Western Political Thought Lectures
PLATO
, , ,
DR. LALNUNDIKA HNAMTE
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Pachhunga University College
[email protected]Contents
I. About Plato
II. Theory of Justice
A) Plato’s Interlocutors
B) Socrates’ Refutations
III. Theory of Education
IV. Ideal State
V. Communism
I. About Plato
• Plato lived during 427-347 BC
• He was Athenian philosopher in Ancient Greece
• He was a disciple and friend of Socrates.
• Three important works:
1) The Republic
2) The Politicus or Statesman
3) The Laws
• Plato witnessed Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) –
defeat of Athens and overthrow of democracy and est.
of oligarchy – the Thirty Tyrants
• In 403 BC, a counter-revolution by Thrasybulus
reinstated a democratic constitution.
• Socrates was condemned due to his association with
oligarch Critias, his uncle
• In 399 BC, Plato left Athens and remained in voluntary
exile
• To him, all existing states, oligarchy or democracy are
bad – believed in rule of philosophers.
• The Republic is an attempt, using Socrates as a
mouthpiece to express his views.
• It is a dialogue between Socrates and his interlocutors:
Cephalus, Polemarchus, Thrasymachus, Glaucon,
Adeimantus
Socrates
II. Theory of Justice
Overview
A) Plato’s Interlocutors
• In Book I, Cephalus, Polemarchus and Thrasymachus
discussed the meaning and purpose of justice or
dikaiosyne
• Cephalus: Justice is paying one’s debts and telling the
truth
• Polemarchus: Justice is the art which gives good to
friends and evil to enemies
• Thrasymachus: justice is the interest of the stronger, for
others to be just and he himself unjust.
• He was a frank admirer of tyranny and held that the
good life consists of unlimited or unrestricted life
• Laws are made by the strong and imposed on the
weak
• In Book II, Glaucon & Adeimantus
• Glaucon categorised 3 types of good:
1) Goods desirable for the sake of themselves and not
for any reward (temporary pleasures and
enjoyment)
2) Goods desirable for the sake of themselves and
also for their rewards (knowledge, health)
3) Goods desirable for their consequences but
undesirable in themselves. (medicine, discipline)
• Majority of people place justice in the 3rd category.
• Plato placed in the 2nd category.
• Three arguments of Glaucon:
1) Origin & nature of justice – agreement (social
contract) from experience of doing and suffering
evil
2) Men behave according to justice against their own
will – Myth of Gyges (Read)
3) An unjust life is better than the just life.
• Adeimantus: an unjust man should not fear the divine
judgement of the gods in the afterlife – offer sacrifices
to please the gods.
• So why should one act justly? Prove that being just is
more beneficial than being unjust.
B) Socrates’ Refutations
• Merely telling the truth is not justice. It is not just to tell
truth to a crazy person
• A just man never does evil even to his enemies. He
cannot do injustice. Only an unjust man can do evil.
• Justice is not the interest of the stronger, it is rather the
interest of the subjects not the self.
• Every art has an interest – the art of medicine is
concerned with the interest of the patient and so on.
• Rulers make laws in the interest of the ruled.
• Justice is therefore not a device created by the strong
to control the weak
• Socrates introduces the idea that they should first
define a just city, and this will help them to then
define a just individual.
’
Theory of Three Classes & Three Souls
Rulers Reason Wisdom
Auxiliaries Spirit Courage
Producers Appetite Temperance
Classes in the Parts of the Soul Virtues
Polis
Justice means staying at one’s own place and
performing the task to which one is naturally suited.
• Justice is the ‘virtue’ that enables the soul to
perform its function properly.
• There are 4 virtues – wisdom, courage,
temperance, justice.
• To understand justice of the individual soul, first
identify justice in the polis or state.
• He describes an imaginary ‘ideal’ state called
Kallipolis (Beautiful City)
• The state will contain 3 occupational classes,
between whom the ‘virtues’ of the state will be
distributed.
• Guardians or rulers will embody state’s wisdom.
• Auxiliaries or military class will embody state’s
courage.
• Producers or workers will embody state’s temperance
or self-restraint.
• Justice will be obtained when Guardians, Auxiliaries
and Producers function together to secure the good of
the community within their own limits
• To Socrates, justice means to remain within limits.
• Justice in the state is every class performing its own role
and not interfering in the affair of the other classes.
• The successful conduct of any human activity depends
upon observing the limits that constitute the possibility
of that activity.
• Justice is natural as it is indispensable to any coherent
action.
• Justice understood as a quality of the soul secures the
interests of the self but it is also other-regarding.
• People are unjust because they lack knowledge
• The only true just men are those who have knowledge
rather than opinion: those who are philosophoi, ‘wisdom
lovers’ not lovers of sights & sounds
• It is philosophers who should have responsibility for
governing the state.
The Myth of Metals
• A noble lie be told to citizens about their origin
• All citizens are born out of the soil (womb) of the city –
city = mother, fellow citizens = brothers
• The gods mix into their soul, gold, silver and bronze –
determine their place in society – ruler, auxiliary or
labourer
• This is meritocracy
II. Education
• Plato considered the state as an educational institution
and called it the “one great thing”.
• He was against the Sophists, who were epistemological
sceptics who denied the possibility of knowledge, “We
live in a world of uncertainty and ignorance.”
• Plato looked into education as an instrument of moral
reform – it molds and transforms human souls.
• “The object of education is to teach us to love what is
beautiful.”
• He defined the character of education for the
guardians
• He distinguished between Elementary Education and
Higher Education.
• Elementary education would be confined to young
age (6 years) till 18
• In Book II, Socrates argued that the content of literature
of his time was unsuitable for young people
• Theologically, teaches false ideas about the gods
• Morally, makes people cowardly ambitious
• He criticised Homer’s Odyssey
• Ideal city must have carefully designed stories
• Men and women ought to receive the same kind of
education – to fulfill same roles within the society
• “If women are expected to do the same work as men,
we must teach them the same things.”
• Emotional and character training of guardians through
stories, music and gymnastics.
• Physical training/education to prepare them bodily to
protect the city
• Higher Education
• At the age of 20, selection was made
• Those who did not qualify would become warriors – the
second tier/class of guardians.
• The stage of higher education starts from 20 to 35
years
• Higher education is again divided into two sub-
stages:
• 1st stage ranges from 20 to 30 years,
• subjects like mathematics, astronomy, logics,
geometry and other sciences must be taught.
• 2nd stage from 30 to 35
• stress must be given to dialectics, required for the
production of philosopher king.
• King was to rule from 35 to 50 years
• After 50 years king had to retire and start study of
God.
• Education was, thus, a lifelong process.
• Socrates believes that the right kind of education- a
philosophical education- can lead the mind away
from the concrete world of appearance into a real
world of ‘forms’ or ‘ideas’.
The Theory of Forms
• The idea of the forms was illustrated in the Allegory
of the Cave (Read)
• Plato believed that true reality existed beyond the
physical world.
• What we perceive around us is a shadow of truth
(justice, truth, beauty etc.)
• We rely on our senses to understand
• The world we live in is a poor representation of the
real world of forms (intelligible world)
• Forms are the essential archetypes of things, having an
eternal existence, apprehended by the mind, not the
senses, for it is the mind that beholds “real existence,
colorless, formless, and intangible, visible only to the
intelligence.”
• The irony here is that:
• In educating the citizens, Plato held that if it is for the
good of the state, a noble lie may be told. (The Myth
of Metals as discussed earlier)
III. Ideal State
• Plato lost faith in both oligarchy and democracy
• He had seen the tyranny of oligarchy
• He had seen his friend and teacher, Socrates
condemned by democracy
• To him, rule of philosophers is an ideal state
• “Until philosophers rule as kings in their cities, or those
who are nowadays called kings… become genuine and
adequate philosophers, cities will never have rest from
their evils”
• The philosopher had the knowledge, intellect and
training to govern.
• A philosopher is one who loves wisdom, had a passion
for knowledge, and was always curious and eager to
learn.
• A philosopher by his grasp of the Idea of Good was
best qualified to rule.
• Leisure was essential for the pursuit of wisdom.
• Philosopher had leisure, good character, calm
disposition and sound mind.
• As seen in the Theory of Three Souls, the soul has 3
parts/functions:
1) Reason – head (Rulers)
2) Spirit or Emotion – chest (Auxiliaries)
3) Appetite – stomach (Producers)
• Neither appetite nor emotion can function properly
without the guidance of reason.
• The successful conduct of life– happiness– depends
upon having a properly ordered soul
• The just man would be happy, contented and well-
adjusted, whose desires would not outstrip his needs.
• Need for a new ruling class – drawn out from guardian
class, - those who love the city, strong, wise,
unshakeable – complete guardians
• Other guardians will be Auxiliaries
• 3 classes of people: Guardians, Auxiliaries and
Commoners
• 3 virtues – wisdom, courage , temperance and justice
• 3 parts of soul – reason, spirit and appetite
• Plato’s last dialogue, The Laws described his ideal state
called Magnesia
• It is governed in minute details by laws devised and
administered by a Nocturnal Council.
• The members of this Council are like the Guardians of
the Republic but it is no longer believed that their
wisdom will enable them to rule the state by personal
discretion alone.
• Plato’s final position of the best state is one governed
by laws representing , despite imperfections, collective
and accumulated wisdom.
IV. Communism
• Socrates proposed common wives and common children
for the guardians in his ideal state.
• “The wives of our guardians are to be common,
and their children are to be common, and no parent is
to know his own child, nor any child his parent”
• To have strong bond of kinship to unite all citizens
towards a common end.
• No private property, no private family life.
• There should be breeding rules for guardians – the
best with the best
• Through orgiastic festival
• But will require lies and deception – to make them think
their mating habits are governed by chance
• Children of best to be reared by special professional
nurses in different part of the city – inferiors will be
exposed or murdered for the good of the city.
• Guardian women will nurse babies but not known their
own children
• Burden of parenthood kept as light as possible
• Institutions of piety and shame to be used to
discourage unauthorised mating and parenthood
among guardians.
• “Until philosophers rule as kings in their cities, or those
who are nowadays called kings… become genuine and
adequate philosophers, cities will never have rest from
their evils”
References
1. Adams, Ian & RW Dyson, Fifty Great Political
Thinkers (London & New York: Routledge, 2004)
2. Mukhrerjee, Subrata & Sushila Ramaswamy, A
History of Political Thought: Plato to Marx, 2nd
Edition (Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd., 2018)
3. Plato, The Republic