The Republic Book X

The Republic Book X

Summary

Boox X addresses the purpose of art and representation, debates the morality of souls, and theorizes consequences of the afterlife. Socrates and Glaucon discuss the true reality behind art and poetry by assessing the validity of replicas in contrast to the original; they decide that replication of any kind, which they consider to be art in general, is untruthful and has no place in the ideal society. They deliberate how the soul carries on through mortal lifetimes being affected by both good and evil. The myth of Er tells of a mortal man killed in battle, later to wake up on his funeral pyre, whose soul is shown the punishment and rewards of the afterlife and the process of rebirth.

Important Quotes

“ … we seem to be pretty well agreed that the artist knows little or nothing about the subjects he represents and that the art of representation is something that has no serious value; and that this applies above all to all tragic poetry, epic or dramatic” (Plato 344).

This quote signifies Plato’s opinion on the purpose of art and poetry and how representation in general contributes to society.

“...we must maintain that the soul remains quite unaffected by fever or disease or injury, or even by the body being cut to fragments- unless, that is, someone can prove to us that any of these experiences makes the soul more unjust or wicked than it was. We cannot admit that either the soul or anything else can be destroyed by the presence in it of another thing’s specific evil in the absence of its own” (Plato 356).

This addresses the argument that souls are immortal against physical harm, and that justice and wickedness are the true aspects to judge souls by.

In this Brave New World quote, Mustapha Mond is explaining his philosophy on the place of high art in a structured society, which is nowhere. Art invokes passion and personal passions have no place in his world, as it is Plato’s ideal society. He believes that it fills people with corrupting emotions, and it is satirized here by Mond’s speech on the sacrifice of high art.

“... the price we have to pay for stability.You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We’ve sacrificed the high art.” (Huxely 220).

“The gravest charge against poetry still remains. It has a terrible power to corrupt even the best characters, with very few exceptions” (Plato 349).

Reality is never how art represents it. Plato believes that representations can never be valid because they are not the real thing. Anything other than the original to Plato he considers to be misleading, and that copies cannot be perfectly exact. This is applicable to art and, as Mond says, everything else. Fake copies appeal more to their society than quality dramatic happiness or instability.

"Actual happiness looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortunenone of the picturesquesness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.” (Huxely 221).

“The art of representation is therefore a long way removed from truth, and it is able to reproduce everything because it has little grasp of anything, and that little is a mere phenomenal appearance” (Plato 340).

Quote Pairs

“This at any rate is my advice, that we should believe the soul to be immortal, capable of enduring all evil and all good, and always keep our feet on the upward way and pursue justice with wisdom. So we shall be at peace with the gods and with ourselves…and both in this life and in the thousand-year journey which I have described, all will be well with us” (Plato 368).

"Undoing all their wholesome death-conditioning with this disgusting outcry- as though death were something terrible, as though any one mattered as much as all that!" (Huxely 206).

"I must tell you, I suppose; yet the love and respect I've always had from a boy for Homer makes me hesitate- for I think he's the original master and guide of all great tragic poets. But one must not respect an individual more than the truth" (Plato 336).

Through the “Myth of Er”, Plato demonstrates how the actions and morals of man relate to his or her experiences in the afterlife. As shown by the quote, Plato concludes that pursuing knowledge and justice will maintain peace with the gods, making the afterlife peaceful as well and vice versa.

The mentality summed up by these quotes is that values such as community and truth are more important than the individual. The lines from Brave New World imply that no one matters enough to grieve over; this exaggerates Plato’s idea that ‘one must not respect an individual more than the truth.’