The Unity of Plato’s “Republic”: Two Types of Eidos

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of the unity of state and soul in Plato’s Republic, as well as the unity of the dialogue itself. The substantial unity of the State is considered through the prism of two different types of eidos (permeating and collective) and the structure of the text. The author believes that the permeating eidos of justice connects the collective eidos of the soul and the state in this dialogue. Such a model of the "whole" is found at least in the dialogues Symposium, Sophist and Timaeus and is a kind of solution to one of the most important problems for Plato "one//many". The work consists of three parts: the first deals with two types of eidos; the second traces how their interaction in terms of content is played out in the dialogue; the third briefly shows how it is refracted in the structure of the text.