Platos Republic and Political Nature - Essay Example

Plato’s Republic Plato’s Republic begins a whole series of works of political nature that draws readers to the best types of public organizations to ensure the happiness of the individual, according to philosophers. Public organization, according to Plato, follows from the very conditions of existence, where a person is placed. Person’s organism constantly uses its strength, and this expense is the necessary condition of its activities which should be constantly made up for normal existence. In other words, the Republic by Plato is primarily a treatise about the formation of man. It is a political work not in the conventional sense, but in the sense as Socrates makes it understandable. However, the huge educational truth, which is clearly represented in the Republic - is a strong correlation of the image of man and space where the person is placed. It is not only an artistic principle, but it is also a moral law. The main thesis is that a perfect man can be formed only in a perfect state, and vice versa: the creation of the perfect state is the problem of a man forming. This is the reason for the interdependence of the inner structure of the man and the state, the interdependence of human types and types of state. Thus, exactly this perspective allows to understand why Plato attached great importance to the influence of the social atmosphere on the formation of any person. In the beginning of this paper it is necessary to mention that Plato is interested in various notions and he tries to demonstrate the own views on political and public life through Socrates’ understanding of reality. Into the acknowledgement of these words it is possible to use the following quotation: “It is obvious from the Republic that Plato shares Socrates preoccupation with ethics and with definitions, but it also seems obvious that he soon abandons or significantly modifies Socrates’ method of inquiry, as well as some of his specific doctrines” (Plato X). It gives a good explanation to the fact that Plato chose his favorite way of writing: he wrote the treatise the Republic in the form of a dialogue of his teacher Socrates with other Greeks. The above mentioned way of writing allowed Plato to achieve two aims: firstly, it has made the treatise more interesting, giving it a tinge of artistry; and secondly, it has introduced a number of characters at once, allowing the possibility to express not one opinion, but many of them. The dialogue is made in the form of a dispute, the agony, which reveals the truth. Plato leads the discussion on whether the equity power is the ability to the same extent as the ability to medicine or navigation in the beginning of the Republic. If justice, according to Plato, is a skill, then it follows that the best rulers should be taught to manage as doctors should be taught to treat. As a result it would be right to say in this case that as no one thinks to challenge the diagnosis of the doctor, it would be absurd to resist the orders of a well-informed leader. Examining Socrates’ position with more details it can be seen that Thrasymachus, being a follower of the Sophists, is opposed to Socrates and is pushing a relativistic slogan that justice is an instrument which is important to the strongest. Plato showed Thrasymachus’ position in the next way: “You are so far from understanding about justice and what’s just, about injustice and what’s unjust, that you don’t realize that justice is really the good of another, the advantage of the stronger and the ruler, and harmful to the one who obeys and serves” (Plato 19). Socrates, in his turn, proved the incorrectness of such proposition in the process of a dispute. Socrates has proved that justice is one of the most important human values that affects the lives of all people. Reflections on justice, in addition to traditional ideas about human relationships, generally include thoughts about the society in which people live, or would like to live. Plato considered that the ideal state should provide an ideal life for its citizens. He also believed that society is a larger version of personality, therefore, a good education of the individual would be able to create a good society. In such a way, according to Plato, the central idea is that the government should be made by the best rulers. Socrates has explained that bad rulers lead to bad governance, anarchy, tyranny and destruction, while good governance leads to stability in society and universal happiness. Everything mentioned above allows to defend Socrates’ position not only about the right governance, but also about justice, because using Socrates’ position Plato concluded that justice is a condition when everyone does his own thing without interference in the affairs of others. In other words, justice is a harmony of all parts of society. Platos point of view expresses faith in justice of the Greeks, which means to find the own place in the natural order of things. The Republic by Plato is society, the opposite of any modern democracy. Socrates involves himself in the discussion of the problem: if the best one rules the best people, it will be an authoritarian (but good) state the best of all possible. Platos confidence in the arm of the law is based on his own idea of Good: to know the Good means to be good. Socrates is sure that the Good exists as an objective fact and can be known by reason. All people tend to the best life for themselves, they crave the good, and when they find it, they realize that the good they know is the good for everybody. Evil, according to Plato, has its place due to ignorance, not to malice. Socrates in Plato’s Republic believes that notion of virtue turns into a certain type of person at once. Justice takes the image of a righteous man. In search of a paradigm his mind creates the ideal human types of all sorts of moral shades and shapes. This typed personification becomes stable manner of his thinking. Taking this into account, Plato gives a possibility to understand the ‘perfect state’ and ‘truly righteous man’ through dialogues of Socrates with other Greeks. Moreover, Plato has proved that the perfect state and man are the exemplary patterns that only need to be implemented. And if the perfect man can exist only in the perfect state, the question of education of a person ultimately is a matter of power. Thus, according to Plato it seems to be impossible to get rid of social evils in modern society, when political power and philosophical spirit do not merge together. In conclusion, taking everything into consideration it is possible to say that Plato explains his readers the way how to understand the philosophical ‘picture’ painted by Socrates. Any paradigm is a kind of perfection, which people admire, regardless of whether it can be put into practice or not. It seems that the very notion of perfection includes in itself the idea that it can not be realized. It is possible only to be near perfection, but not to be perfect. It does not mean that Socrates’ ideal is imperfect because the ideal always retains its value, just as a portrait of the most beautiful person always retains its beauty, although it does not apply to practical measurements. And as a result, an ineradicable human desire for imitation is laid down in the perception of the Socratic picture as an icon, because imitation of perfect can lead to good outcomes. Work cited: Plato. Republic, translated by G.M.A. Grube and revised by C.D.C. Reeve. 2nd ed. Hackett Publishing Company, 1992. Read More