Mathematics in "The Just City"

[markgritter]

Because I'm reading a history of mathematics with lots of Greeks in it (including Aristotle questioning whether parallel lines really exist) I was inspired to reread "The Just City" looking for math. Now, Jo is not a mathematician, but there are a few tantalizing hints

Comments

[markgritter]

I missed a significant piece of dialog! They do have "zeroic" numbers (this is revealed when they are distinguishing the robots by their numbers):

"Those are numbers"? [Socrates] asked. "How do they work?"
I wrote them all down in the dust, from one to ten, and showed him. "That's all there is to it. For twenty, or for a hundred---"
He understood it at once. "And you have all known this all this time and never mentioned it to me?" he said.