Study Questions for Republic, Book VIII.

In books VIII and IX Socrates outlines the various kinds of constitutions (political structures) a city might have, and he discusses the corresponding kinds of person. He also tries to explain how each sort of city and each sort of person develops out of the preceding sort. As you read these sections remember that we are trying to get a better understanding of two things:

1. If justice is supposed to be having the right kind of order in your soul, what is the right kind of order, what are the various sorts of wrong order, and what sorts of behavior are typical of these different states of the soul?

2. How does Socrates’ account of these matters allow him to answer the challenges raised back in Books I and II by Thrasymachus, Adeimantus and Glaucon? That is, how does it help him to show that being just is advantageous to the just person, regardless of any external rewards it may bring (or may fail to bring)?

More specific questions for Book VIII:

1. What determines the nature and quality of any government (544)?

2. Note the list of types of government: the ideal (aristocratic type) and the four ‘inferior’ ones.(545)

2 What begins the degeneration of the ideal government (546)?

3. What is the character of the ruling class in a timocracy (547)?

4. What kind of character does the timocrat have and on what does he base his claim to office (548-549)?

5. What qualifies a man for office in an oligarchy (550)?

6. What is wrong with such a qualification in Plato's view (551)?

7. What are the most serious defects of an oligarchy as a form of government (551-552)?

8. What kind of character does the oligarchical man have (553-554)?

9. Why does an oligarchy degenerate into a democracy (555-557)?

10. What are the most significant characteristics of a democracy (557-558)?

11. What kind of character does the democratic man have (559-561)?

12. What is wrong with the democratic man playing multiple roles in the state (561)?

13. How does tyranny evolve from democracy? 562-566

14. What are the characteristics of tyranny? (566-569)