Republic Book One: Polemarchus (331e-336a)
Today on Ascend: The Great Books Podcast, we continue our slow, beautiful pilgrimage through Plato’s Republic. Last week Dr. Alex Priou walked us through the opening and the dialogue with Cephalus. This week we focus on Polemarchus, Cephalus’ son who inherits his father’s argument.
We are joined by two excellent guides: Dr. Frank Grabowski, Dean of Faculty at Holy Family Classical School, and Mr. Thomas Lackey, independent scholar and a longtime friend of the podcast.
Today, we ask what is owed and to whom.
“Shall I be your heir?” Polemarchus takes his father’s definition and attempts to provide a standard: Friends owe friends some good and nothing bad. Notice that the concepts of friendship and the good enter the Republic. Polemarchus’ name means war-lord, and the opening of the Republic made him look like political force, maybe even tyranny (commanding Socrates to wait). In the argument, however, he shows himself to be a good-faith interlocutor. Lackey notes that the Piraeus will later be the center of the revolt against the Thirty Tyrants (the puppet government set up by Sparta over Athens after the Peloponnesian War), and that Polemarchus will die by drinking hemlock (the same death Athens will later condemn Socrates to). The line about being “an heir” applies more directly to Cephalus, but in a way could apply to Socrates as well—Polemarchus is an heir to Socrates, someone who loves wisdom and then dies by drinking hemlock.
Further Resources to Help You Read the Republic:
- GUIDE: 12 Questions on Book One of Plato’s Republic
- Republic Bk 1: Intro, Prologue & Cephalus with Dr. Alex Priou (327a-331d)
- How to Read Plato
- Reading schedule, podcast calendar, and more!
Justice means to benefit friends and harm enemies. That is the Greek cultural default observed in the Oresteia and in Oedipus at Colonus. Socrates then asks: what is the art for? The man useful for keeping a deposit is also useful for stealing it. Then the harder question: Is a friend the man who seems good, or the man who is good? The one who decides can be wrong. The last turn is on the word harm. A first reader may hear a pacifist. Horses and dogs that have been harmed become worse in the virtue of horses and of dogs—but the just man cannot make a man more unjust. After they agree not to harm anyone, they call themselves partners in battle—a notable juxtaposition. The conversation is interrupted before Polemarchus can fully work through his aporia, his bewilderment.
Be sure to check out our entire reading schedule, so you can be sure to read alongside us.
A good path is before us.
Let’s take it and ascend.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the dialogue and main themes
02:06 Who is Polymachus and his background
11:55 Polymachus inherits his father’s argument on justice
20:54 Definitions of justice: giving to each what is owed
27:20 The significance of logos in the dialogue
35:34 Expanded definitions of justice and their implications
42:16 The role of techne and moral knowledge in justice
52:25 The teleology and purpose of justice
01:02:53 Historical and cultural context of the characters
01:17:22 The development of the concept of Arete
01:23:04 The objective versus voluntaristic understanding of justice
01:28:35 Humor and pedagogical style in Plato’s dialogues
01:31:03 Conclusion and preview of next week’s discussion
