What is The Republic?
{{italictitle}} '''''The Republic''''' is a book by [[Plato]]. It was finished in 375 BC.<ref>Brickhouse, Thomas and Smith, Nicholas D. Plato (c. 427–347 BC), The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, University of Tennessee, cf. ''Dating Plato's Dialogues''.</ref> It asks the question 'why should people do good things?' and also the question 'are people punished for doing bad things?'. Plato said that people should not do bad things because people who do bad things end up unhappy. However, people who do good things end up happy. He also said that if people who do bad things get [[Influence|power]] in a [[society]] then that society will become an unhappy one. Plato believed that [[philosopher]]s are best able to do good things and so they should be given power in a society. He thought that non-philosophers should allow themselves to be ruled by philosophers and that if they do this then they will be happy, because the rule of peoples ([[democracy]]) often fall because of unreasonable confusion. However, in order not to be tempted to do bad things, the philosophers who have power must not be able to have things or feel [[love]]. Plato also talked about many other things while discussing these questions including [[metaphysics]], [[psychology]], [[religion]] and most branches of [[philosophy]]. He introduced the philosophy called [[Platonism]]. == Plato's argument (Less Simple) == Plato thought that [[person|people]] and [[society|societies]] are very much alike. Plato thought that people are made of three things: * A [[mind]] that [[wikt:thought|thinks]] and [[wikt:reason|reason]]s * A [[spirit]] or a [[self]] that looks after the person * A [[body]] that does things, likes things, hates things and wants things (such as [[food]], [[drink]] and [[sex]]). He said that a good person will listen to all these things, but will let the mind control the other two. Somebody who does not listen to all three parts, or who does not let the mind control the other two will be unhappy. They might go mad because they do n