About the book

Socrates and his companions begin by asking what justice is and whether being just benefits the person who practises it. Their inquiry constructs an imagined city as a way of examining questions that also concern individual character. Plato connects political arrangements with education, desire, knowledge, and the images through which people understand reality. Familiar examples lead into proposals that can be illuminating, troubling, or both, making agreement something to test rather than assume. The dialogue's famous images belong to a sustained argument whose stages reward careful comparison. Benjamin Jowett's introduction and analysis accompany the translation. Readers can approach the work as an invitation to examine the relation between a society's institutions and the kinds of people those institutions encourage it to produce.

Justice
Education
Knowledge and political power

Why read it

For a far-reaching argument that connects the question of a good life with the organisation of an entire society.

Benjamin Jowett translation · English text

Contents and reading sections

Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
Section 9
Section 10
Section 11
Section 12
Section 13
Section 14
Section 15
Section 16
Section 17
Section 18
Section 19
Section 20
Section 21
Section 22
Section 23
Section 24
Section 25
Section 26
Section 27
Section 28
Section 29
Section 30
Section 31
Section 32
Section 33
Section 34
Section 35
Section 36
Section 37
Section 38
Section 39
Section 40
Section 41
Section 42
Section 43
Section 44
Section 45
Section 46
Section 47
Section 48
Section 49
Section 50
Section 51
Section 52
Section 53
Section 54
Section 55
Section 56
Section 57
Section 58
Section 59
Section 60
Section 61
Section 62
Section 63
Section 64
Section 65
Section 66
Section 67
Section 68
Section 69
Section 70
Section 71
Section 72
Section 73
Section 74
Section 75
Section 76
Section 77
Section 78
Section 79
Section 80
Section 81
Section 82
Section 83
Section 84
Section 85
Section 86
Section 87
Section 88
Section 89
Section 90
Section 91
Section 92
Section 93
Section 94
Section 95
Section 96
Section 97
Section 98
Section 99
Section 100
Section 101
Section 102

About the book

Why read it

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