Can I know a quick fact, story, and explenation about Plato's Republic?

Answer 1

I'm afraid its almost impossible to do "quick" with Plato, but here's my best go at it.

In the "Republic", Plato sets out to define justice and whether it is something that is inherently good or merely a convenient construct of society.

He illustrates his arguments by describing all things as tripartate. An ideal society consists of three types of people (producers, auxiliaries and guardians) in balance with each other. The soul of each individual is also made up of three parts (the rational, the spirited, and the appetitive) the dominance of which determines which of the above type of person you will be.

Plato uses the three allegories of the sun, the line and the cave to explain his theories. The most famous of these is the allegory of the cave - the following is from Sparknotes:

"In the allegory of the cave, Plato asks us to imagine the following scenario: A group of people have lived in a deep cave since birth, never seeing any daylight at all. These people are bound in such a way that they cannot look to either side or behind them, but only straight ahead. Behind them is a fire, and behind the fire is a partial wall. On top of the wall are various statues, which are manipulated by another group of people, laying out of sight. Because of the fire, the statues cast shadows on the wall that the prisoners are facing. The prisoners watch the stories that these shadows play out, and because this is all they can ever see, they believe that these shadows are the most real things in the world. When they talk to one another about “men,” “women,” “trees,” “horses,” and so on, they refer only to these shadows.
Now he asks us to imagine that one of these prisoners is freed from his bonds, and is able to look at the fire and at the statues themselves. After initial pain and disbelief, he eventually realizes that all these things are more real than the shadows he has always believed to be the most real things; he grasps how the fire and the statues together caused the shadows, which are copies of the real things. He now takes the statues and fire as the most real things in the world.
Next this prisoner is dragged out of the cave into the world above. At first, he is so dazzled by the light in the open that he can only look at shadows, then he is able to look at reflections, then finally at the real objects—real trees, flowers, houses and other physical objects. He sees that these are even more real than the statues were, and that those objects were only copies of these.
Finally, when the prisoner’s eyes have fully adjusted to the brightness, he lifts his sights toward the heavens and looks at the sun. He understands that the sun is the cause of everything he sees around him—of the light, of his capacity for sight, of the existence of flowers, trees, and all other objects.
The stages the prisoner passes through in the allegory of the cave correspond to the various levels on the line. The line, first of all, is broken into two equal halves: the visible realm (which we can grasp with our senses) and the intelligible realm (which we can only grasp with the mind). When the prisoner is in the cave he is in the visible realm. When he ascends into the daylight, he enters the intelligible."

Answer 2

Plato believed that society should be ruled by Philosophers who would also have to have had training as warriors and that the next highest class should be Artists but them he did not trust for the higher offices of government!

Somewhat refined in his logic and insight he wove a long winded system for utopia and the at the end having convinced the crowd he had been lecturing went about demonstrating how even his ideal society could be easily corrupted!

Answer 3

this is part of a discussion that occurs in the book.
thucymedes said that pretending to be just, and fooling society into thinking that you were so, is the best way to live because you get the rewards of being percieved as a just person, without the actual suffering of living a just life, whereas socrates said that being a just person had rewards on its own and was better than any other way of life' because whether or not society knows, you are a just person. apparently knowing this is good enough;