The Ideal City
Three classes:
Guardians
Auxiliaries
Producers
The noble lie
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Everybody in the city will be taught that their
soul’s are made of a metal depending on the
class they belong to . Gold for rulers, silver for
auxiliaries, and bronze and iron for the
producers.
Each is to stay in its own class.
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Each class is determined by merit. Those best
suited to soldiers will be soldiers, those best
suited to guardians (rulers) will be guardians
The prospective rulers will be tested to
determine their ability to rule and loyalty to the
city.
How do the guardians and the
auxiliaries live?
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There will be no wealth allowed for the upper
classes
They will live communally, allowed only food,
shelter, basic clothes and weapons.
Adeimantus: But Socrates, won’t these best
citizens of the city be unhappy?
Two responses:
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We are trying to make the city as good as
possible, not focus on what makes an individual
as happy as possible. To do this each part must
have what is appropriate to it—as in a painting
It will turn out in fact that these rulers and
auxiliaries will be the happiest people in the
Republic.
The four virtues
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Wisdom
Courage
Moderation
Justice
The city has each of these.
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The city is wise because the guardians are wise
The city is courageous because of the courage
of the Auxilliaries
It is moderate because each of the classes are in
harmony and agree as to who should rule and
who should be ruled
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The justice of the city consists in the principle
of specialization. Each part of the city performs
that task that it is naturally suited to perform.
It is this principle that explains why the city has
all the other virtues, what makes it an ideal (and
differentiates it from other, less just cities)
Justice in the city and
Justice in the
individual
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Justice in the city: each part of the city
performing the function it is naturally suited for.
Guardians ruling, Auxiliaries aiding the rulers,
the producers obeying the rulers.
The other virtues of the city, wisdom, courage,
and moderation follow directly from justice.
The argument for the tripartite soul
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No one thing can have opposite characteristics.
If one thing seems to have opposite characteristics this
is because it has different parts
Example: Socrates is moving and not moving. This is
only possible if one part is moving and another is not
moving (his arms might be moving, and his legs not
moving)
If the soul has opposite characteristics, then it
can be shown that the soul has parts.
Socrates claims the soul does sometimes have
opposite characteristics (at the same time)
therefore the soul is divided into parts.
What are the opposite characteristics?
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The soul has opposite desires
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I desire ice cream and desire not to eat ice
cream.
This example shows that there are at least two
parts of the soul . The part that wants ice cream
(appetite) and the part that desires not to eat ice
cream (reason)
But what of the third part of the soul, spirit?
Leontius and the dead bodies
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Leontious was walking along one day and saw some
dead bodies and was overcome with a strong desire to
look at them. He gave into his desire and at the same
time felt anger at himself.
This shows that spirit, the seat of anger, is separate
from appetite.
But what of reason and spirit? What reason is there to
think that these are distinct?
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Animals and small children are highly spirited
and are irrational
Therefore spirit cannot be the same part of the
soul as reason.
Also Reason and Spirit conflict when one is
about to lose one’s temper. Reason holds back
the desire to get into a fight.
The just individual
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The individual is just if each part of the soul
performs its natural function. Reason will be in
control, spirit will aid reason, and the appetites
will be kept under control
There is an analogy between justice in the city
and justice in the soul. It’s the same property
applied to different things
The just citizen and the Just
individual
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In the just city, each person performs their
natural function
A just citizen, is one who does their proper role
Are the just citizens also just people?
The citizens of the just city are like
just people
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They are not themselves just (except for the
rulers)
But they are like just people in that they obey
reason– the reason of the guardians.
The citizens in the city obey reason, but unless
they are the rulers the reason they obey is
external to them.
What about conventional morality?
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Socrates claims that a person who is just in his
sense will also act “justly”—that is not steal, lie,
murder.
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But why? The definition of justice says nothing
about how a just person will act.
Possible solutions
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Unjust acts are usually motivated by physical
desires—the sorts of desires that do not
dominate a just person.
Perhaps a rational person would also possess
moral knowledge, knowledge of the GOOD.
More on this in Book VI and VII.