The Republic - Plato - Benjamin Jowett&nbsp;is a&nbsp;Socratic dialogue, authored by&nbsp;Plato&nbsp;around 375 BC, concerning&nbsp;justice&nbsp;(&delta;&iota;&kappa;&alpha;&iota;&omicron;&sigma;?&nu;&eta;), the order and character of the just&nbsp;city-state, and the just man. It is Plato&#39;s best-known work, and has proven to be one of the world&#39;s most influential works of&nbsp;philosophy&nbsp;and&nbsp;political theory, both intellectually and historically.<br /><br />In the dialogue,&nbsp;Socrates&nbsp;talks with various Athenians and foreigners about the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man. They consider the natures of existing regimes and then propose a series of different, hypothetical cities in comparison, culminating in Kallipolis (&Kappa;&alpha;&lambda;&lambda;?&pi;&omicron;&lambda;&iota;&sigmaf;), a&nbsp;utopian&nbsp;city-state ruled by a&nbsp;philosopher-king. They also discuss the&nbsp;theory of forms, the&nbsp;immortality&nbsp;of the&nbsp;soul, and the role of the philosopher and of&nbsp;poetry&nbsp;in&nbsp;society. The dialogue&#39;s setting seems to be during the&nbsp;Peloponnesian War.<br /><br />While visiting the&nbsp;Piraeus&nbsp;with&nbsp;Glaucon,&nbsp;Polemarchus&nbsp;tells&nbsp;Socrates&nbsp;to join him for a romp. Socrates then asks&nbsp;Cephalus, Polemarchus, and&nbsp;Thrasymachus&nbsp;their definitions of justice. Cephalus defines justice as giving what is owed. Polemarchus says justice is &quot;the art which gives good to friends and evil to enemies.<br /><br />&quot; Thrasymachus proclaims &quot;justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger.&quot; Socrates overturns their definitions and says that it is to one&#39;s advantage to be just and disadvantage to be unjust. The first book ends in&nbsp;aporia&nbsp;concerning its essence.