Book Three – Shaping The Mind, Body, and Soul

Everyday we have hundreds of things that are competing for our attention. They are all trying to influence us. They want us to buy their product, to make a certain decision, or to walk a certain path on the road of life.

If you were to take a survey of what the main influences on our culture, what would you find? Would it be something to be proud of? Maybe on the list there would be things like MTV, Tom Cruise, or Dan Brown.

Socrates did not have MTV, Tom Cruise, or author Dan Brown but there were many things that shaped their regime. The poets, the writers, and the actors played a significant role in defining what was praise worthy and what is blame worthy within the regime. Physical training and the lifestyle that a person leads is something that will have a long-term effect on the life of justice within the city. How people relate themselves to the city also makes a big difference. In Book Three of Plato’s Republic, Socrates and his friends dive into what are the influences and the needs of the city.

Right away in Book Three they come to the conclusion that if there are going to be great warriors and young people in the city, what they read and hear must be monitored. If there is going to be people fighting for the protection of a city and its ideals, their access to music, poetry, performance must be limited. These things move men’s souls. It may cause them to do things that might go against what is desired of them.

The poets were the ones that wrote about the gods and their various escapades. Socrates and Adeimantus ask the question if it would be detrimental to a city if the people saw their gods living lavishly and holding onto many vices. It would be better for the young people to hear about moderation and virtue. The poetry that promoted living in excess must be suppressed.

They identify a real danger of narratives. Narratives are stories, which are to imitate the truth. People get sucked into the performance or the words and it becomes very real. They start to associate what they saw or heard in the narrative as the truth. Narratives must be suppressed.

Music needed to be addressed. There was something about the sound, harmony and rhythm of music, which had the power to the move the soul. Socrates said, “…good speech, good harmony, good grace, and good rhythm accompany good disposition.” Music needed to be regulated. It must be decided which musicians are allowed to come into the city.

They also decided that for the soldiers and the young people to have healthy minds and healthy souls, they must have healthy bodies. It is important to control their exercise and diet if they want them to be making right decisions. Living lavish lifestyles will not teach them to be stewards of what they have. Being unhealthy will just slow them down, lead to sickness, and early death.

It is vital that the people of the city have both sound mind and body. Another crucial point is that they must have a relationship to the city. It is hard to have guardians for the city, which do not know or believe in what they are fighting for. This is why Socrates devises the idea of the “noble lie.” People will believe that they came from under the earth of where they live. This will cause them to better believe in the city and die to defend it.

All too often we do not think about the lives that we lead or the things that we use to feed our soul. There are many different factors that we give into and vices that we choose to accept. In Book Three of Plato’s Republic, Socrates describes the ideal city and shows the importance of only feeding the mind, body, and soul with things that are going to promote the spreading of justice within a regime. The things we do, what we read, watch or listen to affect how we live our lives.