The absolutely necessary city will consist of four or five people, where each person has a certain skill and provides the fruits of that skill to everybody in the city. As the city expands, it will have to gain land from its neighbors and will soon be at war. Thus, the origin of war is found: the de!.
sire for possessions. This means that the city will need an army, since it has already been established that each man is only good at one skill, and warfare is a skill. Through examining the nature of a dog, hostile to strangers, and loving people they know, they realize that dogs judge things as hostile or friendly only through knowledge and ignorance. Thus, they must love knowledge. Also, since dogs are the best guardians of people they love, the guardians of the city must also love knowledge, and people who love knowledge are philosophers. Therefore, "to become a good guardian, a man must be by nature fast, strong, and a spirited philosopher" (376e). Socrates illustrates how they will train the guarders of the city; "gymnastics for the body and poetry for the soul" (376e). Beginning with children's stories that; although they are false, teach the children values, literature shapes the moral system of the guarders. .
Another characteristic of the guarders is that they need to be kept constantly in the good of the gods, for "god is the cause only of good"(380c) and "the gods shall not be misrepresented as sorcerers who change their shapes or as liars who mislead us in word or deed" (383a). In order to prevent jealousy among the guarders, there will be no private property beyond the bare necessities. Nobody will have a house or treasure that isn't open to all. The guarders will have a common life and eat in a common place. The power of the people will come from courage. "Power to preserve under all circumstances the right, lawful opinion of what is and is not to be feared"(430b), Socrates will say that the people in the city who exhibit this behavior are the guardians.
