Purple in Platos Republic

Purple in Plato’s Republic
The achievement of the “good of the whole” is the purpose of Socrates’ constitution, proposed in Plato’s Republic. To explain this purpose to Adeimantus in Book IV of The Republic, Plato has Socrates invoke the analogy of the “purple eye,” (90) which is employed at the opening of the Book, after Adeimantus states that Socrates’ citizen-guardians would live in misery because they would always be “on guard,” as it were, and would never actually enjoy themselves.
Plato uses the theme of purple throughout the text, which has symbolic power (as it represents royalty and majesty) to craft the response of Socrates. The ideal is what Socrates has in mind—the highest reality—which is made plain in the Allegory of the Cave in Book VII of The Republic. It is from this cave that the ignorant must emerge, so that they might see reality for what it is, rather than the unreal spectacle of shadows playing upon the wall, which they take for reality. The highest reality—the ideal—must be reached through hard work (the climb up the mountain of philosophy towards truth). Plato believes in the philosopher-king, the ruler who understands the reality and is able to implement the ideal in real life. The ruler, clad in the royal color of purple, would lead his people in the same way that a good father would lead his children—not to excess or frivolity but to virtue and good habits that benefit the whole of the community. Life, in other words, should be ordered and inherently selfless rather than disordered and self-centered. Socrates’ purple analogy can be seen, in this sense, as a central point of Plato’s argument. The eye looks outward to others, and it is when one turns inward towards self-interest, the society begins to falter: Plato suggests, for example, that privatization is what destroys the city when he asks, “But when some suffer greatly, while others rejoice greatly, at the same things happening to the city or its people, doesn’t this privatization of pleasures and pains dissolve the city?”(136). What is good for the whole is what must always be maintained—and that depends on the guardians always being on guard.
The purple eye also relates to the concept of the truth-ideal and the need for philosophy to be the guiding force of any community because, as Socrates states, the eye is the most beautiful and “noblest” feature of the body (90). If the sculptor paints it black instead of the requested purple, he factually only diminishes a portion of the sculpture—and from a purely quantitative point of view it is hardly a blemish at all. And yet because the eye is so important to the whole, the whole is impacted by the eye losing its royalty and nobility. The point that Plato makes is that the whole is impacted when those who are meant to lead and protect the community suffer some inconsistency or blemish and do not reflect the nobility which they are meant by design to embody. A leader or guardian who shrugs off the purple majesty and lets those without dignity and philosophy don the purple cloth of guardianship and live in a “fool’s paradise” is a leader-guardian who cares not for his own people (90). He is, in other words, not fit to be a leader or a guardian—and, not being fit, the community will soon not be fit at all: it will degenerate into foolishness and all manner of abuses.
Plato uses this purple imagery again as he talks of the dyers, who first select the wool that is naturally white before applying the purple dye. They carefully apply the purple dye so that it will not wash out. This type of consideration is essential, Plato says, when discussing a plan to safeguard, protect, lead, and provide for a community. When one little aspect is ignored, or some liberty taken wherein care, cautiousness, and commitment are required, the whole will be ruined. As Socrates states, it is not the purpose of the guardians to enjoy themselves by taking some time off from their duty but rather to employ themselves in their duty so that the community itself—like the white wool dyed purple through careful application—may resemble their own commitment to nobility, to the ideal truth that is only obtained through careful and meticulous application of one’s will to the task of leaving the cave of ignorance and climbing the mountain of philosophy to truth, virtue, and goodness.

Works Cited
Plato. The Republic. Hacket Publishing, 2004.