Socrates' censorship of the poets, the art of government, and the advanced cognitive division of labor.

When I think of Socrates’ censorship of the poets in Book II-III of the Republic, I have had a tendency to understand it in terms of the disorder or corruption they produce in their audience, young and old. This is why he targets their representation of the gods and punishment (e.g., 379-382), and goes on to criticize, say, their representation of extre…