Devin Stauffer

Having already adjusted to the academic environment of ECLA, the 2008-09 AY students had the opportunity to accompany their growing familiarity with Plato’s Republic with the lecture of Professor Devin Stauffer, a scholar of classical political philosophy. His impetus for reading and discussing Plato comes from his deeply ingrained belief that Platonic works contain “a richer and truer account of human life, of the soul and its deepest concerns, than one can find even in the greatest works of modern philosophy”.

The lecture started with a reference to the composition of The Republic, and the possibility of distinguishing “Book One” from the rest of the text, as two different dialogues. “Book One” is concerned with the various definitions of justice, while the rest of the work encompasses the conceptualization of the ideal city. Professor Stauffer quotes Friedrich Schleiermacher for this thesis; together with Friedrich Schlegel, Schleiermacher translated Plato into German at the beginning of the XIXth century. Unfolding upon his observations, Stauffer searches for the philosophical cement holding the two parts together, and finds it in the speeches of Glaucon and Adeimantos at the end of “Book Two”. What had happened in the first part was dissatisfying to the expectations of the two men, and culminated with the definition of justice given by Thrasymachus, namely, the advantage of the strong. Thus they urgently demand a more vigorous refutation from Socrates, prompting the entire utopian construct in the second part. Glaucon’s speech appears to be the most impressive, requesting a defense of justice as an ultimate goal, and expecting to hear about its inherent value; to render its advantages, he puts into balance the life of the perfectly just man with that of the perfectly unjust.