The Analogy Of City And Soul In Plato's Republic

Plato introduced the analogy of city and soul in the Republic mainly to solve the problem of justice,that is: what is justice? Is justice a virtue? Are just people happy or unhappy? However,this kind of comparison has caused endless debate.Most researchers' analysis of this kind of ratio mainly focuses on the horizontal and vertical aspects: from the horizontal point of view,the city and soul as the two ends of the analogy,parallel and separate in their own orbit,So can the justice of city and personal justice be agreed in connotation as two concepts? Is the city and soul of the individual similar in structure and virtue?From the vertical point of view,does the city have a causal relationship with the soul? To break down causality,how can the relationship between the two ends of analogy be explained?Based on the relevant research results,this paper makes a critical combing of the analogy of city and soul,and then analyzes the substantive point of this kind of comparison in the discussion of justice,in order to clarify Plato's problem consciousness and theoretical direction,and then answer the question of justice.Specifically,first of all,Plato examines all kinds of customs and justice views by analogy of justice to technology,and tries to find the basis of "nature" or "human nature" for justice,so as to clarify the consistency of city justice and individual justice as two concepts in connotation.Second,Plato introduced a radical reform of the family,so that the fundamental tension between the city and the soul can be highlighted,but Plato by treating the rule as a technology,the tension between the two can be alleviated.Finally,Plato established the consistency of city justice and individual justice on the basis of transcendental soul theory and concept theory,so that the problem of "whether justice is a kind of virtue,whether justice and happiness can be integrated" was solved on the level of human transcendental existence.