socrates, sets out to answer two questions. The interlocutors engage in a socratic dialogue similar to that found in plato"s earlier works. While among a group of both friends and enemies, Socrates poses the question, what is justice? he proceeds to refute every suggestion offered, showing how each harbors hidden contradictions. Yet he offers no definition of his own, and the discussion ends in aporia a deadlock, where no further progress is possible and the interlocutors feel less sure of their beliefs than they had at the start of the conversation. In plato"s early dialogues, aporia usually spells the end. Nine more books follow, and socrates develops a rich and complex theory of justice. When book i opens, socrates is returning home from a religious festival with his young friend glaucon, one of plato"s brothers.
