Key Arguments

• Philosophers love knowledge that reveals the eternal and all true being, relinquishing none of it ‘whether greater or less.’
• They ‘will never intentionally receive into their mind falsehood’ and must love truth; love of wisdom is incompatible with love of falsehood.
• Desire drawn toward knowledge channels pleasures to the soul, making true philosophers temperate and ‘the reverse of covetous.’
• Magnificence of mind and being a ‘spectator of all time and all existence’ exclude meanness and fear of death, and preclude cowardly, unjust, or hard dispositions.
• Love of learning requires progress without pain; forgetfulness makes one an ‘empty vessel,’ so a good memory is necessary.
• Truth is akin to proportion; thus a ‘well-proportioned and gracious mind’ naturally moves toward true being.
• Only those who possess the cluster of virtues—friend of ‘truth, justice, courage, temperance’—can pursue this ‘blameless study’ and, when perfected, be trusted with the city.

Source Quotes

What do you mean? Let us suppose that philosophical minds always love knowledge of a sort which shows them the eternal nature not varying from generation and corruption. Agreed.

Agreed. And further, I said, let us agree that they are lovers of all true being; there is no part whether greater or less, or more or less honourable, which they are willing to renounce; as we said before of the lover and the man of ambition. True.

What quality? Truthfulness: they will never intentionally receive into their mind falsehood, which is their detestation, and they will love the truth. Yes, that may be safely affirmed of them.

True. He whose desires are drawn towards knowledge in every form will be absorbed in the pleasures of the soul, and will hardly feel bodily pleasure—I mean, if he be a true philosopher and not a sham one. That is most certain.

What is that? There should be no secret corner of illiberality; nothing can be more antagonistic than meanness to a soul which is ever longing after the whole of things both divine and human. Most true, he replied.

Most true, he replied. Then how can he who has magnificence of mind and is the spectator of all time and all existence, think much of human life? He cannot.

Certainly not. And again, if he is forgetful and retains nothing of what he learns, will he not be an empty vessel? That is certain.

Undoubtedly. And do you consider truth to be akin to proportion or to disproportion? To proportion.

To proportion. Then, besides other qualities, we must try to find a naturally well-proportioned and gracious mind, which will move spontaneously towards the true being of everything. Certainly.

The god of jealousy himself, he said, could find no fault with such a study. And to men like him, I said, when perfected by years and education, and to these only you will entrust the State. Here Adeimantus interposed and said: To these statements, Socrates, no one can offer a reply; but when you talk in this way, a strange feeling passes over the minds of your hearers: They fancy that they are led astray a little at each step in the argument, owing to their own want of skill in asking and answering questions; these littles accumulate, and at the end of the discussion they are found to have sustained a mighty overthrow and all their former notions appear to be turned upside down.

Key Concepts

• philosophical minds always love knowledge of a sort which shows them the eternal nature not varying from generation and corruption
• they are lovers of all true being; there is no part whether greater or less, or more or less honourable, which they are willing to renounce
• Truthfulness: they will never intentionally receive into their mind falsehood, which is their detestation, and they will love the truth
• He whose desires are drawn towards knowledge in every form will be absorbed in the pleasures of the soul, and will hardly feel bodily pleasure
• There should be no secret corner of illiberality; nothing can be more antagonistic than meanness to a soul which is ever longing after the whole of things both divine and human
• the spectator of all time and all existence
• if he is forgetful and retains nothing of what he learns, will he not be an empty vessel?
• And do you consider truth to be akin to proportion or to disproportion?
• we must try to find a naturally well-proportioned and gracious mind, which will move spontaneously towards the true being of everything
• when perfected by years and education, and to these only you will entrust the State

Context

Having argued that philosophers must rule, Socrates delineates the necessary psychological and moral profile of genuine philosophers and ties eligibility to comprehensive formation and maturation.

Perspectives

Plato

Affirms a unified ethical-epistemic psychology: orientation to the Forms aligns with virtues and psychic harmony; political trust follows noetic and moral perfection.

Socrates

Offers diagnostic criteria to separate true from sham philosophers and to guide selection for education and eventual rule.