From early age, Plato was familiar with political life because of his mother's connections and his social class. It was probably expected, in fact, that Plato would enter politics as an intelligent young man of the ruling class. However, a pair of events turned Plato away from politics entirely. The first was the assumption of power by the Four Hundred and the Thirty, groups of powerful, wealthy citizens who seized control at the end of the Pelopennesian War and turned Athens into an oligarchy. Plato's feelings about the political takeover may have been mixed, as he was related to Charmides, one of the Thirty, but he certainly did not approve of such a government (which was tyrannical and unstable), even at a young age. But whatever relief he might have felt about the restoration of the Democracy disappeared when it executed his me

There is no question that Socrates was an enormously important intellectual influence on Plato's work. The essential difference between Plato and Socrates is in scope--Socrates arguments were limited to a discussion of ethics--whereas Plato's work includes epistemology, metaphysics, political science, and ethics. Plato's work, therefore, can be divided into three segments: early, middle, and late. In the early dialogues, also called the Socratic dialogues, Socrates and his elenchus still play a defining role in the philosophical discourse. These dialogues seldom end with positive conclusions, although a premature version of the theory of forms is always presumed by Plato, as well as a moral standard that defines human good as wisdom and virtue (even if those things are hard to define), rather than wealth or status. The middle dialogues are centered on the Republic; now, Plato's own philosophy begins to overcome the elenchus and Plato's views are put forward in favor of Socrates' sometimes indecisive method. The later dialogues are extremely difficult and controversial from a scholarly perspective--they contain Plato's more complex philosophical and logical views, and there is great controversy surrounding what "trends" and themes could be said to identify this period.

Cephalus is the master of the house that the conversation which is the Republic takes place in. He has an early conversation with Socrates about the difficulties of old age, which introduces the topic of justice, and then promptly leaves the discussion to attend to other matters.

The question at the center of the Republic is whether it is better to live justly or unjustly. To answer this question, Plato first constructs a perfectly Just City. This city has guardians, auxiliaries, and tradesman/craftsmen (the latter group comprising the majority of the populace). The guardians lead the city, and are all fully educated philosophers--they represent wisdom in the city. The auxiliaries are less educated than the guardians, but still well-educated; they fight and represent courage. The rest of the population receives a general education. The balance of the city is guaranteed by a harsh and complicated system of eugenics that guarantees that the best people will be selected to become guardians, and everyone else assigned to roles as their worth makes appropriate. The city is moderate because the guardians, the wise part of the population, rule over the spirited auxiliaries and the baser population at large. The city is Just because everyone is doing the job that best suits their nature--the guardians lead, the auxiliaries fight, the rest of the people work.

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