Plato's Republic: Contents Page and Index

A Middlesex University resource provided by Andrew Roberts - click for referencing advice
See also Meno (Socrates on reason in men and women: Reported by Plato)

home page to all
of Andrew
Roberts' web site

Time Line

Plato's Republic:
Translation of Benjamin Jowett (1901).
Contents Page and Index

Use Stephanus page numbers to relate to other translations and editions
There is a number index

Chapter 1
Of wealth, justice, moderation, and their opposites
Stephanus 327

"an evil soul must necessarily be an evil ruler and superintendent, and the good soul a good ruler"

Chapter 2 The individual, the state, and education
Stephanus 357

" I propose .. we inquire into the nature of justice and injustice, first as they appear in the State, and secondly in the individual, proceeding from the greater to the lesser and comparing them. "

Chapter 3 The arts in education
Stephanus 386 [The chapter with the "needful falsehoods" about citzens with gold, silver, brass and iron in them.

Lee: Guardians and Auxiliaries

"the best... must rule... they ought to be wise and efficient, and to have a special care of the state. And a man will be most likely to care about that which he loves"

Chapter 4 Wealth, poverty, and virtue
Stephanus 419

Lee: Justice in State and Individual

simple and moderate desires which follow reason, and are under the guidance of mind and true opinion, are to be found only in a few, and those the best born and best educated.

[the principle] "with which a man reasons, we may call the rational principle of the soul; the other, with which he loves, and hungers, and thirsts, and feels the flutterings of any other desire, may be termed the irrational or appetitive "

Chapter 5 On matrimony and philosophy
Stephanus 449

"there is no special faculty of administration in a State which a woman has ... or which a man has by virtue of... sex, but the gifts of nature are alike diffused in both... but in all of them a woman is inferior..." [The dialogue leading to this conclusion begins at 451d. There is another discussion of the virtues of men and women in Meno.

Chapter 6 The philosophy of government
Stephanus 484 [The chapter with the ship, the beast. the sun and the divided line. With parables, Plato shows that truth is an external reality we discover through reason. There is a similar demonstration, using geometry, in Meno]

if philosophy ever finds in the State that perfection which she herself is, then will be seen that she is in truth divine

Chapter 7 On shadows and realities in education
Stephanus 514 [The chapter with the cave]

in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, ... the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual... this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed

we have at last arrived at the hymn of dialectic... when a person starts on the discovery of the absolute by the light of reason only, and without any assistance of sense, and perseveres until by pure intelligence he arrives at the perception of the absolute good, he at last finds himself at the end of the intellectual world

Dialectic... is the coping-stone of the sciences... the nature of knowledge can no further go.

Chapter 8 Four forms of government
Stephanus 543 [Begins with a summary of conclusions respecting women and children, etc. Then continues from good form of government to the four inferior forms: Spartan, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny]

Chapter 9
On wrong or right government, and the pleasures of each
Stephanus 571

" will not he who has been shown to be the wickedest, be also the most miserable? "

Chapter 10 The recompense of life
Stephanus 595

" the imitator has no knowledge worth mentioning of what he imitates... and the ... poets ... are imitators "

People in the Dialogue

Socrates, who is the narrator.

Glaucon

Adeimantus [Glaucon's brother]

Polemarchus [son of Cephalus]

Cephalus

Thrasymachus [the Chalcedonian]

Cleitophon [son of Aristonymus]

And others who are mute auditors.

The scene is laid in the house of Cephalus at the Piraeus; and the whole dialogue is narrated by Socrates the day after it actually took place to Timaeus Hermocrates, Critias, and a nameless person, who are introduced in the Timaeus.

Stephanus number index

327 - 330 - 334 - 336 - 336b - 338 - 338c - 343 - 343b - 344d - 353 - 353d - 353e - 336b -

357 - 358 - 368a - 368e - 369b - 369c - 369e - 372a - 372c - 372e - 373e - 374b - 375 - 375b - 376 - 376b - 376c - 377c -

386 - 389 - 412c - 412d - 414b - 416a -

419 - 420 - 420b - 421 - 421d - 422 - 423 - 424 - 425 - 426 - 427 - 427d - 428 - 428b - 428d - 429 - 429d - 430 - 430d - 431 - 433a - 434d - 435 - 439c - 439d - 441 - 441b - 441e - 442 - 443d - 444b - 444d - 445 - -

449 - 451b - 451d - 452 - 453 - 453b - 454 - 455a - 455d - 456 - 456e - 457 - 462 - 471 - 471c - 472 - 473 - 473d - 475b - 476b -

484 - 487 - 487b - 496 - 499 - 500 - 507 - 507b - 508 - 508e - 509b -

514 - 517 - 517b -

543 -

571 - 585d - 586b - -

595 -

Stephanus number index

Citation suggestion

Referencing Plato's Republic

It is customary to refer to Plato's works by reference to the pages of an early edition (that of Stephanus 1578) each page being sub-divided into approximately equal segments, designated a-e.

The page numbers I am using in this web edition are the Stephanus page numbers. If you click on these brown words, they will take you to an example

I suggest you reference Plato's Republic like this: (Plato, year of edition used, p.) If Stephanus page numbers are available, use them and say in the bibliography that you have done so.

So, if using the Dent 1993 edition:- A reference would be: (Plato 1993 p.-) The bibliography entry will be:

Plato, 1993, The Republic, Dent/Everyman, Translated by A.D. Lindsay. Stephanus page numbers from margins used.

To reference this web copy, I suggest the same pattern: References to (Plato, 1901, p.) The bibliography entry will be:

Plato, 1901, The Republic, Translation of Benjamin Jowett, web edition at <http://studymore.org.uk/xpla0.htm> Stephanus page numbers used.

See ABC Referencing for general advice.

Some English translations in date order

Spens, H. 1763 The Republic Translated by H. Spens 1763, republished by Dent 1906

Cornford, F.M. 1941 The Republic of Plato translated with introduction and notes by Francis Macdonald Cornford. Oxford

Lee, D. 1955 Plato: The Republic Translated with an introduction by Desmond Lee. Penguin 1955 with subsequent revised editions

Boyd, W. 1962 Plato's Republic for Today. Selected and Translated with an Educational Commentary by William Boyd. Together with the Educational Sections from The Laws. Heinemann

Bloom, A. 1991 The Republic. Edited by Alan Bloom 1991, Basic Books

Lindsay, A.D. 1993 The Republic (Translated by A.D. Lindsay, Dent