Response to Corruption of the electorate: I think that Plato/Socrates use the city of words as a tool to show the problems tat can arise within government. I think they show they show some interesting patterns of human behavior by reducing the state to a wise ruler. This gets rid of the majority, which often clouds the workings of the state.

Response to Knowledge and Truth: I think the way that Socrates is saying that you need different lenses to see the truth in different areas. If we are thinking about truth as the form of something then different "things have different truths. The one problem I have with this is that it makes the nature of existing relativistic because no one can know all of the conditions that everyone has ever lived in.

One question Plato seems to be asking throughout the republic is how can we build a city that functions well because everyone is doing what they are meant to be doing. This question has basically been at the core of political philosophy since then. Plato seems to think the answer to this question is people need direction and I do agree with him to some extent. My problem is how limiting the Socrate's city of words an be at times (limits on music art etc.). Is it possible to have a more free society that still directs people to what they are most suited for?

One thing I have really been interested in while reading Plato is how much should we look at the context someone is writing in to examine their ideas? Does it take away from the writings themselves if we examine the writer too much? I personally wish that I knew more about the history of Athens because I think it would help us to understand the way they speak better. Furthermore, it would help to understand more about the social hierarchy of ancient Athens.

Hi everyone, before I begin I would like to apologize for not posting last night.

Plato's Republic, thus far, I think has shown how taking Socrates all of the time could be extremely dangerous. Socrates, while he does pursue arguments to uncomfortable places, has said some fairly terrible things in the Republic. Though I do not want to think these are the ideas that Plato is truly promoting, I find it hard to believe that they are not because of how well thought out this all seems. Though Socrates says that they are only being a theoretical city, could he be hoping that sometime in the future a city like this could actually exist? It seems to me that Plato is far too smart to have thought the world would remain a static place forever. Even as we have discussed in class, technology, such as ships was advancing in Athens and maybe he thought that advances in technology of warfare and transportation would make a city like his possible. I probably did not explain this too well so please destroy everything I just said.