Andy Speck
Professor Nelson Escalante
Philosophy
February 26, 2018
Chapter 5: Plato

Coming off the death of Socrates, Plato spent twelve years wandering the world, learning math
and mysticism, both of which heavily influenced his teachings. After this time, he settled down
somewhat and spent the next forty years educating at the Academy. The backbone of why Plato
created the Academy resulted from his notion that “no present government was suitable for
philosophy”. Its chief purpose was to educate those who would come to rule, this is likely due to
Plato seeing the utter failure of government at the trial of Socrates. Plato saw the perfect
government as progressive, focusing on math, geometry, and the arts, and in educating future
leaders, he hoped to achieve this dream.

According to Plato, the big distinction between knowledge and opinion is that knowledge “is
fixed, absolute, and eternally true” and opinion is “changeable and unanchored”.

Three prisoners have been bound inside a cave since birth. Their heads are tied in such a
way
that they cannot see anything but what is in front of them. Behind them is a low wall with a
bonfire blazing. Someone is back there playing with puppets and other marionettes, only allowing
the shadows to pass over the low wall. The idea is that since these prisoners have never seen
anything besides shadows, that they would therefore see those shadows as “real” objects. The
prisoners would play a game to guess which shadows would appear next. After an undisclosed
amount of time, one of the prisoners is able to undo their bindings and escape. He is shocked by
the outside world, and sees that his perception of reality was wrong. The sun is what he sees as
the source of all light and life, not the bonfire. Returning to the other prisoners, he reports his
findings, but they become angry, and threaten that if he tries to release them, they would kill him.

The four virtues are as listed
o
Temperance- another name for moderation. “the healthy soul is not controlled by
appetite”
o
Courage- necessary to protect community and the law. Essential virtue of the warrior
class
o
Wisdom- only present when the rational part of the soul is healthy. Virtue associated with
the guardians
o
Justice- the result of the other three virtues. “excellence of function for the whole”. Each
of the other three work together to create a balanced and “just” system

Plato’s theory states that no one person is self-sufficient. Each person has needs that the state is to
fulfill; nourishment, protection, and ordering needs. These are met by corresponding classes;
workers, warriors, and guardians. Without these three classes of people, Plato would then assess
the state would become unjust, and broken due to the imbalance it would inflict.

Plato’s testament is that the ideal rule would not, infact, be democratic, but rather by philosopher
kings. He sees democracy as turning into oligarchy, then causing the rich to become richer and
the poor to become poorer. After a tipping point, the poor overthrow the rich in the name of
equality. Democracy would contain every temperament, but would be dominated by a lack of
guiadance, self control, and wisdom. Democracy is a state in constant flux.