The Republic by Plato

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Wisdom, courage, moderation and justice are four essential virtues the ideal state must be built upon, as explained by Socrates in Plato’s Republic. Throughout the eight books of Socratic dialogue the ideal state and ideas of justice are debated, on both individual and state levels. The guidelines for a perfect state and how it will come about are thoroughly described. Socrates covers every aspect of political life and how it should work stating that “until power and philosophy entirely coincide… cities will have no rest form evils” . In Plato’s Republic Socrates emphasizes the superiority of the philosopher and their abilities to rule as kings above others. He believes that they are best suited to rule as a result of their pure souls and lust for knowledge, the desire for truth over opinions and things that are tangible. The philosopher is best able to fulfill the four essential virtues of the state and thus must be the king. He evokes the idea of a cave, a parallel to the effects of education on the soul and a metaphor for human perceptions, to describe how humans will act and show distinctions between groups of people. This conception of the ideal state has been heavily criticized by his successors, but when applied according to how Plato perceived the state and human capacity, in theory the idea of the philosopher-king is extremely convincing. According to Socrates the soul is made up of three parts, and each person is governed primarily by a different one. Which aspect of the soul occupies a person affects their access to the four virtues deemed ultimate. The appetitive part of the soul is at the bottom of the divided line; it controls the unnecessary desires and is undesirable to be governed by. The spirited element of the s...

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...n them it is their ability to suppress the negative parts of the soul that measures superiority. The producing class is unable to move past the appetitive part of the soul making them too interested fulfilling personal wants to rule in the interest of the good. The auxleres are stuck in the spirited part, able to see the truth outside of the cave but unwilling to leave the comfortable environment of the cave. They crave easy honor and are not suited to rule a just city as honor so often gets in the way. The guardians will be trained to be philosopher kings; they are able to suppress the desires of the lower parts of the soul to achieve rationality and reason. Philosophers have a natural lust towards truth and knowledge and are unchanged by personal desires. Since rationality is equated with justice philosophers are the obvious choice to preside over the just state.

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