27 - Plato's Republic 10: Degenerate Cities, Degenerate Souls

How does politics affect personality? In the ideal city, the perfect laws and education create philosopher kings. But what about everywhere else? In this chapter, Socrates gets down to some real-world political science and analyzes the four kinds of regime that actually exist in the Greek world. And because the city matches the soul, each of the regimes has its own distinctive personality type. Socrates reckons that living in a state like Sparta will make you spirited and pr...