Plato's Republic: The three-part city and the three-part soul - Essay Example

such as the state, Socrates makes use of the analogy of the city to demonstrate the workings of justice and proposes that an ideal city where justice is thriving will be peopled by three different classes of people : the rulers, the auxiliaries and the followers. Socrates then applies this concept to the soul of man through extension and demonstrates that each class of persons demonstrates one aspect of the human soul which in total comprises three parts, just as the just and ideal city comprises three kinds of people.

Socrates therefore views the soul as the microcosmic representation of the city. In arriving at his classification of an ideal city, Plato first divides people into two sections – the leaders and the followers. The followers are those who do not reveal any superior qualities and will therefore function best in a non-leadership capacity. Those who are just and can rule fairly and administer justice will be those who attain pure knowledge and they must be trained as the guardians of justice. Although the process of education begins within the emotions of an individual, it must also encompass physical and erotic education imparted within a communal atmosphere of likewise high minded individuals, so that the guardians can develop their spiritual qualities and become the philosophical leaders of the city.

The first step in the quest towards attaining the qualities of divinity lie in the elimination of fear; “But if they are to be courageous, must they not learn other lessons beside these, and lessons of such a kind as will take away the fear of death?” (www.classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.4.iii.htm) Socrates proposes that the guardians be raised and trained on stories about carefully selected stories about heroes, excluding stories such as those about Achilles, so that they disprove any contentions that it is good to be unjust if one can get away with it.

According to Socrates, guardians “setting aside every other business, are to dedicate