1. Introduction
Born and raised during a period of constant political turmoil and dramatic societal change, the Athenian philosopher, Plato has had numerous influences during his lifetime. Many different types of rulers and governments existed during his youth and had a lasting impact on his opinion on government and society. The first two of these big events is the seizure of power by the Four Hundred and later the Thirty. These powers were made up of wealthy families to took control after the Peloponnesian War, which turned Athens into an oligarchy. During this time period, Plato saw that power in the hands of power-loving people was corruption to government and advocated for the restoration of democracy. Despite his initial support, Plato realized the dangers that democracy had when his mentor and teacher Socrates was persecuted by a general public that made decisions based on emotion rather than reason. Power, he thought, cannot be in the hands of people that are unfit to have it. Unfortunately, also after the Peloponnesian War was the rise of Sophists. The Sophists were no governing class, and therefore did not influence Plato’s views on government but were teachers who mentored wealthy families for the gain of money, rather than for sharing truth and wisdom. The sophists generally believed that justice was not a seeking of truth, but a definition made by people who were stronger. This was an idea that Plato actively sought to refute. Having experienced such fluctuations in government and ideology throughout his lifetime, Plato sought out to identify his own perfect government, which he elaborates on in The Republic. It is through this text that he defends truth, virtue, and ultimately justice against the Sophist-dominated ideology at the time. In this essay, we will examine what Plato has established about ideals, and claims about different forms of government, and conduct a critical examination of his theories. Through the many dialogues, discussions, and allegories presented in The Republic, Plato illustrates what he believes to be the Ideal State or the perfect form of government. However, as he creates his utopia filled with perfect rulers, citizens, and guardians, a lot of contradictions arise. This raises the question: What is the true Ideal State, and does it even exist?
Before we begin to analyze the content in The Republic, we first must acknowledge how to interpret this text. Of course, literary interpretation should be done under will free will of the reader, but, as many esteemed literary critics have constantly emphasized time after time, there are some generally agreed upon principles, some of them regarding The Republic in particular. The first essential rule in interpreting texts is to separate the author from the narrator. In the Republic, there is no first-person narrator, but a third-person omniscient narrator. Because this text is supposedly a collection of dialogues that Plato records, the third person-narrator is most likely Plato himself, following the character Socrates in his many discussions. However, because of the length of these many books, it is doubtful that Plato truly remembered every conversation. These Dialogues are not complete and true accounts of Socrates, but rather Plato’s own ideas and philosophies. Although it is undeniable that some of these Dialogues would be inspired by Socrates, we cannot confirm which ones are truly a memory account, so we must interpret all of the messages in these books to be Plato’s own ideas. As previously mentioned, Plato’s motivation in creating this text was to refute the prevalent ideas of the Sophists. Because it is unrealistic for Plato to remember every Sophist in every dialogue, and it would be bothersome to point out to readers who held Sophist ideas and who didn’t, Plato uses the character Thrasymachus to represent Sophists as an entity. Whenever Socrates interacts with or cross-examinations Thrasymachus, Plato is really trying to disprove Sophist ideology in general. Now knowing a proper way to interpret this text, we can now examine its content.
2. Types of Government
Plato discusses five types of regimes, starting from the aristocracy, which he claims is the best kind of government. If aristocracy is performed poorly, then the government will continue to degenerate until it reaches tyranny. Below are the characteristics of each of these regimes and a description of how they each degenerate to the next regime.
2.1 Aristocracy
Aristocracy, in Plato’s eyes, is the ideal form of government. In an aristocracy, power is in the hands of a small, privileged, ruling class. The general masses are far too ignorant to have complete freedom or equal opportunity in government positions. The rulers in an aristocracy are ideally made up of people who govern with reason. Perversion of power or lack of wisdom can lead to aristocracy’s downfall.
2.2 Timocracy
“Time” means to honor, and the concept of “timocracy” is where the silver or middle class dominates. This form of government arises out of miscalculation of the ruling class during aristocracy, and people of the poorer soul take on positions that they are inferior to. Due to inequality and irregularity and, thus, war, eventually, people will distribute their land among individuals and enslave others. The state will resemble aristocracy in the honor given to rulers and the absence of the warrior class from other trades. But it will resemble oligarchy in the fear of admitting philosophers to power. These people will be secretly greedy for money despite having no way to openly obtain it and will thus resort to stealing and dishonesty. The people who deviate from an aristocracy into timocracy are those who focus more on the passionate than rational and eventually end up in the middle ground: arrogance and ambition.
2.3 Oligarchy
This government depends on the valuation of property, in which the rich have power. The accumulation of gold in the private treasury of individuals is the ruin of timocracy. The richer the government officials get, the less they think of virtue. This type of state is always divided because everyone is always conspiring against each other. Money is highly valued, but not education.
2.4 Democracy
Democracy must arise from a revolution by the people who are tired of oligarchy. Democracy is the fairest of the states and the most charming because it is made up of many different kinds of people who have the freedom to choose for their own lives. However, this is not considered to be the best kind of government according to Plato. If everyone is so equal then people who are inferior in some positions will take away from those who are superior. This diminishes efficiency within society.
2.5 Tyranny
After democracy, anarchy will inevitably find its way into houses, families, governments, and everything. There will be no social order and nobody will care for any laws. A tyrant will first seem to be a protector of those who is being bullied and will continue to progress until he really is a tyrant. By the time the people discover this, it will be too late; he will simply use force to get his way. A tyrannical man arises out of too much passion. Although he is in control, he is not happy; he never tastes true freedom or friendship. Such a state and such a man will always be full of fear. He has desires he will never be able to satisfy, has more wants than anyone, and is utterly miserable.
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3. Theory of Forms
One of the most famous and most important philosophical theories associated with Plato is the Theory of Forms. This theory establishes what is “the ideal”, or the Form of Good, and is illustrated through the allegory of the cave.
The situation goes like this: a group of prisoners are forever bound in a cave staring at one wall with a fire behind them. Because they have been like this since the beginning of their lives, they will begin to think that the shadows in front of them are real. They even believe each other to be the shadows they perceive before them, talking and moving. If one prisoner is freed and forced to walk outside and into the sun, he will first be unable to process true reality. When returning to the cave, he will pity those insides for they have no knowledge of the truth. In fact, they see how the freed prisoner has changed and they begin to despise reality and falsely believe the shadows to be the world.
Plato’s Theory of Forms describes how in everything we see in our world–the world of substance–is a mere shadow of the world of Forms. Every object we see–take a table for an example–has an ideal version–the perfect table– and all tables in the substance world carry the essence of the object Form but are unable to attain the same traits as the perfect form. A mathematical example would be a perfect circle. The perfect circle obviously exists in our theoretical minds, but it is impossible for anyone to draw the perfect circle: even with a compass, there is a slight imperfection that disqualifies it from being a circle. Every round that exists in our world may look like the perfect circle, and therefore carry its essence, but there will never be a perfect circle to come into reality.
If we examine the allegory that Plato describes and compare it to his Theory of Forms, we can see that we are all stuck inside the cave. Everything we experience is a mere shadow of the purest forms: we simply cannot escape this world and experience the Form of Good. However, Plato brings up the idea that philosophers, in comparison to the people around them, are the only ones that are able to step outside the cave and experience reality for what it is. Philosophers, he says, are simply more enlightened than the rest. Of course, it would be best for the philosopher to remain in the world of truth, forever seeing true objects and things to be reality. However, just as the prisoner in the cave returned to his earlier peers, the philosopher has a duty to his society. This idea will become a core element of Plato’s Ideal State.
4. Construction of the Ideal State
As stated previously, the Ideal State is in the form of an aristocracy as is ruled by a philosopher king. All rulers of the Ideal State become rulers not because they want power, but rather because they don’t want it. These people feel compelled to become rulers, despite their lack of desire to do so, because they feel that it is their duty to their state, and they cannot let the whole society fall to pieces. These philosopher kings’ ultimate goal is to pull their fellow citizens into enlightenment as much as possible–or in terms of the cave analogy, pull them out of the cave. The main goal of this Ideal State is to maintain justice, because without justice the state would spiral out of control and go through the cycle of the five regimes, ultimately resulting in democracy and then tyranny. So, in order to maintain order, Plato develops the Allegory of the Metals, also known as the “noble lie.” This lie, which can come in the form of a myth or story, is the idea that everyone in society is made up of certain metals: gold, silver, or a mixture of brass or iron (bronze). People who have much gold in their souls, the element of reason, tend to become philosopher rulers; those with mostly silver, or the element of spirit, tend to be guardians or part of the army; and those who are made up of bronze, or the element of desire, are likely to become masters of menial tasks like farming or crafting. This mixture in the soul would determine which of the three denominations of society an individual would belong in: producers, warriors, and rulers. In addition, “[members of society] will appeal to [this] prophecy that ruin will come upon the state when it passes into the keeping of a man of iron or brass' (Plato 107). This means that no warrior will become a producer, or no producer will become a ruler. There is no mobility. Everything and everyone work for the state and work for themselves. This is because everyone is in charge of only one task: whichever task they are naturally talented at. This means that everyone has no need to work in any other area and does not have to do other people’s work. At the same time, by working for themselves, members of the Ideal State are able to give their all to the state. From all these characteristics, the Ideal State will have ultimate justice, efficiency, and general good for all people within it.
5. Issues in Utopia
The idea of the “noble lie” is something that has tarnished Plato’s name for centuries. And although it is not a completely original idea–many readers of The Republic before me must have had the same thought–my first reaction to this concept is that it is quite hypocritical. Whereas Plato claims that philosophers assume the role of rulers for the sake of bringing the citizens to be enlightened with wisdom–or bring them out of the prisoner’s cave. But, if Plato really advocated “just one royal lie which may deceive the rulers . . . and at any rate, the rest of the city,” isn’t he essentially proposing an idea that he had adamantly argued against? (Plato 111) The Allegory of the Cave was his way of illustrating how philosophers were different from the general people because they see reality for what it is, but the noble lie deceives philosophers as well. That would mean that philosophers don’t see reality as it is, and therefore are no less deceived by illusions than the rest of the citizens. If Plato’s definition of a philosopher matches the freed prisoner, then no one is fit to become king, because no one is truly a philosopher. This is the incongruency in The Republic that will trouble past, current, and likely future readers to come.
But even with this incongruency in the Republic, there is a lot we can gain in understanding the development of society both in fiction and real life. When we examine utopian or dystopian texts in literature, such as The Giver, Fahrenheit 451, and Brave New World, we–as people outside of the characters’ cave–recognize that people in these societies are blinded by what society tells them is right. They have simply blinded sheep, deep in ignorance and completely unaware of nature and truth in the world. And it can only take a hero of these stories to awaken from this illusion and reach enlightenment. As we continue to search for perfection in not only our societies but also in ourselves, we risk falling into the trap of a seemingly perfect utopia. Eugenics–the belief and practice that aims to improve the genetic quality of the human race–is not unlike Plato’s idea of what we now call selective breeding and even gained impressive support from the American population. During World War II when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, he put in place his “Final Solution” where he tried to realize what he thought to be a more “perfect world.” Even though we now believe that such ideas are disgusting and extremely immoral, it is important to still acknowledge how it did receive widespread support at times. And that makes us no less vulnerable to them in the present and future. Although on a much smaller scale, we still have ongoing arguments about the actions and decisions of our own political leaders about whether or not their ideas or visions will actually help our countries and humanity progress.
Perhaps the question of utopia is just as Plato says. There is no perfect government or society that will ever exist on Earth; it is simply unattainable. Maybe the perfect Form of the Ideal State exists in theory, and philosophers, politicians, and all rational thinkers alike will continue to debate its characteristics and figure out its nature. But perhaps, just as we are not the perfect forms of humans ourselves and do not have the perfect form of logical thinking, we are simply incapable of identifying the Ideal State. But whether or not we are able to, we will still debate about the perfect society for generations to come.
Works Cited
- Biography.com Editors. “Plato Biography.” biography.com. Biography.com, n.d. Web. 4 December 2018.
- Goeke, Niklas. “The Republic Summary.” Four Minute Books. Web. 2 December 2018.
- Plato. Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2004. Print.
- Wikipedia contributors. 'Republic (Plato).' Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 1 Dec. 2018. Web. 3 Dec. 2018.
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