Thumos: Coping in Plato's Republic

Plato's Republic is mainly the discussion of justice versus injustice and the task of defining each. To figure out how to grasp a definition, Socrates, Glaucon, and Adeimantus set to creating a Just City as a model for the individual. Eventually they come to the point of seizing the land of neighbors, discovering the origins of war (373 e). With war as a factor, they must create guardians not only to fight to gain land, but …

…to be not only warriors, but citizens as well. The people he has manufactured through rigorous education are not only loyal to their state, but will not fight with their neighbors, will not lie, and will not laugh in excessive amounts. Republic's guardian class does not fear death nor long for money or gifts. This society, in its faults and miscalculations, shows us that to achieve perfect justice is impossible while citizens are still humans.