Plato
Republic
• Ebenstein & Ebenstein:
• -Plato’s assumption: “the right kind of
government and politics can be the
legitimate object of rigorous, rational
analysis.” (E & E 20)
Plato
• 427- 347 B.C.
• Member of the Athenian aristocracy (descendent of Codrus,
the last king of Athens, and of Solon). After Plato’s father
died, his mother married a friend of Pericles.
– Plato’s uncle Carmides and his cousin Critias (disciple of Socrates)
take part in the gvt. Of the Thirty.
– The democratic reaction to that gvt. Leads to Socrates’ death.
• Reaction: Plato resents practical politics (Seventh Letter) &
democracy
• 387 B.C. Foundation of the Academy (closed in 526 A.D. by
emperor Justinian).
• Dialogues (Socrates)
• Other major works: Statesman, Laws, Apology
(http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Plato.html)
(Politeia) Republic (380 B.C.)
Politeia = Constitution
• Everything comprising the state as it is (law,
organization, government, community, culture, economy)
• Constitution, as when we refer to a person’s bodily
constitution.
• Isocrates: politeia is the "soul (psyche) of the polis" with
power over it like that of the mind over the body
• Constitution? Athenian laws were written on stones in
public places across the city (ex: the Agora)
Republic: Ten Books
• Book I: Introduction. Thrasymachus (elenchus)
• Book II: Glauco requests Socrates for an analysis of
justice and injustice
• Books II-IV Definition of a just city and a just individual
character
• Books V-VII Problems of organization of the ideal city, in
charge of the king-philosopher
• Books VIII-IX Injustice (degenerate types of constitution:
timocracy/honor, oligarchy/money, democracy/the people,
tyranny or despotism/individual caprice)
• Book X: Conclusions. Advantages of justice over injustice
– need of rejecting poets as educators
Themes
• Justice/Injustice
• Thrasymachus vs. Socrates (Max Weber’s “ethic of ultimate
ends” vs. an “ethic of responsibility”)
• The “city of pigs” vs. the just city (kallipolis)
• The Just/Ideal city/individual character (=ideal constitution)
(monarchy/aristocracy)
• % labor – specialization – classes – hierarchy
– Hierarchy of functions
• In the city (producers, guardians, and rulers)
• In the body (appetitive, spirited, and rational parts) (self-mastery)
• Isomorphism of city and soul (fractals)
• Virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice.
• Education/Censorship (Which stories should be told to
achieve virtuous individuals?)
– Art
• Equality of genders
• The king-philosopher
• Ideas (allegory of the cave) – Idealism: what we call “reality”
is a mere (distorted) reflection of the real (Hegel).
Thrasymachus vs.
• “What I say is that ‘just’ or
‘right’ means nothing but
what is to the interest of
the stronger party.”
• “… in every case the laws
are made by the ruling
party in its own interest; a
democracy makes
democratic laws, a
despot autocratic ones,
and so on.”
• “…injustice, on a grand
enough scale, is superior
to justice…”
Socrates
• “…injustice is not more
profitable than justice.”
• “justice… quality that may
exist in a whole
community as well as in
an individual…”
• “…when each order…
keeps to its own proper
business in the
commonwealth and does
its own work, that is
justice and what makes a
just society.”
Kallipolis’ Political Order
Is based upon an ontological order
Disorder = (political and personal) disease
Discuss:
Plato’s political theory supposes the
annihilation of politics (Kallipolis)
Soul & city
• “Virtue seems, then, to be a kind of health,
fine condition, and well-being of the soul,
while vice is disease, shameful condition,
and weakness.” (444 e)
• “It seems likely that there are as many
types of soul as there are specific types of
political constitution… Five forms of
constitution and five of souls.”(445 e)
Democracy
The Democratic City
The Democratic Soul
• “Liberty and free speech are
rife everywhere; anyone is
allowed to do what he
likes.(…)…every man will
arrange his own manner of
life to suit his pleasure. The
result will be a greater
variety of individuals than
under any other constitution.
…variegated pattern of all
sorts of characters.(…) A
democracy is so free that it
contains a sample of every
kind… …emporium of
constitutions…”
• “… now he will set all his
pleasures on a footing of
equality denying to none
its equal rights and
maintenance, and
allowing each in turn, as it
presents itself, to
succeed, as if by the
chance of the lot, to the
government of his soul
until it is satisfied… His
life is subject to no order
or restraint, and he has no
wish to change an
existence which he calls
pleasant, free, and
happy.”
Are democracy and selfmastery incompatible?