s says that the origin of war basically comes from “desires that are most of all responsible for the bad things that happen to cities and the individuals in them.” Later in Book IV Socrates is explaining the three parts of the mind: reason, spirited, and desire. He says that a man is just and will act justly when the reason and spirited parts of the mind rule over the desire and keep it in balance. If desire ever takes control of the person’s mind, then injustice will result, and the same will result if the workmen take control over the city. Tying this into the idea of war, remember Socrates stated in 373e (paraphrased) that origin of war is when bad desires take control of the individuals and the cities. This is consistent with his previous ideas about the cause of war being that of injustice. Although, Socrates seems to promote the idea of war when he later creates the “guardians” as the ones who will go to war and protect the city. Socrates and Glaucon agree in 374b that warfare is a profession. They go on to create a job description or profile for this second class of people in the make-believe city. Looking ahead to Book IV where Socrates concludes that a city is just when each person performs his or her own job, it would cause the city to be just when a guardian is performing his job by fighting in a war to protect the city. So here at the end of Book II, Socrates is implying that it is just for a city to engage in war by creating the guardians. This is definitely contradictory to his stance on war in Book I.Socrates continues this opposite view of war in Book V. He and Glaucon discuss the rules for war in the city from 467a to 471b. The whole time they are obviously assuming that the city will be fighting in wars against both other Greek cities and foreigners. If Socrates is assuming that this city is the epitome of a just city, and he is assuming that this city will be fighting in wars, we can conc...
