Plato and Confucius on Citizenship, Virtue, and the State

Introduction: Citizenship in Ancient Political Thought

Political thinkers throughout the ages have considered the meaning of citizenship and the relationship that does and should exist between the citizen and the state. The meaning of citizenship has been addressed in different ways by various schools of thought, beginning with the Greeks. Citizenship means the state of belonging to a collective, and an important element that emerges from Greek, Roman, and early Christian thinkers is that citizenship both confers rights and requires the fulfillment of responsibilities for an individual to be considered a good citizen. Definitions of being a good citizen include clarifying the relationship between the individual and his or her society, as can be seen in the political writings of Plato and the philosophical and ethical writings of Confucius. Plato identifies the good man with the good citizen, and what makes the individual good also makes the individual a good citizen. Confucius would agree with this conclusion and also finds a relationship between the inner being and the outer expression of that being in the political realm.

Plato's Tripartite Soul and the Ideal State

In The Republic, Plato has Socrates discuss the soul and its nature, examining ways in which the soul may be said to be made up of divisions or parts rather than being a unified whole. What emerges from this discussion is a concept of the soul as having a tripartite nature, with the three parts joined together. These three parts are: (1) reason; (2) the emotional or spirited part; and (3) desire. The three parts are not equal — for Socrates, reason is the part that should dominate and keep the other two under control. The soul is also identified here as the mind, and the three aspects of the soul can be seen as three parts of the psychology of the mind: reason, the emotions, and desire.

The reason for this analysis is not to determine the structure of human psychology but to make a moral statement about the nature of the state and its relationship to the individual. Socrates notes that the state has three natural constituents — wisdom, courage, and self-discipline — and he wants to show that these same three forces are to be found in the human soul. Plato's Republic is a dialogue in which Socrates investigates the nature of the city-state and what the ideal city-state should be. The primary subject of The Republic is justice, examined in broad terms. Throughout, Plato indicates that the nature of the individual and the nature of the state are parallel. Socrates speaks of the relationship between the individual human soul and the society of which the individual is a part, intending to make a moral statement about the nature of the state and its relationship to the individual.

Plato's ideal state is geared toward the benefit of the state itself as an entity and to the people as a whole rather than to the individual. This is clearly seen in many of the social institutions and rules he proposes through his spokesperson, Socrates. The individual does not select his profession — that is chosen on the basis of an assessment of ability and the needs of society. The individual does not choose his or her marriage partner either, since that decision is made by the leaders of society. Minimizing the threat or possibility of strife is an important component of the state envisioned by Plato, and he sees the avoidance of strife as deriving from unity in the community.

Justice, Law, and the Duty of the Citizen

Socrates indicates that the reason human beings come together to form a state is that they have certain needs which can only be fulfilled by the presence of other people, and in the properly administered state the individual is enabled to fulfill those needs. For Socrates, the maintenance of harmony requires that the individual fulfill his or her moral duty by obeying all of the laws of the state. The individual owes the state this allegiance because there is an implicit agreement between the individual and the state: the individual enjoys the benefits of membership in the state and in turn has an absolute duty to live up to its laws.

This is made especially clear in The Apology and Crito, as Socrates demonstrates that he will obey the laws of Athens even as he is condemned to death by political enemies. Socrates does not plead for his life and does not accept the exile that could have been his punishment, because to do so would be to admit that he had done something wrong. The fact that Socrates is offered exile as a punishment shows that the judges do not want to sentence him to death, but Socrates does not wish to give them that way out. Socrates has lived his entire life in the service of justice, and he cannot end his life with an injustice of his own making — which is precisely what he would do if he accepted exile.

Socrates speaks of many of the elements found in The Republic as ideals to be sought rather than conditions that can actually be attained. Much of the discussion centers on the question of justice and its achievement. There must be a quality that can be reduced no further and that can be called "justice." Justice is elusive, and Socrates again and again refutes suggestions as to how to define it. Similarly, in The Republic there are goals pursued by institutions and individuals, but there is no guarantee that they will succeed in attaining the ideal they seek.