Platos Republic
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The "Republic"
Plato's "Republic" is his idea of the ideal city; one that is simple, small, and consists of only moral people, making Plato's "Republic" a moral city. The "Republic" is the model of perfection to judge all other communities by. The "Republic" consists of a principle of; that which is complex or superfluous is less than good, and that which is simple is good and absolute, and for the "Republic" to remain being a moral city it must also remain simple.
Plato talks of his "Republic" in a theoretical perspective. When first mentioning the city in the "Republic" it is Plato's character Socrates who while talking to Glaucon and the others; says that to see and learn what justice is they must first look at the question in a city format, so that they can then begin to find justice in the individual person. "If we could watch a city coming to be in theory, wouldn't we also see its justice coming to be, and its injustice as well"(136). So when the city is first mentioned in "The Republic" it is not talked about in a literal manner, "Come, then, let's create a city in theory from its beginnings"(136).
Socrates tells that the city could start out with as little as "four or five people" and would begin to "come(s) to be because none of us is self-sufficient, but we all need many things"(136). In other words the city begins to take shape when each person in the community understands that they have individual talents, and can not do everything on their own; that people in the city need to depend upon one another to survive. They come together upon a need for trade...