Sim City

 The Technological advances of virtual reality is astounding. I remember standing at a console at the 1982 World’s Fair in Louisville, Kentucky fascinated by this TV screen that you could touch and manipulate what was on the screen. In the days of Pong and Space Invaders, this was the future. By the way, I am writing this on my phone using the on-screen keyboard and talk-to-text. The same device I use to make calls, read books, play video games—just like you. The future is here. But the future is not new. 400 years before Jesus, a virtual society was built using dialogue. Each and every piece and person clearly seen in the mind of those having the conversation. That conversation was written in the form of “The Republic.” 

Using only words, Socrates and his friends developed a state, built its defenses, then identified and educated its warriors. They decided the focus of education, its content, style and tested the results. Next, they determined who should be in charge of the state, their character, lifestyle, duties and rewards. The point? Attempt to identify the nature of four foundational virtues, namely wisdom, courage, temperance and justice.

Wisdom is the application of good counsel in contrast to knowledge, or skill. Courage is not limited to ferocity in fighting but extends to preservation, or salvation against compromise or dissolution. Courage supports the health and preservation of the state. Temperance is “the ordering or controlling of certain pleasures and desires.” The remainder of Book 4 returns to the beginning of the whole conversation, the discovery of justice. If Justice is minding your own business, then injustice is being a busybody in other men’s affairs. What is virtuous for the man is virtuous for the state.