the city of swine

A detailed Summary of the city of swine

When one looks at why Plato would have included Glaucon's sarcastic remark of calling the first city a "city of swine" (372d) in his dialogue the Republic of Plato, one must understand what it is that Glaucon was talking about. To understand what Glaucon's sarcastic remark meant; and how important it was, is because there had to be more to what Plato was writing about. And that Glaucon's remark helped lead Plato's writings right into what followed. For I'm sure to assume that: Polemarchus, Thrasymuchus, and Cephalus would have had some sarcastic remarks as well throughout the dialectic; but Plato must have ignored them, or choose not to include them, because their remarks would have been unimportant. So why did Plato include the remark "city of swine", and why did Glaucon call it a "city of swine"?

In order to understand the remark "city of swine" we must first understand why Plato is describing the city. Why Plato is describing the city, is that they are looking for the answer to what exactly justice is. For they had failed to come up with a reasonable answer in earlier attempts to define what justice was. In earlier attempts to define justice, Cephalus said, "to tell the truth and repay one's debts." (3

Now when you look back to (1254a8 of Aristotle's Politics, For what are the parts of apart in a whole?) and think of Glaucon's remark at (372d): and put it toward the individual instead of the city, you see there is and has to more to the individual, then as described in the simple city. And because of Glaucon's remark, he was asked, "how would you do it, describe the city?" Glaucon responded by saying," give the people the comforts of ordinary life." Probably thinking don't put the people on the same levels as an animal, give them finer things like chairs, tables, and civilized food. Socrates agrees to this, and starts to describe the city again, but with more people because it would take more people to provide for these luxuries. And with more people it showed: the city would need more land; thus an army would be needed, to gain and protect the land. And with more people laws would be needed; thus they would need rulers to make these laws. So with this done it showed the first city was incomplete and out of balance as would the individual be out of balance or incomplete. With this new city it establishes that the city has different classes to make it complete, and since the city is as an individual, the individual must have different classes. The classes in the city being rulers, the guardians, and the common people, and the classes in the individual being reason, spirit, and will. And it is the balance of these classes that will keep the city together, and the individual complete. And that is why Glaucon called the first city a "city of swine", for it lacked human qualities or it lacked the reason, spirit and will. Another reason Glaucon's remark was important is that by denying the first city, it allowed the establishment of the second just and complete city. This was important because it gave them something to go back on, to confirm what justice was in the individual!

So what is the city? Why is it called the economic city? Or why is it called the simple city? In Plato's account of the first city, (369-372), the city is fairly clear in its description. In it, it is a city that comes together basically because of man's basic need for survival. Because Plato states, an individual man is inadequate and cannot p

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Approximate Word count = 1503
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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