TRB POLYTECHNIC SYLLABUS AND MATERIAL

ENGLISH
UNIT I – CHAUCER TO SHAKESPEARE
1. Geoffrey Chaucer: The Book of the Duchess
2. Edmund Spencer: Epithalamion
3. Shakespeare:Sonnet(8,15,24,30,37,40,46,76,82,91,112,116,126,140,144,147,154)
4. Francis Bacon:
a. of Oxford
b. of Nobility
c. of Travel
d. of Friendship
e. of Love
5. Ben Jonson: Volpone or the Fox
6. Christopher Marlowe: Dr. Faustus
7. Sir Jhomas More: Utopia
8. John Webster: The White Devil
9. William Langland: Piers the plowman
10. Shakespeare: The comedy of Errors
11. A Midsummer Night's Dream
12. Hamlet
13. Henry VIII
14. Love's Labour Lost
UNIT 2- JACOBEAN TO AUGUSTAN AGE
1. John Milton: Paradise Regained
2. John Dryden: All for Love
3. Alexander pope: The Rape of the Lock
4. Andrew Marwell: Garden
5. Thomas gray: Elegy written in a country churchyard
6. Jonathan swift: A Tale of a Tub
7. Addison and Steele: The spectators and the coverly papers. (Essays 1-10,
Macmillan
8. Edn)
9. Oliver Goldsmith: The Deserted village
10. Henry Fielding: Joseph Andrews
11. Samuel Daniel: Christ Victoric
12. Triumph
13. Sir Thomas Brown: The Garden of Cyrus
14. William Blake: Songs of Experience
15. Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe
16. Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
17. Henry Vaughan: Regeneration

UNIT 3 – ROMANTIC PERIOD
1. William Wordsworth: The Daffodils The Solitary Reaper
2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads
3. Biographia Literaria
4. P. B. Shelly: Ode to the west wind
5. John keats: Ode to Autumn
6. Charles Lamb: The Essays of Elia
1) Oxford in the vacation
2) New year's Eve
3) Dream children: A Reverie
4) The price of chimney-sweeper
5) My Relations
7. Byron: Prometheus
8. Jane Austen: Emma
9. Walter Scott: The Talisman
10. William Hazlit: Characters of Shakespeare's plays.
11. Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights
UNIT 4 - VICTORIAN AGE
1. Tennyson: The princess: A Medley
2. Robert Browning: Men and Women
3. Andrea Del Sarto
4. Mathew Arnold: Rugby Chapel
5. Dover beach.
6. D.G.Rosetti : The Blessed Damozel
7. George Eliot: Romola
8. W.M Thackeray: Vanity Fair
9. R.L.Stevenson: Treasure Island
10. John Ruskein: Sesame and Lilies
11. Charles Dickens: A Tale of two cities.
UNIT 5 - MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY PERIODS
1. W.B.Yeats : Sailing to Byzantium
2. Thomas Hardy: The Woodlanders.
3. Virginia Woolf: Mr.Bennet and Mrs.Brown
4. A.L. Huxley: Time Must Have a Stop
5. E.M.Forster: Where Angels Fear to Tread
6. T.S.Eliot: Murder in Cathedral
7. C.P.Snow: Corridors of Power
8. G.B. Shaw: The Devil's Disciple
9. Ezra Pound: The Pisan Cantos
10. Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest

UNIT 6 - AMERICAN LITERATURE
1. Whitman: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
2. H.W.Long Fellow : The May Queen
3. Edgar Allam Poe: The Haunted Palace
4. To my Mother
5. The Lake
6. Emily Dickinson: A something in a Summer's Day
7. Bless God, he went as soldier's
8. How happy is the little Stone
9. This is my Letter to The World.
10. Robert Frost: Blue Berries
11. Wallace Stevens: The Snow man
12. Emerson: The American Scholar
13. Henry James: The lesson of the master
14. O'Neill: The Great God Brown
15. Hawthorne: A House of the Seven Gables
16. Edward Albe: The American Dream
17. Alice Walker: By the light of my Father's smile
18. Mark Twain: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
19. Earnest Hemingway: The Old Man and The Sea
UNIT 7 - INDIAN AND ENGLISH LITERATURE
1. Nissin Ezekiel: Night of the Scorpion
2. A.K. Ramanujam: A River
3. R. Parthasarathy: Lines for a Photograph
4. Toru Dutt: Our Casuarina Tree
5. Sarojini Naidu: The Soul's Prayer
6. Anita Desai: Where shal we go for this summer?
7. Badal Surcar: Evam Indrajit
8. Sri Aurobindo: Rose of God.
9. Arundhati Roy: The God of Small Things
10. Mulk Raj Anand: Untouchable
11. Deshpande: The Dark Holds No Terror
12. Kirish karnard: Tugulaq
UNIT 8 - LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS.
1. Family of Indo European Languages
2. Historical Linguistics
3. LSRW
4. Theories of Language acquisition
5. Dialects
6. Phonology

7. Affixes
8. Derivational and inflectional affixes
9. Morphemes
10. Acronyms
11. Phrase and structures
12. Phonetics and phonology
13. Minimal Pairs
14. Sociolinguistics
15. Semantics and Pragmatics
16. Neurolinguistics
17. Dichotic listening
18. Lingua franca
19. Jargon
UNIT 9 - CRITICISM AND LITERARY THEORIES
1. Plato: Republic
2. Francis Bacon: The Advancement of learning
3. Samuel Johnson: On fiction
4. Preface to Shakespeare
5. S.T Coleridge: Biographia Literaria
6. Mathew Arnold: The function of criticism at the present time
7. I A Richards: Practical Criticism
8. Northrop Frye: The critical path
9. T.S.Eliot: Hamlet and his Problems
10. I A Richards: Principles of Literary Criticism
11. Rene Wellek: Concepts of Criticism
12. Aristotle: Poetics
13. Ezra Pound: The ABC of Reading
14. Wayne C. Booth: The Rhetoric of fiction
15. Empson: Seven types of Ambiguity

UNIT 10 - POST COLONIAL LITERATURE AND EUROPEAN LITERATURE IN
TRANSLATION

1. Atwood: Surfacing
2. Lawrence: The Fire Dwellers
3. P.K.Page : Adolescence
4. Chinua Achebe: Arrow of God
5. Wole Soyinka: A Dance of the Forests
6. Wilfered Campbell: The Winter Lakes
7. AG.Smith: The White House
8. Ondaatje: There's a trick with a knife I'm learning to do
9. George Ryga: Portrait of Angelica
10. In the shadow of the vulture
11. Ibsen: The lady from the sea
12. Moliere: The comic pastoral
13. Sir Thomas More: The Four Last Things

PREPARATORY NOTE

UNIT 9 - CRITICISM AND LITERARY THEORIES

1. Plato: Republic
Plato
The most famous student of the Greek philosopher Socrates was Plato, who was born
around the year 427 BC in Athens, Greece. Most of what we know today about Socrates came
from his students like Plato, who wrote works after his death to illuminate his life and teachings.
Plato's school, called The Academy is also where we get our ideas of education and pedagogy, or
the study and practice of education. Plato developed the Platonic method, or what he called the
dialectic, where students are asked to question age-old truths to develop new ideas and concepts
that break with tradition.
Since Socrates wrote no books, some historians think that many of Plato's teachings and books
on these three forms were adopted from earlier musings from Socrates.
Plato: The Republic

Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Republic has been
Plato’s most famous and widely read dialogue.  As in most other Platonic dialogues the main
character is Socrates.  It is generally accepted that the Republic belongs to the dialogues of
Plato’s middle period.  In Plato’s early dialogues, Socrates refutes the accounts of his
interlocutors and the discussion ends with no satisfactory answer to the matter investigated.  In
the Republic however, we encounter Socrates developing a position on justice and its relation to
eudaimonia (happiness).  He provides a long and complicated, but unified argument, in defense
of the just life and its necessary connection to the happy life.

The dialogue explores two central questions.  The first question is “what is justice?”  Socrates
addresses this question both in terms of political communities and in terms of the individual
person or soul.  He does this to address the second and driving question of the dialogue: “is the
just person happier than the unjust person?” or “what is the relation of justice to happiness?”
Given the two central questions of the discussion, Plato’s philosophical concerns in the dialogue
are ethical and political.  In order to address these two questions, Socrates and his interlocutors
construct a just city in speech, the Kallipolis.  They do this in order to explain what justice is and
then they proceed to illustrate justice by analogy in the human soul.  On the way to defending the
just life, Socrates considers a tremendous variety of subjects such as several rival theories of
justice, competing views of human happiness, education, the nature and importance of
philosophy and philosophers, knowledge, the structure of reality, the Forms, the virtues and
vices, good and bad souls, good and bad political regimes, the family, the role of women in
society, the role of art in society, and even the afterlife.  This wide scope of the dialogue presents
various interpretative difficulties and has resulted in thousands of scholarly works.  In order to
attempt to understand the dialogue’s argument as a whole one is required to grapple with these
subjects.
Table of Contents
1. Synopsis of the Republic
a. Book I
b. Book II
c. Book III
d. Book IV
e. Book V
f. Book VI
g. Book VII
h. Book VIII
i. Book IX
j. Book X
2. Ethics or Political Philosophy?
3. The Analogy of the City and the Soul
4. Plato’s Defense of Justice
5. References and Further Reading
a. Standard Greek Text
b. English Translations
c. General Discussions of the Republic
d. Discussions on Plato’s Ethics and Political Philosophy
e. Discussions on the City/Soul Analogy.
f. Discussions of Plato’s Defense of Justice in the Republic
g. Discussions of Political Measures Introduced in the Just City
i. Discussions of the Role of Women in the Just City
ii. Discussions of Poetry in the Just City
iii. Discussions on the Soul in the Republic
iv. Discussions on Plato’s Moral Psychology in the Republic
1. Synopsis of the Republic
a. Book I

Socrates and Glaucon visit the Piraeus to attend a festival in honor of the Thracian goddess
Bendis (327a).  They are led to Polemarchus’ house (328b).  Socrates speaks to Cephalus about
old age, the benefits of being wealthy, and justice (328e-331d). One would not claim that it is
just to return weapons one owes to a mad friend (331c), thus justice is not being truthful and
returning what one owes as Cephalus claims.  The discussion between Socrates and Polemarchus
follows (331d-336b).
Polemarchus claims that justice is helping one’s friends and harming one’s enemies and that this
is what one owes people (332c).  Socrates’ objections to Polemarchus’ definition are as follows:
(i) Is this appropriate in medicine or cooking?  So in what context is this the case? (332d)? (ii)
The just person will also be good at useless things and at being unjust (333e). (iii) We often do
not know who our friends and enemies are. Thus, we may treat those whom we only think are
our friends or enemies well or badly.  Would this be justice? (334c). (iv) It does not seem to be
just to treat anyone badly, not even an enemy (335b).  Discussion between Socrates and
Thrasymachus follows (336b-354c).
Thrasymachus defines justice as the advantage or what is beneficial to the stronger (338c).
Justice is different under different political regimes according to the laws, which are made to
serve the interests of the strong (the ruling class in each regime, 338e-339a).  Socrates requires
clarification of the definition: does it mean that justice is what the stronger think is beneficial to
them or what is actually beneficial to them (339b)?  And don’t the strong rulers make mistakes
and sometimes create laws that do not serve their advantage (339c)?  Thrasymachus points out
that the stronger are really only those who do not make mistakes as to what is to their advantage
(340d).  Socrates responds with a discussion of art or craft and points out that its aim is to do
what is good for its subjects, not what is good for the practitioner (341c).  Thrasymachus
suggests that some arts, such as that of shepherds, do not do this but rather aim at the advantage
of the practitioner (343c). He also adds the claim that injustice is in every way better than justice
and that the unjust person who commits injustice undetected is always happier than the just
person (343e-344c).  The paradigm of the happy unjust person is the tyrant who is able to satisfy
all his desires (344a-b).  Socrates points out that the shepherd’s concern for his sheep is different
from his concern to make money, which is extraneous to the art (345c) and that no power or art
provides what is beneficial to itself (346e).  Socrates claims that the best rulers are reluctant to
rule but do so out of necessity: they do not wish to be ruled by someone inferior (347a-c).
Socrates offers three argument in favor of the just life over the unjust life: (i) the just man is wise
and good, and the unjust man is ignorant and bad (349b); (ii) injustice produces internal
disharmony which prevents effective actions (351b); (iii) virtue is excellence at a thing’s
function and the just person lives a happier life than the unjust person, since he performs the
various functions of the human soul well (352d).  Socrates is dissatisfied with the discussion
since an adequate account of justice is necessary before they can address whether the just life is
better than the unjust life (354b).
b. Book II
Glaucon is not persuaded by the arguments in the previous discussion (357a).  He divides good
things into three classes: things good in themselves, things good both in themselves and for their
consequences, and things good only for their consequences (357b-d).  Socrates places justice in
the class of things good in themselves and for their consequences.
Glaucon renews Thrasymachus’ argument to challenge Socrates to defend justice by itself
without any consideration of what comes from it (358b ff.).  Glaucon gives a speech defending
injustice: (i) justice originates as a compromise between weak people who are afraid that

suffering injustice is worse than doing it (358e-359a);  (ii) people act justly because this is
necessary and unavoidable, so justice is good only for its consequences (story of the ring of
Gyges’ ancestor, 359c-360d); (iii) the unjust person with the reputation for justice is happier than
the just person with the reputation for injustice (360d-362c).
Adeimantus expands Glaucon’s defense of injustice and attack on justice by asserting: the
reputation of justice is better than justice itself, so the unjust person who is able to keep the
reputation of being just will be happier than the just person; discussion of various ways that the
unjust can acquire the reputation for justice (362d-366d).
Socrates is asked to defend justice for itself, not for the reputation it allows for (367b).  He
proposes to look for justice in the city first and then to proceed by analogy to find justice in the
individual (368c-369a).  This approach will allow for a clearer judgment on the question of
whether the just person is happier than the unjust person.  Socrates begins by discussing the
origins of political life and constructs a just city in speech that satisfies only basic human
necessities (369b-372c).  Socrates argues that humans enter political life since each is not self-
sufficient by nature.  Each human has certain natural abilities (370a) and doing only the single
job one is naturally suited for, is the most efficient way to satisfy the needs of all the citizens
(370c).  Glaucon objects that Socrates’ city is too simple and calls it “a city of pigs” (372d).
Socrates describes a city that allows for luxuries (“a feverish city,” 372e-373e).  Socrates points
out that the luxurious city will require an army to guard the city (373e).  The army will be
composed of professional soldiers, the guardians, who, like dogs, must be gentle to fellow
citizens and harsh to enemies (375c).  The guardians need to be educated very carefully to be
able to do their job of protecting the city’s citizens, laws, and customs well (376d).  Poetry and
stories need to be censored to guarantee such an education (377b).  Poetry should: (i) present the
gods as good and only as causes of good (379a); (ii) as unchanging in form (380d); (iii) as beings
who refrain from lies and deception (381e).
c. Book III
Socrates continues the political measures of the censorship of poetry: (iv) the underworld should
not be portrayed as a bad place so that the guardians will not be too afraid of death (386b); (v)
the heroes and gods should not be presented lamenting so that the guardians can develop courage
(387e); (vi) poetry should prevent people from laughing violently (388e); (vii) poetry should
promote the guardian’s sense of truth-telling but with the willingness to lie when this is
conducive to the good of the city (389b); (viii) it should promote self-discipline and obedience
(389c-d); (ix) it should not include stories that contribute to avarice (390d); (x) it should not
include stories that contribute to hubris or impiety (391a).  Socrates moves on to discuss the
manner in which stories should be told (392d).  He divides such manners into simple narration
(in third person) and imitative narration (in first person, 392d).  To keep the guardians doing only
their job, Socrates argues that the guardians may imitate only what is appropriate for this (394e-
395d).  The just city should allow only modes and rhythms that fit the content of poetry allowed
in the just city (398b-399c).  Socrates explains how good art can lead to the formation of good
character and make people more likely to follow their reason (400e-402c).  Socrates turns to the
physical education of the guardians and says that it should include physical training that prepares
them for war, a careful diet, and habits that contribute to the avoidance of doctors (403c-405b).
Physical education should be geared to benefit the soul rather than the body, since the body
necessarily benefits when the soul is in a good condition, whereas the soul does not necessarily
benefit when the body is in a good condition (410b-c).

Socrates begins to describe how the rulers of the just city are to be selected from the class of the
guardians: they need to be older, strong, wise, and wholly unwilling to do anything other than
what is advantageous to the city (412b-414b).  Socrates suggests that they need to tell the
citizens a myth that should be believed by subsequent generations in order for everyone to accept
his position in the city (414b-415d).  The myth of metals portrays each human as having a
precious metal in them: those naturally suited to be rulers have gold, those suited to be guardians
have silver, and those suited for farming and the other crafts have bronze.
Socrates proceeds to discuss the living and housing conditions of the guardians: they will not
have private property, they will have little privacy, they will receive what they need from the city
via taxation of the other classes, and they will live communally and have common messes (415e-
416e).
d. Book IV
Adeimantus complains that the guardians in the just city will not be very happy (419a).  Socrates
points out that the aim is to make the whole city, and not any particular class, as happy as
possible (420b).  Socrates discusses several other measures for the city as a whole in order to
accomplish this.  There should be neither too much wealth nor too much poverty in the city since
these cause social strife (421d-422a).  The just city should be only as large in size as would
permit it to be unified and stable (423b).  Socrates reemphasizes the importance of the guardian’s
education and suggests that the guardians will possess wives and children in common (423e). He
suggests that they should only allow very limited ways by which innovations may be introduced
to education or change in the laws (424b-425e).  The just city will follow traditional Greek
religious customs (427b).
With the founding of the just city completed, Socrates proceeds to discuss justice (427d).  He
claims that the city they have founded is completely good and virtuous and thus it is wise,
courageous, moderate, and just (427e).  Justice will be what remains once they find the other
three virtues in it, namely wisdom, courage, and moderation (428a).  The wisdom of the just city
is found in its rulers and it is the type of knowledge that allows them to rule the city well (428b-
d).  The courage of the just city is found in its military and it is correct and lawful belief about
what to fear and what not to fear (429a-430b).  The city’s moderation or self-discipline is its
unanimity in following the just city’s structure in terms of who should rule and who should be
ruled (430d-432a).  The city’s justice consists in each class performing its proper function (433a-
b).
Socrates then proceeds to find the corresponding four virtues in the individual (434d).  Socrates
defends the analogy of the city and the individual (435a-b) and proceeds to distinguish three
analogous parts in the soul with their natural functions (436b).  By using instances of
psychological conflict, he distinguishes the function of the rational part from that of the
appetitive part of the soul (439a).  Then he distinguishes the function of the spirited part from the
functions of the two other parts (439e-440e).  The function of the rational part is thinking, that of
the spirited part the experience of emotions, and that of the appetitive part the pursuit of bodily
desires.  Socrates explains the virtues of the individual’s soul and how they correspond to the
virtues of the city (441c-442d).  Socrates points out that one is just when each of the three parts
of the soul performs its function (442d).  Justice is a natural balance of the soul’s parts and
injustice is an imbalance of the parts of the soul (444e).  Socrates is now ready to answer the
question of whether justice is more profitable than injustice that goes unpunished (444e-445a).
To do so he will need to examine the various unjust political regimes and the corresponding
unjust individuals in each (445c-e).

e. Book V
Socrates is about to embark on a discussion of the unjust political regimes and the corresponding
unjust individuals when he is interrupted by Adeimantus and Polemarchus (449a-b).  They insist
that he needs to address the comment he made earlier that the guardians will possess the women
and the children of the city in common (449b-d).  Socrates reluctantly agrees (450a-451b) and
begins with the suggestion that the guardian women should perform the same job as the male
guardians (451c-d).  Some may follow convention and object that women should be given
different jobs because they differ from men by nature (453a-c). Socrates responds by indicating
that the natural differences between men and women are not relevant when it comes to the jobs
of protecting and ruling the city.  Both sexes are naturally suited for these tasks (454d-e).
Socrates goes on to argue that the measure of allowing the women to perform the same tasks as
the men in this way is not only feasible but also best.  This is the case since the most suited
people for the job will be performing it (456c).
Socrates also proposes that there should be no separate families among the members of the
guardian class: the guardians will possess all the women and children in common (457c-d).
Socrates proceeds to discuss how this measure is for the best and Glaucon allows him to skip
discussing its feasibility (458a-c).  The best guardian men are to have sex with the best guardian
women to produce offspring of a similar nature (458d-459d).    Socrates describes the system of
eugenics in more detail.  In order to guarantee that the best guardian men have sex with the best
guardian women, the city will have marriage festivals supported by a rigged lottery system
(459e-460a).  The best guardian men will also be allowed to have sex with as many women as
they desire in order to increase the likelihood of giving birth to children with similar natures
(460a-b).  Once born, the children will be taken away to a rearing pen to be taken care of by
nurses and the parents will not be allowed to know who their own children are (460c-d).  This is
so that the parents think of all the children as their own.  Socrates recognizes that this system will
result in members of the same family having intercourse with each other (461c-e).
Socrates proceeds to argue that these arrangements will ensure that unity spreads throughout the
city (462a-465d).  Responding to Adeimantus’ earlier complaint that the guardians would not be
happy, Socrates indicates that the guardians will be happy with their way of life; they will have
their needs satisfied and will receive sufficient honor from the city (465d-e).  Thereafter,
Socrates discusses how the guardians will conduct war (466e).
Glaucon interrupts him and demands an account explaining how such a just city can come into
being (471c-e).  Socrates admits that this is the most difficult criticism to address (472a). Then
he explains that the theoretical model of the just city they constructed remains valid for
discussing justice and injustice even if they cannot prove that such a city can come to exist
(472b-473b).  Socrates claims that the model of the just city cannot come into being until
philosophers rule as kings or kings become philosophers (473c-d).  He also points out that this is
the only possible route by which to reach complete happiness in both public and private life
(473e).  Socrates indicates that they to, discuss philosophy and philosophers to justify these
claims (474b-c).  Philosophers love and pursue all of wisdom (475b-c) and they especially love
the sight of truth (475e).  Philosophers are the only ones who recognize and find pleasure in what
is behind the multiplicity of appearances, namely the single Form (476a-b).  Socrates
distinguishes between those who know the single Forms that are and those who have opinions
(476d).  Those who have opinions do not know, since opinions have becoming and changing
appearances as their object, whereas knowledge implies that the objects thereof are stable (476e-
477e).

f. Book VI
Socrates goes on to explain why philosophers should rule the city.  They should do so since they
are better able to know the truth and since they have the relevant practical knowledge by which
to rule.  The philosopher’s natural abilities and virtues prove that they have what is necessary to
rule well: they love what is rather than what becomes (485a-b), they hate falsehood (485c), they
are moderate (485d-e), they are courageous (486a-b), they are quick learners (486c), they have a
good memory (486c-d), they like proportion since the truth is like it, and they have a pleasant
nature (486d-487a).
Adeimantus objects that actual philosophers are either useless or bad people (487a-d).  Socrates
responds with the analogy of the ship of state to show that philosophers are falsely blamed for
their uselessness (487e-489a).  Like a doctor who does not beg patients to heal them, the
philosopher should not plead with people to rule them (489b-c).  To the accusation that
philosophers are bad, Socrates responds that those with the philosopher’s natural abilities and
with outstanding natures often get corrupted by a bad education and become outstandingly bad
(491b-e).  Thus, someone can only be a philosopher in the true sense if he receives the proper
kind of education.  After a discussion of the sophists as bad teachers (492a-493c), Socrates warns
against various people who falsely claim to be philosophers (495b-c).  Since current political
regimes lead to either the corruption or the destruction of the philosopher, he should avoid
politics and lead a quiet private life (496c-d).
Socrates then addresses the question of how philosophy can come to play an important role in
existing cities (497e).  Those with philosophical natures need to practice philosophy all their
lives, especially when they are older (498a-c).  The only way to make sure that philosophy is
properly appreciated and does not meet hostility is to wipe an existing city clean and begin it
anew (501a).  Socrates concludes that the just city and the measures proposed are both for the
best and not impossible to bring about (502c).
Socrates proceeds to discuss the education of philosopher kings (502c-d).  The most important
thing philosophers should study is the Form of the Good (505a).  Socrates considers several
candidates for what the Good is, such as pleasure and knowledge and he rejects them (505b-d).
He points out that we choose everything with a view to the good (505e).  Socrates attempts to
explain what the Form of the Good is through the analogy of the sun (507c-509d).  As the sun
illuminates objects so the eye can see them, the Form of the Good renders the objects of
knowledge knowable to the human soul.  As the sun provides things with their ability to be, to
grow, and with nourishment, the Form of the Good provides the objects of knowledge with their
being even though it itself is higher than being (509b).
Socrates offers the analogy of the divided line to explain the Form of the Good even further
(509d-511d).  He divides a line into two unequal sections once and then into two unequal
sections again.  The lowest two parts represent the visible realm and the top two parts the
intelligible realm.  In the first of the four sections of the line, Socrates places images/shadows, in
the second section visible objects, in the third section truths arrived at via hypotheses as
mathematicians do, and in the last section the Forms themselves.  Corresponding to each of
these, there is a capacity of the human soul: imagination, belief, thought, and understanding.  The
line also represents degrees of clarity and opacity as the lowest sections are more opaque and the
higher sections clearer.
g. Book VII
Socrates continues his discussion of the philosopher and the Forms with a third analogy, the
analogy of the cave (514a-517c).  This represents the philosopher’s education from ignorance to

knowledge of the Forms.  True education is the turning around of the soul from shadows and
visible objects to true understanding of the Forms (518c-d).  Philosophers who accomplish this
understanding will be reluctant to do anything other than contemplate the Forms but they must
be forced to return to the cave (the city) and rule it.
Socrates proceeds to outline the structure of the philosopher king’s education so that they can
reach an understanding of the Forms (521d).  Those who eventually become philosopher kings
will initially be educated like the other guardians in poetry, music, and physical education (521d-
e).  Then they will receive education in mathematics: arithmetic and number (522c), plane
geometry (526c), and solid geometry (528b).  Following these, they will study astronomy (528e),
and harmonics (530d).  Then they will study dialectic which will lead them to understand the
Forms and the Form of the Good (532a).  Socrates gives a partial explanation of the nature of
dialectic and leaves Glaucon with no clear explanation of its nature or how it may lead to
understanding (532a-535a).  Then they discuss who will receive this course of education and
how long they are to study these subjects (535a-540b).  The ones receiving this type of education
need to exhibit the natural abilities suited to a philosopher discussed earlier.  After the training in
dialectic the education system will include fifteen years of practical political training (539e-
540c) to prepare philosopher kings for ruling the city.  Socrates concludes by suggesting that the
easiest way to bring the just city into being would be to expel everyone over the age of ten out of
an existing city (540e-541b).
h. Book VIII
Socrates picks up the argument that was interrupted in Book V.  Glaucon remembers that
Socrates was about to describe the four types of unjust regime along with their corresponding
unjust individuals (543c-544b).  Socrates announces that he will begin discussing the regimes
and individual that deviate the least from the just city and individual and proceed to discuss the
ones that deviate the most (545b-c).  The cause of change in regime is lack of unity in the rulers
(545d).  Assuming that the just city could come into being, Socrates indicates that it would
eventually change since everything which comes into being must decay (546a-b).  The rulers are
bound to make mistakes in assigning people jobs suited to their natural capacities and each of the
classes will begin to be mixed with people who are not naturally suited for the tasks relevant to
each class (546e).  This will lead to class conflicts (547a).
The first deviant regime from just kingship or aristocracy will be timocracy, that emphasizes the
pursuit of honor rather than wisdom and justice (547d ff.).  The timocratic individual will have a
strong spirited part in his soul and will pursue honor, power, and success (549a).  This city will
be militaristic.  Socrates explains the process by which an individual becomes timocratic: he
listens to his mother complain about his father’s lack of interest in honor and success (549d).
The timocratic individual’s soul is at a middle point between reason and spirit.
Oligarchy arises out of timocracy and it emphasizes wealth rather than honor (550c-e).  Socrates
discusses how it arises out of timocracy and its characteristics (551c-552e): people will pursue
wealth; it will essentially be two cities, a city of wealthy citizens and a city of poor people; the
few wealthy will fear the many poor; people will do various jobs simultaneously; the city will
allow for poor people without means; it will have a high crime rate.  The oligarchic individual
comes by seeing his father lose his possessions and feeling insecure he begins to greedily pursue
wealth (553a-c).  Thus he allows his appetitive part to become a more dominant part of his soul
(553c).  The oligarchic individual’s soul is at middle point between the spirited and the appetitive
part.

Socrates proceeds penultimately, to discuss democracy.  It comes about when the rich become
too rich and the poor too poor (555c-d).  Too much luxury makes the oligarchs soft and the poor
revolt against them (556c-e).  In democracy most of the political offices are distributed by lot
(557a).  The primary goal of the democratic regime is freedom or license (557b-c).  People will
come to hold offices without having the necessary knowledge (557e) and everyone is treated as
an equal in ability (equals and unequals alike, 558c). The democratic individual comes to pursue
all sorts of bodily desires excessively (558d-559d) and allows his appetitive part to rule his soul.
He comes about when his bad education allows him to transition from desiring money to desiring
bodily and material goods (559d-e).  The democratic individual has no shame and no self-
discipline (560d).
Tyranny arises out of democracy when the desire for freedom to do what one wants becomes
extreme (562b-c).  The freedom or license aimed at in the democracy becomes so extreme that
any limitations on anyone’s freedom seem unfair.  Socrates points out that when freedom is
taken to such an extreme it produces its opposite, slavery (563e-564a).  The tyrant comes about
by presenting himself as a champion of the people against the class of the few people who are
wealthy (565d-566a).  The tyrant is forced to commit a number of acts to gain and retain power:
accuse people falsely, attack his kinsmen, bring people to trial under false pretenses, kill many
people, exile many people, and purport to cancel the debts of the poor to gain their support
(565e-566a).  The tyrant eliminates the rich, brave, and wise people in the city since he perceives
them as threats to his power (567c).  Socrates indicates that the tyrant faces the dilemma to either
live with worthless people or with good people who may eventually depose him and chooses to
live with worthless people (567d).  The tyrant ends up using mercenaries as his guards since he
cannot trust any of the citizens (567d-e).  The tyrant also needs a very large army and will spend
the city’s money (568d-e), and will not hesitate to kill members of his own family if they resist
his ways (569b-c).
i. Book IX
Socrates is now ready to discuss the tyrannical individual (571a).  He begins by discussing
necessary and unnecessary pleasures and desires (571b-c).  Those with balanced souls ruled by
reason are able to keep their unnecessary desires from becoming lawless and extreme (571d-
572b).  The tyrannical individual comes out of the democratic individual when the latter’s
unnecessary desires and pleasures become extreme; when he becomes full of Eros or lust (572c-
573b).  The tyrannical person is mad with lust (573c) and this leads him to seek any means by
which to satisfy his desires and to resist anyone who gets in his way (573d-574d).  Some
tyrannical individuals eventually become actual tyrants (575b-d).  Tyrants associate themselves
with flatterers and are incapable of friendship (575e-576a).  Applying the analogy of the city and
the soul, Socrates proceeds to argue that the tyrannical individual is the most unhappy individual
(576c ff.).  Like the tyrannical city, the tyrannical individual is enslaved (577c-d), least likely to
do what he wants (577d-e), poor and unsatisfiable (579e-578a), fearful and full of wailing and
lamenting (578a).  The individual who becomes an actual tyrant of a city is the unhappiest of all
(578b-580a).  Socrates concludes this first argument with a ranking of the individuals in terms of
happiness: the more just one is the happier (580b-c).
He proceeds to a second proof that the just are happier than the unjust (580d).  Socrates
distinguishes three types of persons: one who pursues wisdom, another who pursues honor, and
another who pursues profit (579d-581c).  He argues that we should trust the wisdom lover’s
judgment in his way of life as the most pleasant, since he is able to consider all three types of life
clearly (581c-583a).

Socrates proceeds to offer a third proof that the just are happier than the unjust (583b).  He
begins with an analysis of pleasure: relief from pain may seem pleasant (583c) and bodily
pleasures are merely a relief from pain but not true pleasure (584b-c).  The only truly fulfilling
pleasure is that which comes from understanding since the objects it pursues are permanent
(585b-c).  Socrates adds that only if the rational part rules the soul, will each part of the soul find
its proper pleasure (586d-587a).  He concludes the argument with a calculation of how many
times the best life is more pleasant than the worst: seven-hundred and twenty nine (587a-587e).
Socrates discusses an imaginary multi-headed beast to illustrate the consequences of justice and
injustice in the soul and to support justice (588c ff.).
j. Book X
Thereafter, Socrates returns to the subject of poetry and claims that the measures introduced to
exclude imitative poetry from the just city seem clearly justified now (595a).  Poetry is to be
censored since the poets may not know which is; thus may lead the soul astray (595b).  Socrates
proceeds to discuss imitation.  He explains what it is by distinguishing several levels of imitation
through the example of a couch: there is the Form of the couch, the particular couch, and a
painting of a couch (596a-598b).  The products of imitation are far removed from the truth
(597e-598c).  Poets, like painters are imitators who produce imitations without knowledge of the
truth (598e-599a).  Socrates argues that if poets had knowledge of the truth they would want to
be people who do great things rather than remain poets (599b).  Socrates doubts the poet’s
capacity to teach virtue since he only imitates images of it (599c-601a).  The poet’s knowledge is
inferior to that of the maker of other products and the maker’s knowledge is inferior to that of the
user’s (601c-602b).
Now Socrates considers how imitators affect their audiences (602c).  He uses a comparison with
optical illusions (602c) to argue that imitative poetry causes the parts of the soul to be at war
with each other and this leads to injustice (603c-605b).  The most serious charge against
imitative poetry is that it even corrupts decent people (605c).  He concludes that the just city
should not allow such poetry in it but only poetry that praises the gods and good humans (606e-
607a).  Imitative poetry prevents the immortal soul from attaining its greatest reward (608c-d).
Glaucon wonders if the soul is immortal and Socrates launches into an argument proving its
immortality: things that are destroyed, are destroyed by their own evil; the body’s evil is disease
and this can destroy it; the soul’s evils are ignorance, injustice and the other vices but these do
not destroy the soul; thus, the soul is immortal (608d-611a).  Socrates points out that we cannot
understand the nature of the soul if we only consider its relation to the body as the present
discussion has (611b-d).
Socrates finally describes the rewards of justice by first having Glaucon allow that he can discuss
the rewards of reputation for justice (612b-d).  Glaucon allows this since Socrates has already
defended justice by itself in the soul.  Socrates indicates justice and injustice do not escape the
notice of the gods, that the gods love the just and hate the unjust, and that good things come to
those whom the gods love (612e-613a).  Socrates lists various rewards for the just and
punishments for the unjust in this life (613a-e).  He proceeds to tell the Myth of Er that is
supposed to illustrate reward and punishment in the afterlife (614b).  The souls of the dead go up
through an opening on the right if they were just, or below through an opening on the left if they
were unjust (614d).  The various souls discuss their rewards and punishments (614e-615a).
Socrates explains the multiples by which people are punished and rewarded (615a-b).  The souls
of the dead are able to choose their next lives (617d) and then they are reincarnated (620e).

Socrates ends the discussion by prompting Glaucon and the others to do well both in this life and
in the afterlife (621c-d).
Quiz
1. What is Plato’s aim in The Republic?
A. To define justice
B. To prove that justice is worthwhile to pursue for its own sake
C. To prove that justice is the advantage of the stronger?
D. To define justice and to prove that it is worthwhile to pursue for its own sake
2. Which of Socrates’s interlocutors asserts that justice is nothing but the advantage of the
stronger?
A. Adeimantus
B. Thrasymachus
C. Glaucon
D. Polemarchus
3. Which of the following terms best describes Thrasymachus?
A. Platonist
B. Pre-Socratic
C. Sophist
D. Politician
4. What advantage does the Ring of Gyges confer on its wearers?
A. It makes them invisible
B. It makes them invincible
C. It makes them maximally just
D. It makes everything they touch turn to gold
5. According to Glaucon, to which of the following classes do the majority of people relegate
justice?
A. Goods that are only desired for their own sake
B. Goods that are only desired for their consequences
C. Goods that are desired both for their own sake and for their consequences
D. Goods that are not desired at all
6. According to Socrates what is the fundamental principle on which all human society should be
based?
A. The principle of specialization
B. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need
C. Moderation
D. Love of honor

7. Which of the following is not a term applied to the first city Socrates describes?
A. Healthy city
B. Luxurious city
C. City of pigs
D. City of necessary desires
8. Which of the following classes of society populates the first city?
A. Producers
B. Auxiliaries
C. Philosopher-kings
D. All of the above
9. Which of the following is not considered an important aspect of the warriors’ education?
A. Poetry
B. Music
C. Physical training
D. Dialectic
10. What is the aim of the warriors’ education?
A. To make them maximally fierce
B. To make them maximally philosophical
C. To make them maximally honor-loving
D. To strike the delicate balance between brutishness and gentle qualities

11. Which of the following is not considered an aspect of the soul by Plato?
A. The appetitive part
B. The spirited part
C. The rational part
D. The emotive part
12. Which of the following statements is false?
A. Justice on the individual level precisely parallels justice on the societal level
B. In a just individual the entire soul is one big rational part
C. The guiding principle behind justice is harmony
D. In a just individual the entire soul aims at fulfilling the desires of the rational part
13. Which of the following is not a characteristic that marks the lifestyle of the guardians?

A. They own no private property
B. They only mate several times a year
C. They are celibate
D. They do not know which children are their own
14. What is the main purpose in propagating the myth of the metals among the citizens of the just
city?
A. To ensure that they all agree on who should rule
B. To ensure that the rulers do not seek wealth
C. To ensure that all citizens view one another as relatives
D. To ensure that the warriors would rather die than allow their city to fall into enemy hands
15. What is the role of women in the city?
A. They are limited to the producing class
B. They belong to their own class of society
C. The role of women is never mentioned in The Republic
D. Women occupy all of the same roles that men occupy
16. What distinguishes the lover of sights and sounds
from the philosopher?
A. He does not recognize the forms
B. He is concerned only with beauty and not with the good
C. Though he recognizes that there are forms, he cannot manage to connect these to what he
sees around him in the sensible world
D. He fails to recognize that everything that is beautiful is also ugly

17. According to Socrates, what is the ultimate subject of study for the philosopher-kings?
A. Mathematics
B. Dialectic
C. The Form of the Good
D. The Form of the Beautiful’
18. To which of the following does Socrates compare the Form of the Good?
A. A line
B. The sun
C. A cave
D. A fire

19. According to Socrates, what is the lowest grade of cognitive activity?
A. Imagination
B. Belief
C. Thought
D. Confusion
20. What is the difference between thought and understanding
A. Understanding makes use of images and hypotheses as crutches, whereas thought does not
B. Understanding reasons about Forms whereas thought does not
C. Thought makes use of images and hypotheses as crutches, whereas understanding does not
D. Thought reasons about Forms whereas understanding does not
21. What does Socrates mean to illustrate with the allegory of the cave?
A. The effects of education on the soul
B. The effects of the intelligible realm on the soul
C. The effects of the visible realm on the soul
D. The stages of moral development through which a philosopher king must pass
22. At what age does a guardian finally become a philosopher-king, provided that he passes
through all of the various tests?
A. 30
B. 40
C. 50
D. 60

23. Why is the philosopher king most fit to rule the city?
A. Because only he has knowledge
B. Because he is the most just of all
C. Because only he does not want to rule
D. All of the above
24. Which of the following statements best approximates Socrates’s attitude toward democracy?
A. It is the most ideal form of government in theory, but can never work in practice
B. It is the ideal form of government and should be instituted
C. It is an anarchic and disordered form of government, second only to tyranny in its
wretchedness
D. It is the most wretched form of government

25. How do we know that the philosopher’s pleasure is the greatest possible pleasure?
A. Because only he is in a position to judge and he says so
B. Because this coheres with our theory of justice
C. Because if it weren’t, then it would not be worthwhile to be just and we know that it is
D. Because of the myth of Er
1. The amiable old father of polermarchus is named _______?

A. euripides
B. cephalus
C. charmenides
D. cleitophon

2. What is "justice" as submitted by polermarchus?

A. the interest of the stronger
B. everything is permitted
C. do unto others as you would have done unto you
D. give good to friends and evil to enemies

3. Socrates enjoys but eliminates most of the verses of which poet?

A. catullus
B. homer
C. sophocles
D. pindar

4. Agamemnon chooses to be a _______ in the tale of the afterlife.

A. lion
B. private man
C. king
D. eagle

5. Thrasymachus enters the dialogue demanding ______.

A. admiration
B. recognition
C. money
D. fanfare

6. Thrasymachus' "justice" is a form of _______.

A. tyranny
B. democracy
C. timocracy
D. oligarchy

7. Which is not one of the three basic "necessities" of man as given by socrates?

A. pleasure
B. clothing
C. shelter
D. food

8. Which is not one of the three basic "classes" of citizens as given by Socrates?

A. producers
B. senators
C. auxiliaries
D. guardians

9. _____ and _____ are the two primary headings of education.

A. soul and spirit
B. philosophy and mathematics
C. science and literature
D. gymnasium and music

10. Socrates divides narration into ______ and ______.

A. narrative and imitative
B. discursive and digressive
C. dialogue and description
D. straight and slant

11. Socrates refers to his inquiry into poetry and music as a_______.

A. purgation
B. examination
C. survey
D. bowdlerization

12. Of which metal are the auxiliaries allegorically composed?

A. brass
B. silver

C. iron
D. gold

13. Guardians must be made of ______.

A. silver
B. brass
C. gold
D. iron

14. The fundamental aim of the state is toward whose happiness?

A. the craftsmen
B. the ruling class
C. the guardians
D. the whole

15. There are how many principal virtues?

A. four
B. three
C. none
D. seven

16. ______ is not a virtue as given by Socrates.

A. wisdom
B. courage
C. temperance
D. eloquence

17. Socrates’ method of inquiry is called _______.

A. discussion
B. dialectic
C. dialogue
D. lecture

18. Which is not one of the three principles of the human soul?

A. compassion
B. appetite
C. passion
D. reason

19. Which is considered the "highest" principle of the soul?

A. valor
B. strength
C. will
D. reason

20. ______ the great evil of the state.

A. greed
B. expansion
C. harmony
D. discord

21. _______ is the baser form of knowledge.

A. opinion
B. insight
C. speculation
D. hypothesis

22. The "highest" occupation for man as given by Socrates is ______.

A.
B. production
C. artistic creation
D. war
E. philosophy

23.
24. ______ are permitted to lie for the benefit of all.

A.
B. republicans
C. senators
D. guardians
E. auxiliaries

25.
26. The "wings" Socrates refers to when speaking of a youth's initiation into war are ______.

A.
B. stilts
C. chariots
D. wings
E. horses

27. What, says Socrates, should kings study in order to make the state a possibility?

A.
B. the art of war
C. philosophy
D. poetry
E. politics

1. Plato's character Socrates designs the ideal city in order to find a definition for which virtue?

A. Self-Discipline
B. The Good
C. Justice
D. Wisdom

By designing a just city, Socrates hopes to understand the nature of a just man. He analogizes the
various classes in the city to various faculties of man.

2. In Book 1 of "The Republic," Socrates refutes the definitions of justice offered by some of
his less philosophic friends. Who argues that justice is whatever is best for the stronger
party?

A. Glaucon
B. Polemarchus
C. Thrasymachus
D. Cephalus

All four of the people above are involved in the dialogue with Socrates, but it is the fiery Thrasymachus
who dares to challenge Socrates's logic and suggest that justice is whatever the ruler says it is, and no
more.
3. In the ideal city, there is to be a great deal of censorship. Clothing and musical styles are not
to change from generation to generation because they are already perfect and any change
would be a regression. How many musical modes are to be allowed in the ideal city?

A. two
B. three
C. one
D. none

Two musical modes will be allowed in the ideal city, one for writing songs about heroic military deeds and
another for writing about the simplicity and fulfillment of a peaceful life.

4. Which of the following does Plato's Socrates NOT expressly prohibit in the ideal city?

A. excessive laughter
B. excessive eating
C. excessive crying

D. excessive singing

 Although he would certainly not approve of excessive singing, he never expressly
prohibits it as he does with the other three choices. Socrates suggests striking passages
from Homer which portray great heroes laughing or crying to excess.
5. Socrates suggests that a great "noble lie" should be taught to every child in the ideal city to
help teach them their morals. In the "noble lie," who is the mother of all of the people in the ideal
city?

A. Athena
B. The earth
C. A divine lioness
D. A storm

 The people are to be told that they spent their childhood in the earth and that their whole
education was a dream they had while sleeping in the ground.
6. According to the "noble lie," what should be the first concern of the guardians?

A. eliminating crime from the ideal city
B. defending the city in war and overseeing the military training of children
C. assigning children to the correct class and monitoring their education
D. educating the people in philosophy so that they can understand justice
 The success of the ideal city relies on the assignment of each child to the appropriate
class in society. Only the very best people, capable of understanding the divine form of
justice, should be allowed to rule. According to Plato, most people cannot understand
philosophic forms, so the people who do ought to rule those who do not. In the "noble
lie," the people are told that if a common person (of the "bronze" class) ever rules the
city, the city will fall.
7. What name does Plato's Socrates give to the ideal city?

A. Agathipolis
B. Aleithipolis
C. Eleutheripolis
D. Callipolis

 Socrates calls the ideal city "Callipolis" from the Greek "calos" meaning "beautiful,"
"good," or "noble" and "polis" meaning "city." I made up the other choices, but translated
roughly they mean: agathipolis= good city, eleutheripolis= free city, aleithipolis=
true/real city.
8. In the allegory of the cave, when a man leaves the cave, he is at first blinded by the light.
What is the LAST thing the man must learn to look at before descending again to the cave?

A. philosophic truth
B. the form of the good
C. the stars

D. the sun

 The cave is an allegory about a philosopher being pulled from the darkness of ordinary
existence and forced to learn the philosophic forms of the virtues. In the allegory, the sun
represents the form of the good, the form from which all other forms can be known. The
man blinded after leaving the cave can only bear at first to look at shadows and
reflections. He eventually moves on to looking at the things making the shadows and
reflections and finally can look at the sun. This man must then be forced to return to the
cave to guide his unenlightened bretheren.

9. According to "The Republic," what is justice?
A. Giving each man his due
B. Doing your proper task and not interfering with the proper tasks of others
C. Repaying your debts
D. Being kind to your friends and punishing your enemies

 The three wrong answers above were proposed by Cephalus and Polemarchus in Book 1,
but all were refuted by Socrates's somewhat questionable logic.
10. In Book 10, Socrates discusses art and poetry. What label does he give to art and poetry?

A. representation
B. forms of beauty
C. aesthetics
D. imitation

 Plato is quite critical of poetry, and his Socrates gives a long speech about how the poet
cannot know anything of his subject. He says that there is one true form or idea of
"couch," and the carpenter building the couch must have some idea of this form in order
to build it. Even the person buying and using a couch has some idea of its true essence.
But the painter, who only paints one exterior view of the couch, knows nothing of the
couch besides what it looks like from one perspective, so his representation is a false one,
detatched from the reality of his subject.