The Republic by Plato [Book 3]

The third book of The Republic by Plato talks broadly about the arts in education format for a responsible society. He talks about the removal of certain things in the books that might lead to the corruption of mind or  challenging of the superiority of gods. I think that removal of wrong texts is good but removal of the content that questions the authority is somewhat a political decision. A person should be skeptic in the approach towards theological arguments otherwise there will be no arguments. Another thing that Socrates says is that the weeping a sorrow of the powerful should be removed. Well, I think that its good when we look at it in the case of creating a war machine but generally, these emotions are there. The pupil can be taught how to control such things and how you become weak with the regular practice of such things but the removal is somewhat, again, a political decision.

Most of the later arguments comes out from the discussion on music and gymnastics which are considered to be the highest form to connect through soul. The selection of graceful and rhythmic harmonies is agreeable along-with the selection of a just guardian from the gymnastics. The most controversial part is the right to lie. Everyone but ruler is prohibited to lie i.e., only the ruler can lie and that also in the case of good for citizens. Who is to decide what is right? This question was raised in the first book too. Also, serving the country is the dream of citizens is in reality is a lie is going to be shocking for lots of nationalists. What I have deduced from this chapter [book 3] is that setting the people up in the name of good is what the leaders are best at and I do not condemn them for this as this is the way to handle people. Adolf Hitler discussed the same format in his book Mein Kampf, when he talks about the use of press to influence the mob, but in the reverse gear.

One more thing that I found controversial is the concept of love. According to Socrates, true love is independent of sexual intercourse as he considered this activity as the greatest form of immodesty. Well, he  forgot that we all are born out of this immodesty only. I have heard that another Plato compilation named as Symposium talks about the concept of love in detail. Will read that later; its time for the Book 4 now.