"[How] would this come into being, if it ever comes into being, you have, in my opinion, Socrates, said well" (The Republic, 510a). The possibility of the Republic coming into being is the question that distinguishes the preceding dialogues of The Republic Although Socrates “states it well,” the Republic as a possible state appears, in the light of his earlier writings and in the light of political realities, to be only that. a mirage, Socrates, in the Apology, declares that “the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being” (Apology, 92). defining characteristic of a life worth living, because without this knowledge, man cannot know how to act Say no to plagiarism Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not. be forbidden”? Get the original essay In the Dialogues, Socrates uses dialectic to teach his interlocutors about the good, as well as to learn something about the good himself. He questions all types of individuals, in the Euthyphro, Socrates talks with the son of a landowner who claims to have the gift of divination, in the Laches Socrates talks with warriors and fathers, and in the Gorgias Socrates converses with several rhetoricians. All the men he speaks with are distinguished not only by their profession, but also by their socio-economic class as well as their age. Socrates' willingness to converse with these men as well as his statement that "the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being" (Apology, 92) leads the reader to the conclusion that all men are capable of leading a examined life. is used in the first Dialogues. However, by the time The Republic is written, Socrates has transgressed by giving speeches. There are long passages of his speech every few pages in The Republic, while in contrast, in the Dialogues; he only makes a few speeches. In the Dialogues, Socrates seeks to acquire knowledge of the good, but in The Republic he speaks as someone who already knows the good, or at least the best way to produce this good in the city. In Socrates' model of the city in The Republic, only philosophers are capable of contemplating questions of the good, which contradicts Socrates' statement in the Apology that all men should seek to acquire knowledge of the good. In the Republic, all citizens who do not belong to the ruling class must be indoctrinated into their respective positions in order for there to be political stability within the Republic. Socrates plans to tell the citizens: “the god, in fashioning those of you capable of governing, mixed with gold at your birth; this is why they are the most honored; to the auxiliaries, money; and to iron and bronze the farmers and the artisans.” (The Republic, III 415a). When Adeimantus inquires about the happiness granted to these men placed in their hierarchical positions, Socrates declares that "...in founding the city, we do not seek the exceptional happiness of a group among us, but to the extent of the possible, that of the city as a whole” (Republic, IV 420b). In The Republic, unlike the Dialogues, Socrates is interested in the city and not the individual. He is no longer interested in each man leading the examined life, but rather in producing a city in which the city experiences “exceptional happiness.” The value given in The Republic to the happiness of the city is cruelly misplaced; some claim that the happiest city will contain the happiest men, but if that is itsobjective, then Socrates could still approach the construction of the city based on the production of the best individuals (which is the path followed in the Dialogues), and would therefore not advocate an aristocratic regime, but a democratic regime. Socrates later argues in Book IV that the happiness of the individual must be taken into account by ensuring that each citizen "[is] brought to that which suits him naturally – a man, a job – so that each man, practicing one's own, which is one, becomes not many but one; and thus, you see, the whole city will naturally become one and not many" (The Republic, IV 423d)2E Socrates aims to unify the city by placing each man in the work that naturally suits him and thus placing him in the caste to which it belongs. This contrasts sharply with the aims of the earlier Dialogues in which Socrates attempts, through dialectic with men of many different professions, classes, and ages, to arrive at a better understanding of the good – attempting to lead all of these men toward the examined life. Socrates in the Dialogues and in The Republic presents two opposing conceptions of the individual, the first conception is cynical in which only men "[appear] difficult to bewitch and gracious in everything, good guardians of themselves and of the other . music, revealing itself to possess rhythm and harmony on all these occasions” which “must be named sovereign and guardian of the city” (The Republic, III 413e); the second is an optimistic conception of the city's citizens, according to which they are capable of leading examined lives and therefore must have some knowledge of the good. If we are to believe the assertions of the two texts, the arguments of the Dialogues are the most forceful. Indeed, in the Apology, Socrates advances the argument that the only life worth leading is that which seeks the good, and that within the Republic, the only class capable of leading the life examined is that of the guards. This causes the reader to question the veracity of the assumption that the "happiest" city is one in which every man has been installed in his respective niche and left there to perfect that art until he dies. Although this may be a type of happy life, it is not the same kind of happiness that can be achieved by seeking knowledge of good2E. Therefore, either the claim that only the examined life is worth leading, or the claim that the happiest city is achieved through assigned roles, must fail. Since it is impossible for an individual to lead a meaningful life without seeking the good (if he happened to lead his life according to the good, it would be purely accidental and therefore worthless) and it is impossible for a life meaningless is a happy life. First, it follows that the happiest city is not produced by creating roles for individuals and preventing them from considering other alternatives. Thus, although the Republic is “well formulated” (The Republic, 510a), it cannot actually produce the results that Socrates claims it will produce. The Republic's counterargument to this reasoning is that philosophers are the only ones capable of directing examined lives, and there is therefore nothing lost in preventing others from seeking knowledge of the good. The proof of the citizen's incapacity to seek the good is his acceptance of the laws. Socrates believes that history cannot serve as the basis of society and that each individual must begin life by trying to determine for themselves what good is. He maintains that,2E..in one part of it, a soul, using as images those things which have been imitated before, is obliged to investigate the basis.