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Summary: Book X
The final book of The Republic begins with
Socrates return to an earlier theme, that of
imitative poetry. He reiterates that while he
is still content with having banished poetry
from their State, he wishes to explain his
reasons more thoroughly. Taking a bed as
his example, Socrates relates how in the
world there are three levels at which
phenomena occur. First and original is the
level of God, who creates the bed as an
idea; second is the carpenter who imitates
God's idea in making a particular bed; and
last is the poet or painter, whose bed
imitates the imitator's.
Homer is offered as an unfortunate case.
The great poet, Socrates laments, would
have helped his country more truly had he
taken a political role. An artist imitates that
which he does not understand; the poet
sings of the cobbler, but does he know the
trade? Not at all. Imitation, says Socrates,
is a game or sport; it is play.
Socrates warms his auditors of the
common imbalance of the soul toward the
affective, "the rebellious principle," toward
grief and lamentation of which
opportunistic poetry takes advantage.
Thus it uselessly commemorates human
irrationality and cowardice, and worse, for
the sake of a popular audience. The
audience is seduced, as it were, into
feeling undesirable emotions.
The only poetry that Socrates will allow in
the State is "hymns to the gods and
praises to famous men." Poetry, and
especially musical verse, on the other
hand, is pleasurable and serves neither
truth nor the State in fact, just the
opposite. And so, after admitting his own
love for poetry and Homer in particular,
Socrates must leave it out.
But Socrates lifts his spirits and the spirits
of his auditors by illustrating the rewards of
the virtuous man. He begins, to Glaucon's
incredulity, to state that the human soul is
immortal. Like the healthy body, the human
soul, fortified by the good, lives on
eternally. The soul, Socrates continues,
cannot be purely known otherwise than
through the faculty of reason. And its final
and greatest recompense is attained in the
afterlife, when the gods having observed
the good soul's pursuit of god-like
virtues honor it accordingly. Whereas the
unjust man suffers in life, more often in the
long run than the short, and is viciously
scorned by the gods thereafter.
The book closes with Socrates' long
narration of the tale of Er, an ancient hero
who, after being slain in battle, entered the
afterlife only to return again. The tale
defies facile summary except to say that
every man and woman arriving in the
afterlife is held accountable and judged for
his or her actions. A tyrant is condemned
to hell for a thousand years. The primarily
righteous, however, ascend to heaven
where they are made to choose their next
mode of life. Some elect to return as
animals, others as a famous athlete or
ruler; Odysseus, for example, chooses the
life of a humble man. But the choice is their
own: based on the wisdom they carry with
them. Finally the souls drink from the river
of Forgetfulness, become oblivious, and
return to earth in their new forms.
Throughout the story Socrates is careful to
warn Glaucon of all the pitfalls and
mistakes and, most importantly, of how the
account recapitulates everything they have
heretofore determined in their dialogue.
Analysis: Book X
The argument presented against poetic
imitation is, however arduously maintained,
not entirely convincing. Plato believes
poetic knowledge to be of appearances
only because, were it otherwise, the poet
would dedicate himself to "realities" not
"imitations," or images. The poet knows no
trade and produce nothing of real, that is,
necessary value. In fact, Plato's portrait of
the artist makes him seem superfluous.
Plato's second objection is that the artist
knowingly manipulates the passions of his
audience. In a purely rational State, there is
no room for the stirring up of "evil
constitutions," nor the retelling of
misfortunes or misadventures in the past.
What lies behind Plato's dislike of maudlin
dramas or even great tragedy is his
conviction that the audience will identify
with and in turn imitate whatever it sees.
The immortality of the soul, for Plato, does
not depend on the justice and cannot be
destroyed even as the body is destroyed.
Its fate, on the other hand, is contingent
upon its relationship with the good; it feeds
and nourishes itself on the wisdom. The
souls of the wicked are a more complicated
issue, for, insofar as they are immortal, evil
cannot destroy them. However, Plato
warns, there are various manifest parts to
the soul, and evil-doing damages these.
And unjust men also injure their own
bodies and the bodies of others. In any
case the afterlife is what is most important;
there the good soul enjoys the benefits it
may or may not have experienced in life.
The moral of the tale of Er, if we may drain
it of its color, is that of the eternal return, or
recurrence. After death the soul is
ultimately judged. This judgment
determines the owner of the soul's order of
choice in lots for the next life. Then,
whatever wisdom he has accumulated
previously helps him make his choice when
his lot comes up. Both moments are
essential because they represent choices
between good and evil. One is an ongoing
choice, alive in mortal life, and the other is
the ultimate choice the sum of what the
soul has learned in life. Man is responsible
for his own behavior, says Plato. And the
final twist is that, it seems, the wise man
does not really forget, since if he is truly
wise he will choose yet another wise
existence.
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Q: In this excerpt, the author mainly ex-
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Q: Explanations of the points of Plato
against Poetry
A: The final book of The Republic begins
with Socrates return to an earlier
theme, that of imitative poetry. He reit-
erates that while he is still content with
having banished poetry from their
State, he wishes to explain his reasons
more thoroughly....
Asked by Seyra A #1135327
Answered by Aslan 2 years ago 4/8/2021
8:58 PM
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Essays for The Republic
The Republic literature essays are
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provide critical analysis of The Republic.
The Abolishment of Gender Roles in
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Ethic of Choice Transcends Plato's
Doctrine of Justice
Plato and Gender Equality
Property in the Ideal State
The Metaphor of the Cave
Equal Opportunity in the Republic
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