A Just Society Concept - Essay Example

?[Your full May A Just Society Justice, being a very old concept, has been a centerof focus for a lot of philosophers belonging to ancient ages. Many ancient Greek philosophers presented their ideas of a just society and the discrepancies in the then-prevailing political systems. This paper intends to discuss the concept of a just society as presented by Socrates and Plato. First of all, an introduction has been given as to what a just society actually is. After that, Socrates’ and Plato’s ideas of a just society are discussed in detail following which there is an account of whether Plato’s ideas still go well with today’s democracies. The report is summarized in a concluding paragraph and MLA referencing style has been used properly. Introduction What is a Just Society? Much research has been done to define the features and structures of a just society and how to develop one. However, it is an ongoing concept that needs to be considered at an individual level so that each individual takes part in the development of such a society that provides fair means of living to all. A society sees many successes and failures, and goes through many struggles and hardships till it reaches the milestone of being called a just society that arises from chaos and moves toward an intelligent order. A just society is one that treats all individuals as equal and provides them equal opportunities so that they are able to improve their lives and live according to better standards to come at par with the contemporary world. At least, the basic requirements of food, clothing and shelter are met, and after these all facilities and resources are equally and fairly distributed among all individuals. Everyone should be able to enjoy the best without being obstructed by or obstructing other individual’s rights to enjoy the very same prospects of life. Rule of law should be followed instead of the rule of jungle. Life of a human being should be considered important. People should have the right to feel secure and they should be given protection under all circumstances. They should be educated about what is right and wrong for the well-being of their society. Social problems must be eliminated. Although it is difficult to achieve, but if everyone struggles at individual level to cooperate with the authorities in fair distribution of resources, then it is not impossible to achieve a society in which justice prevails. Today’s world in which governments and nations are suffering from corruption, terrorism, white-collar crimes, inequality of rights, and discrimination of color, race, gender, ethnicity, and language, the concept of a just society is becoming vague with every passing day. We no more feel secure. We do not know whether the governments are playing fair games with us or are cheating us. We do not know what number of white-collar crimes is occurring in our institutions and how they are going undetected and un-encountered. We do not know how much a rich politician has stored in his banks and how many laborers are not getting their daily wages. However, what we do know is the number of strikes that were held in our city the previous day. We do know how many killings happened in a neighboring country. We do know how many suicides happened in the country a month ago because of poverty. We do know how many beggars sit at the end of our street. Hence, the concept of a just society needs to be covered seriously so that everyone knows what rights he has to ask for and what rights he has to give to others. And the Greek philosophers have done the task quite efficiently. Idea of a Just Society According to Socrates Socrates’ idea of a just society is based upon communism, commonly referred to as Socratic communism. Socrates was of the view that all parts of the society must be able to work in harmony. He laid emphasis on censorship in education of the society’s youth. The guardians who are the saviors of the common men, the rulers and the law-makers, must be specifically educated so that they know how to work with each other to ensure justice. This education includes music, poetry, and physical training. However, the education should be properly censored and should consist of only the true stories so that the youth is fairly motivated through truth rather than through made-up facts. Socrates argues that the youth must not be told the stories of injustice and immoral standards so that it is ensured that they do not copy or imitate those stories and enact them in the society to obstruct justice. The stories and lessons regarding wars, bloodshed, violence, destruction and killings, must also be held back and not told to the youth, Socrates believed. He was of the view that if such stories were not censored, then people would find excuses for breaking laws and imitating injustice as exhibited by these stories. Jensen writes in his study that “To Socrates, censorship is a necessary tool for the state to maintain order and stability in any just society.” Truth is the fundamental feature that embodies the stability of a just society. Kraut asserts in his book that Socratic definition of a just society tells that its people should know what just values are before they are able to tell other people about those virtues (283). One wonders how this can be true that to teach virtue one should know the definition of virtue himself. However, when we go into the depth of Socratic definition of a full conceptual theory regarding the need for a moral teacher to teach virtue, the idea is well understood. According to Socrates, in a dialogue with Euthyphro, only God is the perfect moral teacher and all wisdom belongs to him (qtd. In Kraut 284). An act is good not because gods have claimed that it is good; instead, an act is good if it is in the goodness of society as a whole. Idea of a Just Society According to Plato Plato was a student of Socrates. He arranged Socrates ideas in the form of Dialogs in his Book. Lotito discussed in his article how Plato perceived the nature of justice in the society. According to him, Plato finds that justice is the harmonious balance of the three elements of the soul. He explains the elements as the desire that is that which drives or motivates you, the appetites that are that which causes you to be spirited or to act outside reason, and the reason that reigns in both the desires and the appetites. Lotito further asserts that Plato believed that justice can only be achieved if we become capable enough to strike a balance between the three elements: desire, appetite and reason that drives the desire and appetite toward the achievement of goal, and that goal is the prevalence of justice in the society. Plato has made an analogy between these three elements and Phaedrus in which two horses (representing desire and appetite) are pulled by a driver (representing the reason that controls the two horses) toward the sun (the goal- justice). Plato was of the view that we should be able to balance the pull of the two horses so that they fly just between the ground and the sun, balancing their position so that neither they lag behind nor go too far away. This balance between the three mentioned elements will help in maintaining a system of justice in the society. Plato’s perception of a just society is very clear. A just society revolves around division of labor and fulfillment of needs of all common men. These needs are basic plus somewhat luxurious. Also, the state and its people are protected by military protection. Plato’s Republic maintains the idea that different parts of the society are functioning irrespective to the functioning of other parts so that all parts function equally well not hindering with each other’s performance (Santas 6). Plato, in his Republic, has made an interrelation between personal well-being and the prevalence of justice in the society. However, Plato’s Republic has been criticized as being anti-democratic, anti-individualistic, anti-humanitarian, and totalitarian. According to Plato, a just society has four fundamental features apart from the three elements discussed above: wisdom, courage, self-discipline, and justice. He asserted that it is not necessary that all individuals belonging to a same society have the same level of intelligence. Power should not be equally distributed, Plato believed. He stated that there are three castes that prevail in a just society. The Rulers are the first caste who is assigned the virtue of wisdom. Philosophers can be the best rulers in this sense. Then there are the auxiliaries who are assigned the virtue of courage. Military protection comes under this prospect. The last caste is that of workers who are assigned neither wisdom nor courage; however, the last two virtues- self-discipline and justice- are assigned to all individuals of the society so that everyone takes his responsibility in carrying out these virtues to the best possible level. Plato’s Idea of a Just Society and Democracy There are basically two main types of political structure which also existed in Plato’s time: dictatorship and democracy. Plato’s idea of a just society goes against the concept of democracy. We can base our argument upon Plato’s perception that not all people in a society have the same degree of intelligence. This results in un-intelligent individuals voting in elections and choosing a candidate as a ruler, and that candidate may be the wrong choice for them because they did not have enough wisdom to choose the right person. Secondly, Plato believed that when the rulers are elected in democracy, they will most likely look after their own benefits rather than the benefit of the society as a whole. Lastly, Plato believed that under a democratic system, a philosopher can never become the ruler, whereas according to Plato’s ideas, the philosophers have been given the most wisdom as compared to other individuals. These arguments made Plato believed that democracy was not a good political system and thus it will not achieve the establishment of a just society. Today’s democracies have certainly been influenced by Plato’s ideas. We see that when people are given equal right of voting irrespective of their intelligence and capability of choosing a good ruler for them, they end up selecting a wrong candidate very often. Also, we observe that when people become rulers, they become corrupt because of the love of wealth. This is why Plato placed the guardians on top of his hierarchy of wealth distribution since he believed that they are the ones who give their lives in the benefit of society and work in harmony for its well-being. According to him, the love of money and self-discipline are two things that cannot exist together. Moreover, it is also in our observation that a democratic society does not give that place to its philosophers with which they may become rulers of the society. Plato emphasized upon the fact that philosophers are the wiser beings of the society looking at wisdom in a broader sense and thus they can prove to be better rulers. Hence, we see that Plato’s perception of a just society still proves to be correct and there are many discrepancies in the democratic political system previously described by Plato. Conclusion The Greek philosophers, Socrates and Plato, presented their conception of a just society and the perceptions have been collected by Plato in the Plato’s Republic, a reading of which tells us that the great philosophers’ ideas still go well with today’s democracies. Socrates believed that all parts of the society must function together to achieve justice. Plato believed that there should be a balance between desire and appetite controlled through reason. According to Plato, money and power should not be equally distributed because when people elect rulers and they get money and power, this makes them corrupt. They start thinking about their personal benefits. Therefore, money and power should be assigned to the guardians of the society, then to auxiliaries, and then to the workers. Plato was also against the democratic system because he believed that people cannot intelligibly select a good ruler. Works Cited Jensen, Walter. (1997). Application of the Critical Theory. N.p., 1997. Web. 1 May 2011. . Kraut, Richard. “Definition, Knowledge, and Teaching.” Socrates and the State. USA: Princeton University Press, 1987. Lotito, Christopher. The Nature of Justice in Society and the Individual According to Plato. N.p., 2002. Web. 1 May 2011. . Plato. The Republic. USA: Plain Label Books, 1960. Santas, Gerasimos Xenophon. Understanding Plato’s Republic. USA: John Wiley and Sons, 2010. Read More