10.1. Notes [ ± 60 min ]
Site:
Eduvos Learning Management System
Printed by:
Anesu Chekururama
Course:
ACPSA1-33
Date:
Thursday, 31 August 2023, 12:35 PM
Book:
10.1. Notes [ ± 60 min ]
Table of contents
1. Learning outcomes
2. Relevance Connection:
3. The Three Divisions in Society
4. The Decline of the Ideal State
5. Plato's Cosmology
6. Evaluation and Significance
1. Learning outcomes
By the end of this topic you should be able to:
Discuss Plato’s moral and political theory
Prescribed Reading
Lawhead, W.F. 2002. Voyage of Discovery: A Historical Introduction
to Philosophy. Belmond, California: Cengage Learning.
Chapter 4
2. Relevance Connection:
The last field of interest to investigate in regards to Plato's philosophies is that of politics. In
this particular the question revolves around the purpose of politics, politicians and how to
achieve that purpose. For Plato, only a person who was wise and trained in philosophy
should have qualified to be in charge. As such, he rejected democracy as a governing
system. What were his reasons for this? That is what this lesson will focus on.
3. The Three Divisions in Society
The soul of the individual person is a miniature version of the structure of society; society
could be viewed as the individual person projected on a large screen.
The relationship between the two is deeper than that of just having a parallel structure
Plato believes it is impossible to live the good life or to be a fulfilled individual apart from
the state.
A good society is only possible if the people in power are good and live by the light of
philosophical reason.
The good person and the good society depend on each other.
Plato: the state is like an organism in which each part finds its life in relationship to the
whole.
Persons are organically related to each other and to the whole of society.
Our fortunes rise and fall together.
Plato: the most functional state is built on a division of labour.
Plato expands this point into a whole political philosophy that is very critical of
democracy.
Plato: politics is a science that should be left to the experts no less than with any craft,
skill, or science.
When it comes to formulating the policies and laws that govern the state, the democratic
majority represents those least likely to make an informed decision.
When we are concerned with the health of the state, we should seek out those who have
the necessary wisdom to govern.
These experts must have a vision of the Good.
They must know what constitutes true knowledge.
Just as the navigator must understand the stars and be able to use them to guide a ship
through the vast ocean, so our political rulers must be able to navigate the ship of states
by means of a vision of the Forms and the Good.
Who else would these political navigators be but those with philosophical wisdom?
Unless either philosophers become kings in their countries or those who are now called
kings and rulers come to be sufficiently inspired with a genuine desire for wisdom; unless
that is to say, political power and philosophy meet together… there can be no rest from
troubles… for states, nor yet, as I believe, for all mankind; nor can this commonwealth
which we have imagined ever till then see the light of day and grow to its full stature.
If justice in the individual soul is the balanced harmony of all the elements in the person,
under reason then justice in the state will have the same structure.
Corresponding to the 3 elements within the individual; there are 3 kinds of people within
society (each kind has an appropriate role to play).
The producers (provide the necessities of life and all its material and economic good and
services; includes farmers, shoemakers, carpenters and general laborer's).
The auxiliaries originally called the guardians (concerned with the welfare of society as a
whole and protects it from its external and internal enemies; those trained as guardians
will be divided into two further groups based on their abilities ; auxiliaries [police, military,
federal agents and administrators]).
The guardians/the rulers (ultimate rulers of the state; select group distinguished by their
intelligence and philosophical wisdom; job is to establish the policies and laws of
society).
As the producers are concerned with material acquisition and physical comfort, they
correspond to the appetitive part of the soul.
The auxiliaries are those people who are ambitious, assertive and desire honor; they
manifest the spirited element of the soul.
The guardians/the rulers represent reason.
The classes in Plato’s society works differently to the classes in our modern-day society.
The lower class (the producers) has the most freedom and physical comfort.
The two higher class (the auxiliaries and the rulers) live very regulated lives.
In the early years of life, the children of all classes are subjected to rigorous testing and
observation and those with superior abilities are selected.
Plato’s Republic stands as one of the greatest classics in utopian literature.
4. The Decline of the Ideal State
Plato understood this ideal society is a fragile accomplishment.
Plato calculated the forces that would cause it to fall apart.
From the stage of an intellectual aristocracy (which was this ideal) the state could
degenerate into a timocracy.
This would occur if the rulers come to love honor and ambition rather than the good of
society.
Thus, the spirited element would take precedence over the rational parts.
Such rulers will be wary of intellectuals and will be more interested in the glories of war
than in peace.
The desire for honor could easily degenerate into a desire for wealth.
The government would now become an oligarchy or Plutocracy in which the wealthy few
held the power.
As the rulers became richer, the rest of society would become poorer, and the one unified
country would now be divided into two groups with opposite interests.
Once the passion for wealth is unleashed, then the self-discipline necessary for the ideal
state will disintegrate.
Finally, the dissatisfaction of the powerless poor will reach a turning point, and the rulers
will be overthrown and a democracy would result.
Plato has a very dismal view of democracy, for in such a state, “liberty and free speech
are rife everywhere; anyone is allowed to do what he likes”.
Instead of the country being run by those who are most competent, a democratic public
“will promote to honour anyone who merely call himself the people’s friend”.
Plato: each of the various forms of government tend to shape its citizens after its own
image.
By making an idol out of equality and failing to recognise distinction between people’s
abilities, a democratic government will encourage a personal stance towards life in which
people will believe that “one appetite is as good as another, and all must have their equal
rights”.
Plato believes that democracy is unstable, as a political system and as an organisational
principle of the soul; for if we treat every interest and desire equally, then there will be war
between them for supremacy.
As the different faction’s lobby for their interests, the the ruler will give heed to whichever
voice is the loudest and will gratify the masses at the expense of the rich.
As the tensions mount, the people will rally around a leader who promises to champion
their interests and will anoint him/her with power.
But to consolidate his power, he will need to suppress all who might challenge it; the
courageous, the proud, the intelligent and the rich.
Soon the state will disintegrate into despotism or tyranny.
In seeking to gratify their lust for money and pleasure, the people will have given
themselves over to an unprincipled ruler whose only goal is power.
Similarly, the democratic individual who gives free reign to all his passions instead of
ranking them from better to worse will find himself the victim of one master's passion.
Democracy, as a political and personality type, will lead to political and psychological
bondage.
For more, watch the following video: Philosophy Vibe. 2021. Plato's Republic - The Perfect
Society. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N01fZYrbm4
[Accessed: 10 July 2023].
5. Plato's Cosmology
Just as a society cannot exist unless there is order.
Plato believes the universe could not exist without a principle order governing it.
In Philebus, Plato refers to the regular motion of the heavenly bodies as evidence of
‘wonderous regulating intelligence’.
Plato acknowledges that it is very difficult to arrive at a consistent and precise account of
the origins of the universe.
The best we can do according to Plato: is to construct a highly probable theory or ‘likely
story’
Plato starts from the premise that “everything that becomes or is created must of
necessity be created by some cause”.
Since the universe is so vast and complex, its cause must be immeasurably powerful and
intelligent
This supreme cause is God or the Demiurge (craftsman).
Plato’s God is not omnipotent and “does not create the cosmos out of nothing.”
Plato’s God is like a human craftsman who creates an article out of pre-existing material
following a blueprint.
The raw material the Demiurge works with is completely formless and chaotic; while the
blueprint consists of the eternal Forms.
Like a sculptor shaping a mass of clay, the Demiurge imposes the Forms on the
malleable matrix of spatial ‘stuff’, which is called the Receptacle.
Why did the Demiurge desire to bring order out of the chaos?
Plato explains:
He was good, and the good can never have any jealousy of anything. And being free
from jealousy, he desired that all things should be as like himself as they could be.
The Divine Craftsman’s motive is like that of the philosopher whose love of the Forms
motivates him/her to bring the Forms to bear on the body of government.
Philosophers imitate God by extending the order and excellence of their souls into the
world.
Since the Demiurge imparts some of its nature into the universe.
Plato speaks of the created universe as a ‘living creature’.
As it is an organic whole, the universe is harmonious and all its elements work together.
It consists of a visible body and an invisible soul, accounting for both its material and
purposeful nature.
The cosmic soul mediates between the eternal realm of the Forms and the Demiurge,
and the changing physical world.
The Demiurge did not create every object in the world directly, but having sowed the seed,
he allowed the creative, rational powers of the cosmic soul to carry on the task of
creation.
A significant feature of this narrative is that Plato explains the universe in terms of a
purposeful order that permeates it.
An explanation in terms of a purposeful order is known as a teleological explanation.
Why are you sitting here? You do not answer the question by talking about the physiology
of your bones and muscles that enable you to sit.
Instead, I want to know your goal or purpose for being there.
Plato thinks that explaining the universe by simply referring to its material elements is
insufficient
The order in the world exhibits purpose that points to a mind behind it all.
Those measures of beauty, goodness and order found in the world are the result of the
Forms and the Demiurge’s activity.
Plato explains the presence of disorder in the world by claiming an element of chance in
the raw material from which the world is fashioned (the Receptacle).
Plato calls this chaotic force ‘necessity’ or the ‘variable cause’.
Plato: necessity is not related to logic, for it is the opposite of mind or rationality; it’s a
purposeless random cause.
While faulting the Atomists for ignoring the presence of purpose and intelligence in the
cosmos, Plato did concede that some things just happened through blind chance.
The world as we know it came about through a struggle or negotiation between the
rational power of the Demiurge and the irrational unruly nature of the raw materials.
The mind of the Demiurge ‘persuaded necessity to bring the greater part of created
things to perfection, and ‘through necessity made subject to reason, this universe was
created’.
The thesis that the material aspect of the world is irrational has 3 implications:
Matter resists the imposition of order, making the complete perfection of the physical
universe a metaphysical impossibility.
This ingredient of chance or randomness is the physical world prevents us from making
it fully intelligible or understanding it to the degree that we do mathematical objects.
Since beauty, goodness and order come from the Forms, the intrinsic irrationality of
matter and its continuous deviation from the Divine order is the source of all evil in
humanity and nature
6. Evaluation and Significance
Although almost every one of Plato’s philosophical claims has been subjected to critical
scrutiny, this theory of the Forms has received the most attention.
Since this theory is central to Plato’s view of knowledge, ethics, and politics, it will be
worthwhile to take a closer look.
This theory is a testimony to Plato’s greatness as a philosopher, for he anticipated most
of the major objections to his account of the Forms.
Plato discusses 3 significant problems in his dialogue entitled Parmenides:
Concerns the question: “Are there Forms of everything”
Concerns the relationship between the Forms and particulars
“The Third Man Argument”