Plato's Ideal State

7 Pages 1853 Words

ernment. When they are at the age of fifty, they will be ready to be rulers. By this time, they will have acquired the four cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, discipline, and justice.

Giraudo 3
The cause of this lengthy education is to transform the future rulers into philosophers. The rulers of Plato’s ideal state are basically philosopher kings. The explanation for this is that philosophers love knowledge. A love of knowledge brings forth the seeking of more knowledge. While seeking this knowledge, the philosophers must understand the Forms. Forms are anything in its pure state, such as: Justice, Beauty, Size, etc… In order to understand Forms you must understand why something has its assigned attribute. It must be understood what it is that makes something beautiful, or why something is large. The highest Form of all is Goodness. An analogy to help understand the Form of Goodness is this: Goodness is to knowledge as the sun is to sight. The sun gives us light, so that it might reflect off objects, allowing them to be seen. Goodness gives us truth, and truth in turn illuminates the Forms, making them intelligible, allowing knowledge to be gained from the...