<P> Leo Strauss identified a four - part structure to the Republic, perceiving the dialogues as a drama enacted by particular characters, each with a particular perspective and level of intellect: </P> <Ol> <Li> Book I: Socrates is forcefully compelled to the house of Cephalus . Three definitions of justice are presented, all are found lacking . </Li> <Li> Books II--V: Glaucon and Adeimantus challenge Socrates to prove: Why a perfectly just man, perceived by the world as an unjust man, would be happier than the perfectly unjust man who hides his injustice and is perceived by the world as a just man? Their challenge begins and propels the dialogues; in answering the challenge, of the "charge", Socrates reveals his behavior with the young men of Athens, whom he later was convicted of corrupting . Because Glaucon and Adeimantus presume a definition of "Justice", Socrates digresses; he compels the group's attempt to discover justice, and then answers the question posed to him about the intrinsic value of the just life . </Li> <Li> Books V--VI: The "Just City in Speech" is built from the earlier books, and concerns three critiques of the city . Leo Strauss reported that his student Allan Bloom identified them as: communism, communism of wives and children, and the rule of philosophers . The "Just City in Speech" stands or falls by these complications . </Li> <Li> Books VII--X: Socrates has "escaped" his captors, having momentarily convinced them that the just man is the happy man, by reinforcing their prejudices . He presents a rationale for political decay, and concludes by recounting The Myth of Er ("everyman"), consolation for non-philosophers who fear death . </Li> </Ol> <Li> Book I: Socrates is forcefully compelled to the house of Cephalus . Three definitions of justice are presented, all are found lacking . </Li> <Li> Books II--V: Glaucon and Adeimantus challenge Socrates to prove: Why a perfectly just man, perceived by the world as an unjust man, would be happier than the perfectly unjust man who hides his injustice and is perceived by the world as a just man? Their challenge begins and propels the dialogues; in answering the challenge, of the "charge", Socrates reveals his behavior with the young men of Athens, whom he later was convicted of corrupting . Because Glaucon and Adeimantus presume a definition of "Justice", Socrates digresses; he compels the group's attempt to discover justice, and then answers the question posed to him about the intrinsic value of the just life . </Li>

Having a piece of man is better than having no man at all