Criticism of Democracy as a Criticism on How to Live One’s Life

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The majority of Socrates’ criticism of democracy in the Republic deals with how he ideally thinks a society should be structured. However, if individuals witnessing this dialogue in fifth century Athens were considering this argument simply in terms of how a government should run, they would be missing Socrates’ main point. For Socrates is actually discussing something much more personal to his audience through means of the republic, their soul. He states this when he introduces the republic, “Therefore, I suggest that we first consider the nature of justice and injustice as they appear in the republic, and then examine the individual, going from the larger and the smaller and then comparing them” (Anderson 56). For the thoughtful citizens of late fifth-century Athens, Plato’s Republic would provide a very useful tool to criticize not just simply democracy but more so how the way they form their government affects the balance of their souls. Socrates criticizes democracy as insufficiently balancing the souls of its people, and he does this in two ways. First, Socrates’ criticizes democracy for its lack of cultivating rationality among its citizens, meaning that the people of democracy do not reason with truth but rather faulty opinion because of their governmental structure. Secondly, Socrates’ criticizes democracy for encouraging the lack of self-control over one’s pleasures, meaning that a democratic society is both born by and fosters the incorrect belief that all there is to life is freedom. Socrates’ creates a republic to criticize democracy, and by doing this he compares the healthy soul to the unbalanced one.

Socrates’ indirectly attacks democracy in ancient Athens when he discusses the differences between opinion an...

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...strate the faults with the souls of the people of the time, and he gives them the republic as a guide on how to improve their souls. His vision for these balanced souls is one that moderates desires with self-control and rationality. The Republic is ultimately a search for the meaning and use of the form justice. Socrates says that he pursues absolute meanings such as justice not by sensory perception, but by discovering how and why such a form functions in relation to other things, and that is what he continues to do during the duration of the dialogue. To an ordinary thoughtful citizen of Athens though, the event may persuade them to practice self-control and rationality. Whether or not this would bring about a republic is another question, but it would bring about happiness, and perhaps even above absolute truth that is what Socrates is really looking for.

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