The Argument Of Socrates In Plato's The Republic

I am going to attempt to show that although the argument that Socrates makes in The Republic by Plato is valid, it is not sound. I am going to explain his argument and challenge a premise that he has made to support his argument.

First, I want to discuss some terms Socrates uses and how he defines them. Socrates defines the function of something as what only it can do or what it does better than anything else. For example, the function of a screwdriver would be to screw and/or unscrew. A screwdriver may now be the only thing that can screw or unscrew but it can better than anything else. Similarly, a blow dryer’s function is to dry hair, a person could dry their hair other ways, but a blow dryer dries hair better than anything else. Socrates

Socrates defines virtue as what helps something to perform its function well. For instance, the virtue of hedge trimmers is their sharpness which helps them to perform their function of trimming bushes well. Likewise, an airplane performs its function of flying well by its virtue of wings. Furthermore, glasses perform their function of enhancing vision by their virtue of lenses. Another example would be a flashlight which performs its function of providing light well by its virtue of a working light bulb. So as shown something performs its function well because of the virtue that it

Socrates states that living is a function of the soul; meaning that only a soul can live or a soul lives better than anything else (1) (Page 42). Anything with a function performs it well by means of its own peculiar virtue and badly by means of its vice or lack of virtue (2) (Page 41).This means that something that has a specific function would do it well because of a certain feature or attribute that it obtains. For example, a chainsaw performs its function of cutting by the virtue of its set of sharp blades and badly by its lack of its set of sharp blades or vice of dull blades. Therefore a soul would live by its virtue. So then it must be asked what is the soul’s virtue? The soul has multiple functions not just living. Since only a soul can take care of things,rule, deliberate, and the like, then another function of a soul is to take care of things,rule, deliberate, and the like (3) (Page 41). Only something with a soul could nurture things such as animals and children, rule over a country state or city, and deliberate what is right and what is wrong and come to a decision based off of the deliberation. The soul performs its function of taking care of things, ruling, deliberating and the like well by means of justice (4) (Page 42).Socrates defines justice as having a control and balance that creates harmony within a soul (Pages 53-54). To perform a