Justice in a person and a city › Legacy and Connections

Aristotle directly examines the *Republic*'s proposals about shared families and property in *Politics* II.1–5. His criticism is one early example of a reader testing the costs of Socrates' institutional arrangements. Readers can also challenge the dialogue from a commitment to individual freedom: why should claimed knowledge of the good entitle one group to direct everyone else's lives? That is an objection to assess, rather than a single account of the history of liberalism. Engaging with the *Republic* means examining questions the dialogue repeatedly connects: What is justice? What is the good life? Who should rule? What is real? How should we educate the young? What is the relationship between the individual and society? The *Republic* gives arguments and answers that its readers can contest. What it offers is a model of how to think about them: rigorously, imaginatively, and with a willingness to follow the argument wherever it leads. Its arguments are an invitation to test those connections for yourself.