Plato Republic- His Plan Fo

Plato Republic- His Plan Fo Rthe Ideal Society on Education, Government Ethics, Justice and Human Knowledge

Plato's "The Republic" is one of the fundamental philosophical works in which the author undertakes an incredibly complicated task: an attempt to provide advise and necessary elements for the creation of an ideal society, one where individuals take on just acts, where philosopher kings govern correctly and where education is appropriately distributed to all individuals. Such an ideal society is based on an array of pillars, among which education and knowledge, justice, and government ethics are among the most important ones.

These pillars are seen by Plato as interconnected and fundamental in creating the perfect society. On one hand, there is the need for a just government, seen by Plato in the form of philosopher kings, who shepherd the people. On the other hand, the people is the supporting framework of the leadership and, as such, education and knowledge are necessary. Plato proposes universal and identical education for both men and women with appropriate courses to mold them both physically and spiritually.

The role of this paper is to discuss Plato's plan for an ideal society based on his approach towards these pillars and evaluate the capacity of success in each of these cases.

Education

In Book II, the first concern that Plato has is whether education should be the same for both man and woman and how these two scenarios (similar or different types of education) are likely to affect the development of the ideal society. According to Plato (following the dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon), man and woman are equal in the labors they share or could share, "the only difference between them is that the males are stronger and the females weaker" (Claeys, Sargent 1999). This type of approach is remarkably progressive and has significant impact on the education, in terms of how it is designed and implemented.

First of all, the fact that the only difference between man and woman is that of strength (although it is later acknowledged that it is not always the case that men are taller than women), this means that there is no difference when it comes to making decisions, where men and women could indeed be on the same level, including when it comes to ruling a society. Second, and more importantly from an educational perspective, if there is no intellectual difference between male and female, it is only natural that the education the two categories of individuals receive should also be the same.

The educational framework in an ideal society, as described by Socrates in his dialogue with Glaucon, should also be austere. Perhaps austere is a tough word to use, but the idea is that education should be targeted towards improving the qualities of the educated subject rather than include things just for the finery of it. If the educational subject will provide added value for the individual and, thus, for society, then it can be included in the curriculum. From his perspective, gymnastics is essential in ensuring a proper development of the body, just as musical education will help develop the individual's soul. Homer's literature, for example, included as musical education, is not austere and does not provide added value for the ideal society and should, thus, be eliminated (Dillon, 2004). The debate around Homer's works simply points out that the examples in his legends will provide a negative approach on life for the children who understand these stories as explanations of inequality and injustice.

On the other hand, education leads to knowledge, and knowledge is one of the elements that Plato puts at the basis of his ideal society. Based on knowledge, a society can properly develop, but it can also have the necessary elements to make it a just and ethical society. Knowledge of good and evil is not necessarily included in the educational framework, but more knowledge amassed can provide the premises for such knowledge.

Justice

Plato's approach first differentiates between the theoretical, ideal notion of justice and justice as it is seen and implemented in practice in the city. For the former, the dialogue uses the legend of Gyges, according to which a ring that made him invisible gave him power to seduce the queen and take over the kingdom. In Plato's dialogue, Glaucon uses this example to show that justice is similarly linked to the idea of punishment and its characteristics are marked by the capacity of a regulating body (or society) to inflict a punishment in case the characteristics of justice are not respected (Danzig, 2008). The dual perspective on justice is presented here by Glaucaon, who opposes Socrates' utilitarian argument that a just life is simply a better life than an unjust one.

Socrates aims to discuss the idea of justice in practice, in an ideal society, where the society will be seen as a sum of individuals, thus alternating the perspective from an individual one to a collective one. Justice in Socrates' perspective on the city includes common sense and advice deriving from myths. As such, as man is a product of nature and of Earth, it is natural that justice can also be seen as a balanced approach in which each individual is keen to follow on his own business, do those jobs for which he is best suited and not interfere with the way things develop in nature.

On the other hand, Plato reflects in his work on the fact that justice does not exist per se, but is rather developed within the city, not necessarily because of the constraints mentioned, but as a result of the paths that individuals follow in life. At the same time, in his view, justice is related with order, usually the order arising from a society where each understands his role and position. This is why Plato introduces the three categories of individuals where everybody carries out the exact orders that the category implies: soldiers, producers, and rulers. According to Plato, the ideal society from the justice perspective is one where everybody understands the role which he has been allocated.

Government ethics

Plato refers throughout "The Republic" to the ideal government and how government ethics will affect the proper development and prosperity of the ideal society. At the same time, the idea of an ideal government ties into the discussion on education (the men and women who will be serving this ideal form of government need to be properly educated) and justice (the final measurement of a government's efficiency will clearly be the way a government understands to implement just laws for its citizens. The question used to measure its efficiency and its actions will be "are these actions just?").

For Plato, the answer to what the ideal government should be is simple: the ideal government is formed of philosopher kings. These philosopher kings have seen the forms, for Plato, the philosophical ideal. For this reason, they should be able to make the just decisions in their governmental approach and lead the ideal society towards a philosophical prosperity.

The criticism towards such an approach do not necessarily emphasize the danger that such a government may have less correlation with some of the practical aspects of government. Being wise (even in this philosophical approach that Plato promotes) is not necessarily a sufficient characteristics that the ideal ruler needs to have. One can also be concerned of the fact that a philosopher king will not necessarily always make his decisions based on reality, but rather on what he perceives reality to be.

However, philosophical criticism towards this form of government proposed by Plato refers mainly to the fact that this is a true reflection of an idealistic totalitarian rule that would populate the 20th century through social experiments such as those of Hitler or Stalin and the political currents they promoted (Communism and Nazism) (Popper, 2002). This is something that can be argued. However, on the other hand, one needs to consider the ideal society that Plato envisions and the fact that this would eventually transform in "The Republic" into a society that would eliminate economic restrictions and other boundaries, much similar to what Marx had proposed in his Communist idealism. Unfortunately, as is the case with Communism, things do not always translate as well in practice as they seemed to function on paper and in theory. For this reason, a government proposed by Plato and based on "philosopher kings" would probably be less functional.