The Republic

It is essential that, along with other attributes, the guardians who are rulers have knowledge of “the character of goodness” (230). This is the fundamental value underpinning all other values, morality, and understanding. Only then will the community be perfect. Socrates assesses, and dismisses, two common views of goodness, before giving his own. The first is that goodness is pleasure. The second is that goodness is knowledge. He argues that goodness cannot be pleasure since there are bad pleasures. Knowledge cannot be goodness either. This is because it leads to the circular position of saying that “knowledge of goodness” is goodness, hence leaving unanswered the meaning of goodness raised in the first place.

Instead, Socrates’ own view, relies upon three interrelated analogies. The first is that of the sun. Like the sun in relation to the visible world, it is the fundamental condition for all apprehension of truth and knowledge. The second analogy is that of “a line cut into two unequal sections” (237). Each half of the line is then subdivided again, and the resulting four parts represent the states of mind that are progressively closer to