An Analysis of the RepublicThe Republic is an examination of the "Good Life"; harmony achieved by applying pure reason and justice. Plato's ideas and arguments center on the social environments of an ideal republic, those that lead each person to the most perfect life possible for him. Socrates was Plato's first mentor in real life. As a tribute to his teacher, Plato uses Socrates in many of his works and dialogues. Socrates moderates the discussion as Plato's spokesperson. Through Socrates' powerful and brilliant questions and explanations on a range of topics, the reader comes to understand what Plato's model society would look like. The fundamental project of the Republic is to draw an analogy between the functioning of society as a whole and the life of each individual human being. In this article I will present Plato's argument that the soul is divided into three parts. I will go through what these parts are and also explain his reasoning behind this conclusion. Finally, I will describe how Plato connects the three parts of the soul to a city and the different social classes within that city. Plato assumed that people exhibited the same characteristics and performed the same functions as city-states. Applying the analogy in this way presupposes that each of us, like the state, is a complex whole made up of multiple distinct parts, each of which has its own role. But Plato argued that we have proof of this in our daily experience. When faced with choices about what to do, we commonly feel the pull of many different impulses pulling us in different directions at once, and the most natural explanation for this situation... middle of the card... his desires rather than his needs of his subjects is not virtuous. Secondly, a person in the army, who is supposed to be courageous, may abandon his fellow soldiers out of fear. Third, many ordinary people commit crimes and create conflicts within the community. None of these people are virtuous. However, this is exactly what Plato was getting at. Plato believes that when each of these classes plays its role and does not try to take over from any other class, the entire city as a whole will function smoothly, displaying that harmony which is true justice. (ln 433e) What makes the Republic such an important and interesting work of literature is that by examining what brings true justice and harmony to the world, we can then understand all the virtues by considering how each fits within the organization of an ideal city.