4.2: Lawfulness Internalized, Legislation Minimized

See 423d-427c. Drawing their sketch of the good city to a close, Socrates emphasizes the importance of maintaining the high educational ideals already discussed and of guarding against lawlessness slipping in under the guise of innovation. To this end, the rulers should also be concerned with the games children play, “the silence appropriate for younger people in the presence of their elders, the giving up of seats for them and standing up in their presence, the care of parents, hairstyles, clothing, shoes, the general appearance of the body, and everything of that sort.” Socrates takes these “seemingly insignificant conventions” very seriously, and shows himself in this regard similar to Confucius, the father of Chinese philosophy (roughly a contemporary of Socrates, their births being within a hundred years of each other); both Socrates and Confucius insist that the little details of life are morally significant, particularly for young people learning to be good, who benefit from living in a way that has been carefully and consistently ordered. But for all his concern about regulating education, Socrates warns against passing laws regulating contracts, torts, taxes, and things of that sort. He suggests that, in general, people rely too heavily on legislation to solve social problems. Instead of becoming good themselves – internally virtuous – people try to bring about goodness through laws and the external compulsion that laws entail. It is like “sick people who, because they are intemperate, are not willing to abandon their bad way of life,” but are always seeking “some new drug that will make them healthy.” Education is the only true cure for social problems. Anything else is “just cutting off a Hydra’s head.” With respect to determining the proper religious practices for the city, Socrates admits to having “no knowledge of these things,” and indicates that the god at Delphi, Apollo, should be consulted.

• Do the games children play affect their moral development? Do some encourage crass materialism or discourage cooperation? Do some cultivate desirable intellectual or emotional traits?
• Does it perhaps not matter what children play but how they play? Consider the virtue of good sportsmanship and how it is acquired.

• What effect could hairstyle and clothing conceivably have on moral development?

• What tools do rulers have to effect positive social change besides legislation?