Plato’s Republic: part II
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Transcript of Plato’s Republic: part II
Plato - The Republic - slide 1
Plato’s Republic: part II
6. Communism in the Republic (416a-417b & 457d-461)
• Limited to 2 classes• No private property; live in barracks• No private families• Meals in common• Temporary marriages arranged by
a fixed lottery
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Plato’s Republic
• Children taken from parents• A eugenics program
Justification for this scheme• Principal justification: The common
good• Secondary justifications:
– Population control– Implementing the eugenics
program
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Plato’s Republic
Adeimantes’ objecton (419a-420a): Won’t the rulers & military be unhappy living this ascetic lifestyle?• Socrates’ reply
– Avoid squabbles over property (464d-e)
– Avoid “difficulties and hardships” of raising a family (465c)
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Plato’s Republic
– Avoid debts – Can spend their leisure on
gymnastics, hunting, and horse-riding contests (412b)
– Rewards of military heroism
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Plato’s Republic
7. The philosopher-kings Glaucon’s query: Can this state
really exist? (471c) Socrates’ answers
• First answer: model & modeled (472c-e); theory & practice (473a-b).
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Plato’s Republic
• Second answer (a very famous passage): “Unless either philosophers become kings . . . “ (473c-e) – Philosopher-kings
But who is the philosopher? • lover of wisdom (475b)• searcher for the truth• one who has knowledge of the Forms
or Ideas (476c, 479a, 480a)
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Plato’s Republic
• are few in number (496a-c) Note that there is no constitution in
the Republic. Plato trusts the wise ruler, the philosopher-king. • Cf. the Laws
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Plato’s Republic
8. The theory of Ideas or Forms• The position that there is another
realm beyond the physical which is made up of permanent, unchanging, universal absolutes, which are independent of both the physical world and the human mind.
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Plato’s Republic
• Ideas are perfect models or exemplars of things and actions in the physical world.
• Things and actions in the physical world are second-best, imperfect copies.
• The souls of human belong to the realm of Ideas.
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Plato’s Republic
Connection of the theory of Ideas to Plato’s dualistic position on human nature• The souls of human belong to the
realm of Ideas.• In this life, human souls are
alienated, distracted, unable to be fulfilled.
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• The Phaedo: Philosophy is the practice of dying! (Phaedo 63e-68b)– Explanation of this strange
saying. Connection to Plato’s strong
soul-body dualism and to his dualistic metaphysics
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Plato’s Republic
dualistic metaphysics dualistic human nature
World of Ideas soul - akin to the Ideas
Physical world body
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Plato’s Republic
9. The allegory of the cave (beginning of Bk VII, 514-519) Some suggested levels of the allegory
• metaphysical• epistemological• political
Why philosopher-kings rule for the common good & not out of self-interest?
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Plato’s Republic
10. The five forms of government• Presented as stages in the decline
of the perfect state• Why does Plato describe the
possible decline of his perfect state?
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Plato’s Republic
• The five forms• (1) Aristocracy (547c) - Plato’s
preferred form– An aristocracy of philosopher-
kings– How might this decline?
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Plato’s Republic
• (2) Timocracy (545b, 547)– Rule by the military– Its possible decline
class divisions ruling class accumulates
private property
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Plato’s Republic
• (3) Oligarchy (550c)– Rule by the rich– How might it decline?
“Spendthrifts” stir up the masses against the rich
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Plato’s Republic
• (4) Democracy– The city resounds with “freedom
and freedom of speech” (557b).– “Each person can arrange his
own life within the city in whatever way pleases him” (557b).
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Plato’s Republic
– “You’d expect it [democracy] to be an enjoyable kind of regime--anarchic, colourful, and granting equality of a sort to equals and unequals alike.” [Cf. Grube trans.: “It looks as though it’s [democracy] an enjoyable, lax, and variegated kind of political system, which treats everyone as equal, whether or not they are” (558c).
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Plato’s Republic
– A thoroughly unjust society; the antithesis of justice
– The decline of democracy • (5) Tyranny (562a)
– Rule by persons who rule for power and wealth
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Plato’s Republic
11. Art in the Republic (595a-607d) The imitative arts are to be banished
from the Republic Aside on the mimetic theory & art in
ancient Greece
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Plato’s Republic
• Plato’s reasons for banning the imitative arts– (1) Imitative works of art are
three-times removed from the real (597e) [Waterfield translation: “two generations away from reality.”] Distracts from pursuit of the
truth
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Plato’s Republic
– (2) The imitative arts appeal to the passions (606d) Thereby they distort the proper
ordering of the parts of the soul-- reason ought to be in control
– Plato’s charming challenge: Give me an argument to restore the imitative arts to the Republic (607c-d)