The nuclear family, consisting of a mother, father, and children, is something very familiar to our society. We hold these relations as ideal and form our lives around their bonds. In the Republic, Plato suggests to abolish families and replace them with the Guardians. This is easily one of Plato’s most controversial ideas; it contains positive elements, but is seen as impractical to undesirable by many. The rationale behind Plato’s idea consists of many different parts, which are focused on a main goal of unity. The belief is that if a society rids itself of these families, they will favor unity and strive towards the enrichment of society as a whole. Although this may have its positive impacts on society, I personally believe that it goes against the nature of humans. It is Plato’s opining that living without nuclear families would allow the whole society to work together as one entity; in this idea the whole community is seen as a family. The overall goal of this idea is to promote unanimity and decrease opposition. He states that it is best for a society to share their experiences and use these experiences to come together. In this society, there will not be favoritism towards ones relatives and what is just will be seen as most important. Since the guardian class will have wives and children in common, then they will also have mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters in common. Plato makes this clear when he states that, “All the citizens rejoice and are pained by the same success and failures, doesn’t this sharing of pleasures and pains bind the city together.”( Republic, bk. 5, 462). The successes of others will be seen as their own, since everyone is, in a sense, related. “Our citizens, then, are devoted to a c... ... middle of paper ... ...more from life and not truly understanding their purpose. Undoubtedly, in our conventional society, family is important for a variety of reasons. We depend on our families to teach us almost everything we know. They help us to understand social interaction and to create the things we consider to be our values. Our family starts our education and most importantly provides a sense of stability and support that can help in every kind of challenging situation. When a family fails in the raising of a child, it is clear in many aspects of the child’s behavior, which goes to show how truly important this family system is. Since the idea has never been used, it is hard to say what would actually happen if the plan was played out, but from the experience that we do have, communally raised children usually suffer negative effects in their ability to form emotional attachments
Plato’s Republic was a Socratic Dialogue discussing justice and the perfect State. Today, I will summarize, evaluate, and show application for our society in Book V of Plato’s Republic, “On Matrimony and Philosophy.”
Family systems have been studied since psychologists began studying people and their behaviors. The family is a dynamic system—a self-organizing system that adapts itself to changes in its members and to changes in its environment (as cited in Sigelman & Rider, 2009). Allowing the focus of a family system to grow beyond the mother and child relationship did not happen overnight. For many years, there was no connection made between other members of the family and the developmental issues of the children involved.
The most compelling data that we have shows the change in our American family structure. Day there are alarming number of children with mental disorders and children being raised in single parent homes has increased. In both areas it is shown that we need more preventive care (Petersmeyer 1989). Other statistics are equally troubling: each day in the United States, 3,600 students drop out of high school, and 2,700 unwed teenage girls get pregnant (Petersmeyer 1989). As a society we have a responsibility to our youth to help them become strong adults. My grandmother was always telling me that it takes more then the immediate family to raise a child well, if a child is to be rear well it takes a whole community contribution.
In conclusion, we all have our views and versions of the typical, or perfect, family, yet how come we buy in to the media's portrayal of the violent and abusive family dynamic? Is it a plague running rampant? Is it an issue amongst us all? Yes. Is it the norm? No. Nor is it the widest range of the family. Families who educate themselves, as well as support one another through emotional bonds, and the such, come closer to, and are the most widely recognized form of a sculpted and politically accurate family, as close to "typical or "normal" as it could ever get. We need families to help us when we fail, hold us when we're scared, teach us when we are unsure, and show us that a "normal family" is not specific, but is positive. In this sense we need stronger families; would you want to be the weakest link in your families' ongoing history? Think about it.
In Plato’s Republic Book IV, Socrates sets out to convince Glaucon that a person acts with three different parts of the soul, rather than with the soul as a whole. He does this by presenting Glaucon with a variety of situations in which parts of the soul may conflict with one another, and therefore not acting together. Socrates describes the three parts of the soul as the rational part, or that which makes decisions, the appetitive part, or that which desires, and the spirited part, or that which gets angry (436a).
There are different perspectives on the foundations of the nuclear family. For example, some argue that this form of the family is ‘natural’ and reflects the ‘normal’ and healthy biological urges of males and females as partners in reproduction. Others argue that the nuclear family does not represent a norm based on biological facts but rather exists alongside many other types of families such as single parent families and same-sex families. From this perspective, the family is socially constructed instead of being biologically determined, and society produces a dive...
Plato’s idea for a perfect government is to have three different classes to have different roles to help the society. The first group of people is the Producing class and they are responsible for providing materials and food for the city. This is where the farmers, blacksmiths, the fishermen, and other jobs like them. The second group is the Auxiliaries and they are the ones who job is to protect the city from threats, so the soldiers. The final group is the guardians, these are the philosophers and it is there job to not only be knowledgeable but to be just. Plato believes that there are several things that can derail the advancement of society. “Then nothing insane and nothing akin to dissoluteness can be involved in the right of love…Then sexual pleasure must not be involved” (121). Plato believed that sex should only be reserved for special festivals and for creating life, other than that people should keep in line with how a father and son touch each other. Plato did not just regulate what two people did in the privacy in the own home, but he also regulated what people should be learning in school. “At any rate, it ought to end where it has ended; for surely training in the musical crafts ought to end in a passion for beauty” ...
These are the Functionalist, Conflict, and Interactionist Perspectives. Each perspective views society in different manners, with each being correct and relevant since social institutions are too complex to be defined by any one theory. Each perspective will be used to explain the perspectives’ relevance to the family. The sociological definition of the family is “a set of people related by blood, marriage or some other agreed-upon relationship, or adoption, who share the primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society” (Schaeffer, 2009, p. 288). While the nuclear family (a man, a woman, and their children) was once the primary definition of family, now it refers to many familial configurations.
family was thought to be, or shown to the general public to be, the “perfect family”.
In Book V of Plato’s Republic, he details his view of an idealistic society. His main arguments include a platonic view of marriage which is comparable to animal breeding. He also shows a strong belief in communal family. In addition, he explains why he believes that philosophers should rule.
In this paper, my focus will be on Racial & Ethnic Characteristics, family structure and Culture. Some of the things that I will be talking about throughout my paper will be the different things from my generation and my parent’s generation as well. The reason why having a family is a major thing is because you can always enjoy time with them and share anything that you feel like is important with them. They will always be ready to hear anything their child has to say. It is not really hard to stay with them like someone that would leave their family over a small argument because they can always get over it regardless. Family is one and your only place where your life begins and love never ends. In order to create a family, you have to work for it to make it perfect, in order to be a good example of that whole society.
Within society, the role of family and its importance in shaping our behavior cannot be overstated. Whether examining the construct of family through functionalism, conflict theory, or symbolic interactionism; the role of the family in society’s structure is apparent via examination of the social aspects of family from these three perspectives.
The Republic is an examination of the "Good Life"; the harmony reached by applying pure reason and justice. The ideas and arguments of Plato center on the social settings of an ideal republic - those that lead each person to the most perfect possible life for him. Socrates was Plato's early mentor in real life. As a tribute to his teacher, Plato uses Socrates in several of his works and dialogues. Socrates moderates the discussion throughout, as Plato's mouthpiece. Through Socrates' powerful and brilliant questions and explanations on a series of topics, the reader comes to understand what Plato's model society would look like. The basic plan of the Republic is to draw an analogy between the operation of society as a whole and the life of any individual human being. In this paper I will present Plato’s argument that the soul is divides into three parts. I will examine what these parts are, and I will also explain his arguments behind this conclusion. Finally, I will describe how Plato relates the three parts of the soul to a city the different social classes within that city.
There are many types of family that exists in today’s society, each important to the upbringing of any children of which may be apart of it.
Everyone is born into some form of family, with the family taking the responsibility of nurturing, teaching the norms or accepted behaviors within the family structure and within society. There are many types of families, which can be described as a set of relationships including parents and children and can include anyone related by blood or adoption. Family is the most important, “for it is within the family that the child is first socialized to serve the needs of the society and not only its own needs” (Goode, 1982).