"The Republic", Book III

Paper Summary:

The paper explains that Book III focuses on art, education and censorship. The writer explains Plato's point of view regarding education curricula, the role of good and evil in stories, and the role of the narrator in stories. The writer discusses whether Plato is advocating censorship and concludes that Plato is talking about the need for discernment. The writer suggests that the ideal of "The Republic" - that the ideal community is ruled by philosophers - is not possible and that it is a utopia. In conclusion, the writer states that Plato uses the form of "The Republic" to make his point and teaches his discerning reader to be discriminating and cultivate his or her own censor.

From the Paper:

"Two and half millennia late, social learning theory posits that behavior can be explained in terms of observable acts that can be described by stimulus-response sequences. Social learning theory studies have shown that animals and humans model observed behaviors that then became learned through environmental reinforcements and have demonstrated that learning can occur through the simple processes of observing someone else's activity. Social psychologists also propose two paths to persuasion, which they describe as the Elaboration Likelihood Model. The ELM accounts for the differences in persuasive impact produced by sound and detailed arguments versus messages that rely on simplistic associations. The key to this process is involvement. The more you know and care about something, the more thought you will put into deciding whether or not to support or believe the message. The central route involves a high level of issue-relevant thinking. Message recipients carefully attend to the content of the message, examine and elaborate upon content in light of their own knowledge, decide on the merits of the arguments, and then determine their attitude toward the message. This scrutiny, or mental elaboration, is more than simply paying close attention or understanding the arguments; it involves generating one's own thoughts about the arguments."

More papers on "The Republic", Book III:

• Analytical Essay # 48958 : "Livy's Book III and the Twelve Tables"
• Analytical Essay # 86907 : "The Republic"
• Persuasive Essay # 23663 : "Plato's Censorship"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: