In the dialogue, Socrates discusses with various Athenians and foreigners the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man.[5] He considers the natures of existing regimes and then proposes a series of hypothetical cities in comparison, culminating in Kallipolis (Καλλίπολις), a utopian city-state ruled by a class of philosopher-kings. They also discuss ageing, love, theory of forms, the immortality of the soul, and the role of the philosopher and of poetry in society.[6] The dialogue's setting seems to be the time of the Peloponnesian War.[7]
^Brickhouse, Thomas and Smith, Nicholas D. Plato (c. 427–347 BC), The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, University of Tennessee, cf. Dating Plato's Dialogues.
^In ancient times, the book was alternately titled On Justice (not to be confused with the spurious dialogue of the same name). Lorenz, Hendrik (22 April 2009). "Ancient Theories of Soul". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
^Baird, Forrest E.; Walter Kaufmann (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN978-0-13-158591-1.
^Although "there would be jarring anachronisms if any of the candidate specific dates between 432 and 404 were assigned". Nails, Debra (2002), The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics. Hackett Publishing. ISBN0-87220-564-9, p. 324