Wisdom, Over All of Plato's

Wisdom, Over All Of Plato's four cardinal virtues, one may consider that wisdom is the most important. Though each virtue is important in itself, and as part of the whole, wisdom allows the individual to determine the value and role of temperance, courage, and justice. According to the structure of the virtues, courage determines the "excellence of the spirited part, wisdom belongs to the rational part, and moderation is the consent of all three about who should rule and who should obey" (Frede).

Justice is considered to by the "unifying quality of the soul" (Frede). In this respect, justice demands that the other three virtues are equally employed and that one virtue does not dominate the others. Justice is considered to exemplify harmony within the soul and the state, whereas injustice is representative of inequality and disorder. Wisdom is the only virtue that is reserved for the upper, educated classes. Wisdom is usually exclusive to the ruling class as they determine how their states should be run.

Because the ruling class has the methods and the means for an education, their wisdom is derived from their intellectual endeavors and the decisions that they make are trusted to be right and virtuous. It is through wisdom that the rulers determine what is right and necessary to successfully run the state. Because wisdom determines the limits of temperance and courage, and subsequently justice, a culmination of the other three virtues, it is the most important. Courage is the core virtue of the warrior class.

Courage is necessary in order to protect the state and enforce the laws instigated by the ruling class. Because the warrior class protects the state, they must trust that the laws created by the rulers are just. One must be wise to determine if a law is just or unjust, and must also be wise enough to determine the penalty for disobeying the law. Wisdom is necessary to determine the capacity and limits imposed upon the warrior class to carry out this task. Temperance deals with self-control and moderation.

The state must be aware of its limits and determine the point at which excesses are achieved and learn to moderate them, or to deter itself from indulgence. Wisdom will help to establish discipline and ensure that excesses are not reached, or how to scale back and reduce gluttony and excess. Wisdom allows for the state, and individual, to reach a healthy medium between excess and deficiency. The ruler must also be wise enough to not put their state in peril, nor to engage in unnecessary warfare or expansion.

Justice is the culmination of wisdom, temperance, and courage. Justice may be broken down into two categories, societal and individual. Societal justice is the political arrangement in which an individual is expected to play an appropriate role. In society, an individual is assigned a role that best suits him or her as well as the well-being of the state. In.