Plato's Life, Education and The Republic

Plato's Life and Education

• Plato lived from approximately 428 to 347 BCE.
• He was of noble Athenian descent and lived through the Peloponnesian War (431-405 BCE).
• This war saw a power shift from Athens to Sparta.
• The Peloponnesian War marked the end of the Golden Age of Greece.
• Plato was educated in philosophy, poetry, and gymnastics.
• He may have been taught through questioning.
• Plato's written works are in dialogue form, featuring Socrates and exploring various topics.
• Plato founded a philosophical school known as the Academy.
• Aristotle was Plato's most famous student.
• Plato's most famous work is The Republic.

The Republic and Justice

• Plato's work deals with a distinction and interplay between "ideal forms" and "everyday experience".
• The Republic aims to define Justice.
• Justice, according to Plato, is a virtue that sustains and perfects Temperance, Wisdom, and Courage.
• A concern is the human tendency to be corrupted by power.
• The Republic explores the passage from timocracy to oligarchy to democracy and then tyranny.
• Plato's ideal city, Kallipolis, would be ruled by philosopher-kings or Guardians.
• Guardians should be bred, selected, and trained to rule justly, avoiding corruption and self-interest.
• Kallipolis shares some similarities with communism.
• Philosophers in Kallipolis would not own property, receive a salary, or live separately.

Kallipolis and the Guardians

• A Guardian, selected from the guardian class, should be strong, courageous, spirited yet gentle to fellow citizens
• Guardians undergo mental (mousike) and physical (gymnastiki) training.
• Training develops a view of the gods as good.
• It proposes censorship and banning texts that critically depict the gods like Homer.
• Mental training acknowledges the inability to fully understand the divine.
• Intensive physical training involves dietary restrictions and limits medical treatments.
• Plato views the Guardians as mental and physical embodiments of strength.

The Ideal City

• Censorship is used to cultivate moral character.
• For example, negative depictions are avoided to prevent Guardians from fearing death, to exhibit courage.
• Only appropriate art is permitted, which aids character development and encourages reason.
• People are taught myths about society to encourage acceptance of their roles, such as the "myth of metals".
• The "myth of metals" assigns metals (gold, silver, bronze) based on roles (rulers, guardians, farmers).
• Guardians are selected from a guardian class, identified at birth, and trained accordingly.
• Male and female guardians perform the same tasks, promoting equality for state efficiency.

Eugenics in Kallipolis

• Eugenics involves arranging reproduction to increase desirable heritable characteristics in a population.
• Sir Francis Galton developed eugenics for improving the human race, but it became discredited.
• Discrediting was due to unscientific and racially biased practices, as seen in Nazi Germany.
• Eugenics is aimed at improving the genetic quality of a human population.
• Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding or promoting groups.
• Plato's training and education of guardians is considered a course in eugenics.
• A system of state-arranged marriages/breeding strengthens the Guardian class.

The Guardian's Role

• Guardians assign "marriage numbers" to rank individuals.
• The ranking is from "gold souls" to "bronze souls", to improve the human species.
• Superior Guardians should have sex with multiple selected women to yield a superior generation.
• Children of guardians are taken at birth to a "rearing pen".
• Nurses and teachers would raise them without knowing their parents.
• Historians once thought trials of babies were common in Sparta and Athens.
• Weak infants were subject to the infanticide.
• A painting of elders inspecting a baby from Life of Lycurgus (100 BCE) showed the practice in action.
• Archaeological evidence suggests infanticide was occasional, not a regular Greek practice.
• Guardians act for all people, benefitting the whole.
• So the Guardian is not a dictator but someone above squabbles.
• Guardians are divorced from material life, not owning property.
• Guardians act with essential virtues.
• Wisdom equips them to make decisions, balancing courage and moderation.
• Plato scorned democratic decisions in Athens.
• The decisions were swayed by the popular and powerful.
• The question remains: "Who guards the guardians"?
• It prompts questions on handling Guardians unwilling or unable to fulfill their roles.

Group Work and Justice

• Assemble into groups for assignments.
• Each group gets a philosopher for the semester.
• Discuss the usefulness of thought experiments.
• Discuss Justice as a societal and individual condition.
• Discuss Plato’s social hierarchy and justice decline.
• Discuss the Republic.
• Justice is achieved when each class performs its role.
• Rulers govern with wisdom and auxiliaries protect.
• Producers provide, and no class interferes.
• In the individual, justice mirrors the state.
• Reason governs, spirit supports, appetite moderates.
• Justice arises when each part of the soul functions properly: reason ruling, spirit supporting, and appetites regulated, achieving inner harmony.
• Justice means minding one's own business; fulfilling one's purpose without overreaching and disrupting balance.