Introduction: The Republic is an inquiry on the question of justice and why we should be just. It is an examination of the "Good Life"; the harmony reached by applying pure reason and justice. The ideas and arguments presented are centrally on the social conditions of an ideal republic – those that lead each individual to the most perfect possible life for him. Socrates who was Plato's early mentor in life answers the question in a traditional Greek society where they don't interrogate such questions. Instead they tend to trust tradition and so asking this question itself is breaking the convention.
             This paper seeks to explain Plato's vision of an ideal and a just city in The Republic. I find his vision of the city and construction of justice an attractive one even though there is no direct evidence that his institutions were put into practice and were successful or not. But what makes The Republic so captivating is that even after hundreds of centuries Plato continues to be one of the most widely read scholars in the western world. During his search he creates a theoretical city of the kallipolis. This city is to be the ideal, good city and for Plato, the good city is the natural city where self-selection should not exist. I will interpret the various institutions Socrates constructs, which are instrumental in the practice of dialectic and give appropriate justification of how censorship, elimination of the family and the rule of philosopher-kings is necessary for "purifying" the city.
             The Search for Justice: As Socrates points out, it is commonly assumed that there is "justice of one man" and also "justice for the whole city". If "justice" has a true and stable nature, it will have to exhibit one and the same "form" in each and every case where it is present (whether in the life of an individual or in the institutions of a polis). So the proper defi...