  Moreover, one can concede that the Republic calls into  question many of its political proposals without thinking that Plato  means to cancel them or suggest other, radically different political  advice (cf. Clay 1988). It is striking that Socrates is ready to show that it is  better to be just than unjust before he has even said that  the just and wise person must be a philosopher and that the just city must be ruled by philosophers (444e–445a). It is also striking that  Adeimantus enthusiastically endorses the idea of “holding the women  and children in common” (424a) and then later asks Socrates to  explain it (449c–450a). And it is striking that Socrates recognizes  that Greeks would ridicule his proposal that women take up the arts  of war (452a). But Plato might signal for his readers to examine and  re-examine what Socrates says without thereby suggesting that he  himself finds fault with what Socrates says. 