Reflecting on Socrates’ apologia for communal marriages/children — Plato, Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881). Can there be any greater evil than discord and distraction and plurality where unity ought to reign? or any greater good than the bond of unity? (p. 152) Having laid out his scheme for communal wives and children, Socrates will now…

or the build-your-own-social-hell program — Plato, Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881). And the same law will apply to any one of those within the prescribed age, who forms a connection with any woman in the prime of life without the sanction of the rulers ; for we shall say that he is…

two VERY different visions — Plato, Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881). The proper officers will take the offspring of the good parents to the pen or fold, and there they will deposit them with certain nurses who dwell in a separate quarter; but the offspring of the inferior, or of the better…

Dehumanizing people, “for their own good” — Plato, Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881). …our rulers will find a considerable dose of falsehood and deceit necessary for the good of their subjects (p. 148) In launching his defense of eugenic marriages, Socrates’ first step is to establish their sacral status by defining this as merely…

Plato, Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881). I will…proceed to enquire what measures the rulers will take for the execution of the plan, which, if executed, I will prove to be of the greatest use to the State and to the guardians. I will ask you, if you…

Socrates makes a shocking proposal — Plato, Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881). The law…which is the sequel of this and of all that has preceded, is to the following effect — that the wives of these guardians are to be common, and their children also common, and no parent is to know his…

All men are NOT created equal — Plato, Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881). Would you say that all men are equal in excellence, or is one man better than another? (p. 145) Having previously made his point that women are capable of all the same civic pursuits as men (even if they must be…

Socrates responds to a common protest — Plato, Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881). [SOCRATES:] …in the administration of a State neither a woman as a woman, nor a man as a man has any special function, but the gifts of nature are equally diffused in both sexes; all the pursuits of men are the…

How Socrates decides what matters when — Plato, Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881). …we never meant when we constructed the State, that the opposition of natures should extend to every difference, but only to those differences which affected the pursuit in which the individual is engaged…(p. 142) In order to illustrate his point about…