Plato

1
Plato

• Carson Holloway, University of Nebraska

2
Platos Historical Context

• Political philosophys origin occurred around 400
  B.C. in the city of Athens.
• Socrates, the first known political philosopher,
  considered human things as opposed to the
  pre-Socratics who focused on the fundamental
  principles governing the universe.
• Socrates scrutinized the human condition by
  seeking common opinions about political and moral
  subject matter and then submitted these opinions
  to rational scrutiny through a dialectical method.

3
Platos Historical Context - Continued

• Plato recorded the activities of Socrates in a
  series of dialogues that are still appreciated
  for their beauty and wisdom.
• Plato was part of an aristocratic Athenian
  family, some of whose members were dedicated to
  overthrowing the Athenian democracy.
• He traveled late in his life to the island of
  Sicily and tried unsuccessfully to reform the
  rule of the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius II.
• He founded a school of philosophy in Athens known
  as the Academy and Aristotle was one of his
  students.

4
Platos Historical Context

• Plato focused on the problem of the relationship
  of the philosopher to his community.
• The philosophers quest for truth about political
  things places the unquestioned opinions necessary
  for the communitys survival into jeopardy.
• Platos Republic attempts to reconcile the
  philosopher and the community by showing how the
  interests of the city (polis) and the philosopher
  can be harmonized.

5
The Dialogue versus the Treatise

• Platos political philosophy is expressed in a
  number of dialogues, in none of which Plato
  appears as a speaking character. In contrast,
  most other political philosophers have used
  treatises straightforward arguments advanced in
  the authors own name and voice. What might be
  the strengths and weaknesses of each approach?

6
The Ethics of the Republic

• Inquiry into Justice
• The choice of dialectic over rhetoric
• Definitions of Justice
• Cephalus Paying ones debts
• What about giving an insane man a weapon?
• Polemarchus Doing Good to Friends and Harm to
  Enemies
• Do we not make something worse if we harm it?

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The Ethics of the Republic - continued

• Definitions of Justice
• Socrates According to Polemarchus justice would
  lead just men to make other men unjust by harming
  them.
• Thrasymachus Injustice is more profitable than
  justice.
• Socrates Injustice destroys peoples ability to
  work towards a common enterprise similarly
  injustice disrupts the individual.

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The Ethics of the Republic - continued

• Socrates subdues Thrasymachus, but his victory is
  built upon the analogy of ruling as an art.
• Socrates gives justice a victory without defining
  it.
• New definitions of justice.
• Glaucon Justice is an onerous task pursued for
  gain rather than for its own sake.

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Justice in the Ring of Gyges, from the Republic,
Book II

• Glaucon advances his argument about injustice by
  using a tale of a magic ring that would bestow
  invisibility upon its possessor.
• Even if just a man had this ring, he would act
  unjustly, and if he did not everyone would think
  he was an idiot though they would praise him to
  his face.

10
The Ethics of the Republic - continued

• Founding a city in speech to find the nature of
  the soul.
• One man and one art, minding ones business as
  the definition of justice
• If reason rules, the soul is in order.

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The Ethics of the Republic - continued

• The just order of the soul is the source of just
  order of the city, but how do we know that reason
  will not be unjust?
• Allegory of the cave - Reason is grounded in the
  Good that is beyond bodily desires.
• The pursuit of justice is connected to the
  happiest life, the life of the philosopher.
• Tyrants are the mirror image of the philosopher
  and are ruled by desires and are unhappy.

12
The Cave Analogy, From the Republic, Book VII

• The allegory of the cave illustrates how gaining
  knowledge about what is true would make one seem
  like a madman to those who remained acquainted
  with the world of illusion. The man blinded by
  the sun (the true, good, and beautiful) would not
  be competent when returned to the world of the
  shadows (the world of opinion).

13
The Ethics of the Republic - continued

• A tension exists between the philosopher and the
  community.
• Socrates was sentenced to death by the city.
• The community is deluded by opinions that are
  like shadows in the cave.
• The philosopher is likely to be perceived as mad
  in stead of as a savior.

14
The Philosopher versus the Tyrant

• While many think that power will ensure their
  happiness, Socrates teaches instead that true
  happiness is found in wisdom or knowledge,
  especially knowledge of the highest things. In a
  sense, the most powerful person, the tyrant, is
  the weakest, because the disorder in his or her
  soul makes him or her powerless to be happy.
  Does Socrates argument ring true? Would we
  count Saddam Hussein a happy man if he had been
  able to live out a complete life as rule of Iraq?

15
The Nature of Politics

• The purpose of the community is to provide
  citizens education in virtue.
• Education (Paideia) Is character formation.
• Virtue (Arete) Habits necessary for community
  and the highest activities of the soul.
• Plato attacks traditional politics in works like
  the Gorgias by assaulting the goodness of
  rhetoric when it is not wedded to philosophy.

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The Nature of Politics - Continued

• The Apology is the dialogue where Socrates
  deploys rhetoric to convince the city that his
  philosophy is not impious and corrupting, but
  holy and virtuous.
• Socrates is convicted but he almost succeeds and
  the success of Platos Academy and Aristotles
  Lyceum indicate his death was persuasive for his
  cause.

17
The Nature of Politics - Continued

• Socrates sentence also indicates that some
  people are closed to virtue.
• Philosophical statesmanship will be concerned
  with education.
• The training of guardians of the city will
  require the harmonizing of spiritedness to
  protect the city and gentleness towards fellow
  citizens.
• Gymnastic and music are a part of this education,
  but music gains special attention.

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The Nature of Politics - Continued

• The Greek definition of music includes rhythm,
  harmony, melody, speeches, poetry, and
  literature.
• Socrates rejects the stories in the Iliad and the
  Odyssey because they contain gods animated by
  unruly passions. They should be censored
• Rules for good poetry
• The divine is not the source of evil.
• The gods will not change form.
• The next life should not be disparaged

19
The Nature of Politics - Continued

• Rules for good poetry (continued).
• Guardians must not grieve excessively.
• Guardians must be truthful, but rulers may
  violate this rule. Socrates uses the analogy of
  the doctor and the patient to make this point.
• Guardians must be moderate with control over
  desires and obedience to rulers.
• Platos critique of his culture and its
  excessively spirited ideal of manliness shows
  philosophy can transcend its culture to bring
  about human flourishing.
• Bad actions will not be shown in poetry.
  Imitation has moral consequences.

20
Censorship, from the Republic, Book II

• Socrates documents the injustices chronicled by
  Greeces greatest poets including Hesiod and
  Homer.
• Censorship is initially advocated as a means of
  protecting the young.

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Imitation and Narration

• What would Plato likely think about the movies,
  television shows, and music produced by Americas
  entertainment industry? Would he say that it is
  too willing to imitate excessive passions and
  wicked behaviors? Can a good story be told by
  narrating but not imitating such things? To what
  sort of moral standards, if any, should creative
  artists be held? Who, if anyone, should enforce
  those standards?

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The Nature of Politics - Continued

• Socrates believes the right rhythm and harmony or
  the wrong rhythm and harmony have moral
  consequences for the city.
• The good citys music education is to produce
  graceful citizens.
• Morality is bound to what is beautiful.
• Music education edifies the citizen and turns
  them toward higher things. Appropriate music is a
  form of lawful play and produces law abiding
  citizens.

23
Music, From the Republic, Book III

• And therefore, I said, Glaucon, musical training
  is a more potent instrument than any other,
  because rhythm and harmony find their way into
  the inward places of the soul, on which they
  mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the
  soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or
  of him who is ill-educated ungraceful and also
  because he who has received true education of the
  inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions
  or faults in art and nature, and with a true
  taste, while he praises and rejoices over and
  receives into his soul the good, and becomes
  noble and good, he will justly blame and hate the
  bad, now in the days of his youth, even before he
  is able to know the reason why and when reason
  comes he will recognize and salute the friend
  with whom his education has made him long
  familiar.

24
Law and Character

• Over the last 50 years or so, American law and
  culture have sought less and less to form
  character with a view to moderation. At the time
  there has been an explosion of laws and
  regulations trying to govern the conduct of
  individuals and institutions. Would Plato see a
  connection between these two trends? Would he be
  correct?

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The Nature of Politics - Continued

• The moral education of the Republic is
  insufficient and requires assistance in the guise
  of a noble lie.
• All citizens are brothers and sisters from the
  earth though they are not completely equal.
• Those who rule have more gold mixed in their
  souls, whereas the guardians have more silver,
  and the craftsmen and farmers have bronze and
  iron. Even a reasonable city needs a myth of
  divine sanction.

26
The Noble Lie, From the Republic, Book III

• (Socrates speaking to Glaucon) how then may we
  devise one of those needful falsehoods of which
  we lately spoke-just one royal lie which may
  deceive the rulers, if that be possible of the
  rest of the city?
• What sort of lie ? he said.
• Nothing new, I replied only an old Phoenician
  tale of what has often occurred before now in
  other places (as the poets say, and have made the
  world, believe), though not in our time, and I do
  not know whether such an event could ever happen
  again, or could now even be made probable, if it
  did.
• How your words seem to hesitate on your lips!
• You will not wonder, I replied, at my hesitation
  when you have heard.

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Problems of Politics and the State

• Founding the city in speech reveals the gap
  between true politics and real politics.
• Limits need to be placed on the guardians
  accumulation of property to prevent them from
  exploiting their charges. Communism is necessary
  for the establishment of true politics. Socrates
  suggest three waves to establish a city dedicated
  to human happiness.

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The Problems of Politics and the State - Continued

• Three Waves
• The equality of the Sexes gymnastics should be
  conducted together and the most fit for the role
  of guardians should be selected regardless of
  gender.
• Community of women and children No private
  families are to exist and sexual lives are to be
  governed by a rigged lottery.
• Philosopher Kings Those who appear to be
  useless are the true navigators.

29
Gender Equality, From the Republic, Book V

• I should rather expect, I said, that several of
  our proposals, if they are carried out, being
  unusual, may appear ridiculous.
• No doubt of it.
• Yes, and the most ridiculous thing of all will be
  the sight of women naked in the palaestra,
  exercising with men, especially when they are no
  longer young they certainly will not be be a
  vision of beauty, any more than enthusiastic old
  men who in spite of wrinkles and ugliness
  continue to frequent the gymnasia.

30
Sex and Work

• Many human societies have tended to assign
  different social functions to men and women. In
  recent generations, however, many developed
  nations have moved away from a sex-based division
  of labor toward opening all vocations to whoever
  can demonstrate an aptitude for them, regardless
  of whether they are men or women. That is
  developed countries seem to be adopting notions
  of nature and justice similar to those advanced
  in Book V of the Republic. Other political
  philosophers, however, like Aristotle and
  Tocqueville, have defended a sexual division of
  labor as natural, arguing that men and women tend
  generally to have different emotions and moral
  dispositions that suit them for different tasks.
  Are there important natural differences between
  the sexes that have implications for how society
  should be organized?

31
The Abolition of the Family

• Is the private family an impediment to justice
  because it is a powerful source of partiality and
  conflict, as Book V of the Republic suggests? Or
  does the family serve the city well by fostering
  natural bonds of affection that can later be
  extended to the whole community, as Aristotle
  argues in the Politics? Can a plan to abolish the
  private family succeed, or will it necessarily
  cause so much frustration that sooner or later
  people will reject communal arrangements.

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The Problem of Politics and the State - Continued

• Karl Popper interprets Book V as an indication of
  Platos commitment to totalitarianism.
• Leo Strauss interprets Book V as an effort to
  deflate utopian political aspirations.
• Darrel Dobbs interprets Book V as effort to
  reform the individuals soul by fostering a sense
  of responsible detachment.

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Policy Blueprint, Cautionary Tale, or Thought
Experiment

• Should the institutions discussed in Books V and
  IV of the Republic be understood as a program for
  political reform, as a way of illustrating the
  practical costs of an excessively idealistic
  commitment to justice, or as a way of revealing
  the proper order of the soul?

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Platos Contribution the Critique of Democracy

• Democracy is like a many colored cloak decorated
  in all hues.
• Democracy allows for the search for the best, but
  it is not the best.
• Democracys emphasis on freedom makes it soft and
  unwilling to impose good behavior.
• Commitment to equality fosters a certain
  lawlessness of the soul and in the city.
• This disorder paves the way for tyranny.

35
Platos Contribution the Critique of Democracy -
Continued

• Freedom creates economic differences.
• Industrious and rational become rich and the rest
  become poor.
• The poor use democracy to try to alleviate their
  poverty.
• The rich become enemies of democracy to protect
  their wealth.
• The poor appoint a tyrant to protect their
  interests.
• The tyrant oppresses everyone in the city.
• The American constitution with its protection of
  property rights and checks and balances owes much
  to this critique of democracy.