Platos The Republic - 1054 Words

In Plato’s The Republic, the theory of appointing a ruling class is a major aspect in his political theory of a just state. As communicated through Socrates, Plato believed in the appointment of only a few citizens of the just city that possess a soul that craves all truth, knowledge, wisdom, and through proper education are competent enough to rule the just state and to decide on legislative policies. In my paper, I will be arguing against Plato’s political theory of who is best fit to be chosen as leaders to rule the just state. I will argue that Plato places too much confidence in the morals of citizens and that the soul is naturally rational and those who are chosen to lead will not necessarily uphold justice and make the right decisions. Placing the powers of democracy in the hands of the masses is more secure rather than designating power to only a selected few because the masses know what they want and know more for what is best for themselves. Although Plato was correct in requiring that leaders must be knowledgeable, but the best way to approach this problem is to not exclude people but that all people should be given the right to decide what is the greater good for their own societies. Citizens should have the right to appoint their own rulers based on their own knowledge. I will also argue that Plato’s political theory of the just state is ideal and not practical because it has not yet existed. In The Republic, Plato portrays his distaste for democracy, whereShow MoreRelatedPlatos Republic1243 Words   |  5 PagesIn Platos Republic, Socrates goes to great lengths to explain and differentiate between the ideas of opinion and knowledge. Throughout society, most common men are lovers of sights and sounds. Lovers of sights and sounds like beautiful sounds, colors, shapes, and everything fashioned out of them, but their thought is unable to see and embrace the nature of the beautiful itself (Republic 476b). The few who do recogni ze the beautiful itself are followers of the sight of truth, the philosophersRead MoreEssay on Plato’s The Republic1168 Words   |  5 PagesPlato’s The Republic In the simile of the cave We are asked to picture a group of people sitting inside a dark cave, their hands and feet are bound in such a way that they can only look at the back wall of the cave. Behind the chained prisoners a fire is burning, and between them and this fire a path runs along which men carry figures, the shadows of these figures are projected onto the back wall of the cave. The prisonersRead MoreEssay on Platos Republic981 Words   |  4 PagesPlatos Republic Plato, one of the most ingenious and powerful thinkers in Western philosophy, born around 425 B.C. Plato investigated a wide range of topics. Dominant among his ideas is an immense discourse called The Republic. The main focus of Plato is a perfect society. He outlines a utopian society, out of his disapproval for the tension of political life. Plato lived through the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), in which much of Greece was devastated. This created poverty and political confusionRead MorePlatos Republic3750 Words   |  15 PagesBook I What is justice? Why should we be just? Cephalus - Justice means living up to your legal obligations and being honest. - Socrates - Its like returning weapon to a madman.. hell kill people. Polemarchus - Justice means that you owe friends help, and you owe enemies harm. - Socrates - we are not always friends with the most virtuous, nor are our enemies always teh scum of society Thrasymachus , sophist - Justice is nothing more than the advantage of the stronger-- it does notRead MorePlatos Republic Essay896 Words   |  4 PagesPlatos Republic â€Å"the having and doing of one’s own and what belongs to one would be agreed to be justice.† (The Republic 434a) In other words the above statement means that justice, according to Plato, is doing only the tasks assigned to them by nature. This is the fundamental notion for his creation of an ideal city. It is both knowing what true justice is and where one belongs in the city that the ideal can be achieved. What this means to politics in the ideal city is that onlyRead More Platos Republic Essay1025 Words   |  5 PagesPlatos Republic In Plato’s Republic, Glaucon is introduced to the reader as a man who loves honor, sex, and luxury. As The Republic progresses through books and Socrates’ arguments of how and why these flaws make the soul unhappy began to piece together, Glaucon relates some of these cases to his own life, and begins to see how Socrates’ line of reasoning makes more sense than his own. Once Glaucon comes to this realization, he embarks on a path of change on his outlook of what happiness isRead MoreLessons of Platos Republic1714 Words   |  7 PagesPlato’s Republic aims to teach us that justice, in itself, is worthwhile, and that it is better to be just than unjust. It is better to be just than unjust for the just person avoids a life of misery, and the just person lives a happy life. It also goes so far as to teach the value of moderation and self-control to citizens of democracy and democracy itself. In trying to create the argument of why it is better to be just than unjust, Plato first creates an analogy of the state/city to individualsRead More Platos Republic Essay4438 Words   |  18 PagesIn reading the Republic, there is no reason to search for arguments which show that Platonic justice (inner justice or psychic harmony) entails ordinary justice. The relationship between inner justice and ordinary justice is of no importance in Platos Republic. We note that Plato tries to argue from the very first book that the true source of normativity lies in knowledge attained by philosophical reason. What is crucial, then, is the relationship between inner justice and acts which bringsRead MorePlatos The Republic and The Apology1714 Words   |  7 Pages In Plato’s The Republic and The Apology, the topic of justice is examined from multiple angles in an attempt to discover what justice is, as well as why living a just life is desirable. Plato, writing through Socrates, identifies in The Republic what he thought justice was through the creation of an ideal city and an ideal soul. Both the ideal city and the ideal soul have three components which, when all are acting harmoniously, create what Socrates considers to be justice. Before he outlines thisRead MoreJustice in Platos The Republic Essay527 Words   |  3 Pages Plato creates a seemingly invincible philosopher in The Republic. Socrates is able to refute all arguments presented before him with ease. The discussion on justice in Book I of The Republic is one such example. Socrates successfully refutes each different view of justice presented by Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus. Socrates has not given us a definitive definition of justice, nor has he refuted all view s of justice, but as far as we are concerned in Book I, he is able to break down the