Plato - Philosopher King

9 Pages 2247 Words

structure of the state is very important to the topic and Plato’s views of family life and children will be looked at, how they may seem authoritarian particularly when modern comparisons are made. Subsequently, the practicalities of a state such as Plato’s will be discussed. He himself seems to criticise his earlier beliefs in some of his later work. This essay will see how in Statesman and Laws in particular offer different approaches to the ideal. Finally, we will see why, although quite well founded theoretically, Plato’s belief that philosophers should rule is flawed.
The question of whether justice is better than injustice is the main subject broached by Republic. At an individual level, Plato (through Socrates) argues that justice is the soul in harmony and equilibrium . This will be achieved by doing what one is best suited to. To ensure that the polis is just and without conflict, the logic follows that it too has to be in equilibrium. Plato sees the human soul as being composed of three parts ; the rational part, the courageous part and the desiring part. In order for the individual to be just, the rational part of the soul must govern the other two parts. This way an individual will always act with rationality and reason and therefore be just. In comparison with the polis, which Plato sees as merely and extension of the individual , only those with rationality and reason, philosophers, could govern justly. The assumption that the polis is an extension of the individual seems quite a big one. One could easily believe that people mig!
ht be just in ways that a polis cannot be, and vice-versa. Plato’s metaphysics and his ‘theory of forms’ counter this argument. Plato argues that concepts such as justice are complete and whole, in existence outside the tangible world that humans inhabit . Instances of justice, or even beauty, that can be seen in the visible world, are merely ‘sharing’ part of the ‘form o...