A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
F.
G.
The Opening Dialectic. (I and II)
The Analogy Soul-City (II on)
The Education of the Guardians and Auxilliaries
(III and IV)
Education of Women + Philosopher-Kings
The Sun and the Line. (The Form of the Good.)
(VI)
The Cave Analogy (VII)
Degeneration of the Polis and the Different
Régimes. (XIII)
The Expulsion of the Poets (X)
“Suppose while we were painting statues some one should
approach us and find fault with us for not applying the most
beautiful colors to the most beautiful parts of the body, because
the eyes, which possess the highest beauty, were not painted in
purple but in black, I think we should make a reasonable reply to
him by saying, My good sir, do not imagine that we must make the
eyes so beautiful that they would not appear to be eyes, or that we
should do the like to the other parts; but observe whether by
giving to the several parts what rightly belongs to them we make
the whole beautiful. Therefore do not now compel us to bestow
upon our guardians happiness of such a kind as shall make them
anything but guardians. For we might with long trailing robes, and
setting crowns of gold upon their heads, bid them cultivate the
ground at their pleasure, and we might also, after making the
potters recline on couches at their fire, pledging each other with
wine from left to right, and faring sumptuously, letting their wheel
lie idle, bid them ply their trade as much as they please and no
more; and in like manner we might make enjoyment general
among the rest of the citizens, in order that the whole State may
be happy.
Republic Book IV 420c
B. Williams: “The Analogy Between city and soul in Plato’s
Republic Phronesis sup. vol I 1973.”
a. The whole-part rule
A city is F, if an only if its men are F
On this view the analogy between city and soul is an identity
that can be expressed as a formal relation.
But on this view also
b. A city is just if and only if its men are just.
1. Plato’s explanation of justice is circular.
2. This contradicts the analysis of justice
Argument 1.
For every polis has a majority of appetitive
persons.
Appetitive persons are not just.
Hence b. is not met.
Argument 2.
1.
Each person has one function and should do their
own job.
2.
Appetitive persons should aim to fulfill their
desires – to produce and consume.
3.
Either the appetites harken to reason or they do
not.
4.
Suppose the appetites and desires in the soul
harken to reason. If they do it is because they
are in part rational, which ex hypothesi they
5.
6.
cannot be. For then they are not desires and
appetites apart and distinct from reason.
Suppose they do not. In this case they must be
“weakened and kept in their place” by reason.
By analogy the role of guardians and auxilliaries
is one of oppression and force. “We shall find not
a just and logistically cooperative working class,
but rather a totally logistic ruling class holding
down with the help of a totally thymoedic
military class, a weakened and repressed
epithymetic class; a less attractive picture.”
Williams “The Analogy of City and Soul in Plato’s
Republic”, p. 199 Lear p. 196
Therefore we find in Plato not a just city characterised by
balance and harmony between whole and the parts (happiness)
but rather implicit totalitarianism.
Lear’s Hypothesis. (J. Lear, Phronesis 1992 xxxvii/2)
The analogy is true, but is not the explanation of justice.
Plato’s theory is not static, but dynamic.
The analogy needs to be complemented by Plato’s theory of
psychological development.
The explanation makes use of the idea of psycho-social
transactions between city and soul. These transactions go in two
directions.
1. Internalisation. City-Soul. (Socialisation,
Education, Upbringing, training, imitation etc.)
2. Externalisation Soul-City. Creation of social
structures and cultural forms through actions,
practice, custom, laws, policies, institutions.
And so it seems that in the ideal polis, after we internalize our
cultural roles by a process of education, we then externalize
them in our social roles. Lear p. 102
Lear, The whole part rule according to Plato
a*
A city is F, if an only if some of its men are F
b*
A city is just if and only if some of its men are
just.
A not circular because the relation between justice in the soul and in the
city is dynamic relation of psycho-social transactions, i.e. a
developmental story of internalizaton and externalizaton
Consistent with the analysis of justice. See 435e, 428e, 550e
Also see Plato’s story of the decline and degeneration of the polis XIII/IX
(J. Lear Phronesis 1992 xxxvii/2)
a*A city is F, if an only if some of its men are F
b* A city is just if and only if some of its men are just.
Some = those who are capable and have the opportunity to
externalize i.e. to shape the polis in their image.
b.* is not circular because the relation between justice in the
soul and in the city is dynamic relation of psycho-social
transactions, i.e. a developmental story of internalizaton and
externalization.
Consistent with the analysis of justice. See Republic 435 e and 428e 550e
Also consistent with Plato’s story of the degeneration and decline of the
polis in Republic Books XIII/IX
1.
Aristocracy (Rule of the best) - Philosopher-Kings
2. Timocracy
6. Plato meets
young tyrant?
3. Oligarchy
Rule of the
few/the rich
4. Demokratia
(rule of the
many, the poor)
5. Tyranny
And “there are as many types of character as there are forms of
government” 544d
1. Aristocracy = Ideal polis.
Aristocrat = Guardian/Philosopher King
Philosophy
Military training
Ascetic they most “devote their entire attention to the care of
themselves and the polis.” 543b.
Communism no private property just “yearly sustenance”
Community of wives and children.
2. Timocracy arises from bad choices among Guardians
(mixed souls).
Fear to admit clever men to office.
Prizing war above peace.
Timocrats love victory and honour (and wealth) “men of spirit
and narrower character” 547e
3. Oligarchy (based on property qualification)
“Suppose man should appoint the pilots of ships in this way, by
property qualification, and not allow the poor man to navigate
even if he were a better pilot.” 551C
Oligarchs make themselves rich through “influx of wealth into
“private treasuries” and make others poor. Because and
oligarchy is split, it is not a polis. VIII 551d.
Psychological counterpart is someone thrifty and acquisitive,
who dominates and enslaves his appetites.
“And is it not apparent by this that in other dealings, where he
enjoys the repute of a seeming just man, he by some better
element in himself forcibly keeps down other evil desires
dwelling within, not persuading them that it ‘is better not’ nor
taming them by reason, but by compulsion and fear, trembling
for his possessions generally…Such a man, then, would not be
free from internal dissension. He would not be really one, but
some sort of double man. Yet for the most part, his better desires
would have the upper hand over the worse. 554de
Rise in wealth = fall in virtue
However, the poor are also corrupt and unreliable leads to
internal strife and civil war.
4.
Democracy
Arises as reaction against oligarchy (557b)
And a democracy, I suppose comes into being when the poor,
winning a victory, put to death some of the other party, drive out
others, and grant the rest of the citizens an equal share in both
citizenship and offices – and for the most part these are assigned
by lot. 557a
Democracy + too much freedom
= the wrong kind of equality
= diversity of character
= exile and forced redistribution of wealth
“Possibly, said I, this is the most beautiful of polities, as a
garment of many colors, embroidered with all kinds of hues, so
this, dekced and disersified with every type of character, would
appear the most beautiful. And perhaps many would judge it to
be the most beautiful, like boys and women when they see
bright colored things.” 557c.
“a delightful form of government, anarchic and motley,
assigning a kind of equality indiscriminately to equals and
unequals alike.” 558c.
But what happens to untrained democratic characters is that
“false and braggart words and opinions” (of demagogues and
sophists GF?) “seize the citadel of the young man’s soul, finding
it empty and unoccupied by studies and honorable pursuits and
true discourses, which are the best watchmen and
guardians…”560c
Democrats lead lives of “insolence, and anarchy and prodigality
and shamelessness” “day by day indulging th appetite of the
day, now winebibbing and abandoning himself to the lascivious
pleasing of the flute and againdrinking only water and dieting,
and at one time exercising his body, and sometimes idling and
neglecting all things, and at another time seeming to occupy
himself with philosophy. And frequently he goes in for politics
and bounces up and down and says whatever enters his head.
And if military men excite his emulation, thither he rushes, and
if moneyed men, to that he turns, and there is no order of
compulsion in his existence, but he calls this life of his the life
of pleasure and freedom and happiness..” 560d
Williams criticism:
“Plato seems to confound two very different things:
A state in which there are various characters among the people,
and a state in which most of the people have a various character,
that is to say a shifting and unsteady character.” Williams 201.
Produces need for a strong leader - tyrant.
5.
Tyranny
Aristotle on the different forms of constitution and the ideal
polis
The true forms of government, therefore, are those in which the
one or the few of the many govern with a view to the common
interest; but governments which rule with a view to the private
interest, whether of the one or the few or the many are
perversions. (1279a29)
The true forms of government will of necessity have just laws,
and perverted forms of government will have unjust laws. In all
sciences and arts the end is a good, and the greatest good and in
the highest degree a good in the most authoritative (science) of
all – this is the political science of which the good is justice, in
other words the common interest. (1282b12)
Correct forms
Perverted/Corrupt forms
Monarchy
Tyranny
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Republic
Demokratia
Monarchy
Aristocracy
NE Book VIII ch. 10
Republic
Demokratia
Oligarchy
Tyranny
Considerations in favour of monarchy
1.
sometimes you need a strong man to rule well (1286a9).
2.
there would be no fighting among rulers as in
aristocracy (1286a40).
3.
if someone is preeminent in virtue its best to make him
king (1288a15-28).
4.
some people are best ruled despotically 1287b36
Considerations in favour of republic (and demokratia)
1.
big groups make better decisions than individuals
Politics 1281a38
2.
poor (uneducated) people though they cannot
formulate policies and laws are good judges of their
quality.
3.
the more inclusive a constitution the more stable it is
likely to be
4.
no armed militia independent of the polis