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Biju
P R
Author,
Teacher, Blogger
Assistant
Professor of Political Science
Government
Brennen College
Thalassery
Kerala,
India
My Books
1. Political Internet: State and Politics in the Age of Social Media,
(Routledge 2017), Amazon https://www.amazon.in/
2. Intimate Speakers: Why Introverted and Socially Ostracized Citizens Use Social Media, (Fingerprint! 2017)
Amazon: http://www.amazon.in/dp/
1. Political Internet: State and Politics in the Age of Social Media,
(Routledge 2017), Amazon https://www.amazon.in/
2. Intimate Speakers: Why Introverted and Socially Ostracized Citizens Use Social Media, (Fingerprint! 2017)
Amazon: http://www.amazon.in/dp/
The
good life is possible only in and through society (State). Society is a
natural institution. Man is essentially a social and political
animal. The State exists for the sake of the good life. Now
according to Plato, the aim of the good society is neither freedom, nor
economic well-being. Rather, the aim of the good society is
justice. A true State, therefore, must be conformed to justice (the Ideal
of which exists in the World of Forms). And so the state does not decide
what is just. Justice is an object of knowledge, that is, it is one of
the forms. That is why the Statesman must be a Philosopher. If not,
he will only lead the state downwards toward self-destruction. Justice in
the state is analogous to justice in the individual, and the state must be
structures after the pattern of justice in the individual. Now the soul
has three parts, according to Plato:
Justice in the individual exists when the lower appetites are subject to governance of reason. This is the state of peace or pax (harmony), and peace in the city state is analogous to peace in the individual. Recall Socrates' self-rule. Freedom means knowing what we ought to do (wisdom), and having the ability to do what we ought to do. In other words, it is only when the appetites are subject to reason that I can do what I ought to do. The unjust man cannot control his anger, or moderate his passion for money, etc. So, for Plato, justice is a kind of order, a harmony between reason and the appetites. A just man will not allow his anger to move him to do something that is irrational. In this way, only the just man is truly free. So too, only the state that is just is truly free.
Thus, the just state looks like the following:
Points to Note
Censorship
is necessary in the context of education. For the good of the State, all
poetry and drama that depicts the gods as indulging in gross immorality
(violating oaths and treaties) will be censored. The notion of an
absolute right to free artistic expression is, for Plato, absolute nonsense.
Education:
must be for everyone. Education in morality and philosophy is the most
important (the true and the good). This will be most conducive to the
good society.
Private
Property: Auxiliaries must possess no private property, but receive all
necessities from their fellow citizens. They are never to handle gold and
silver. If they are allowed to begin amassing property, they will very
soon turn to tyrants.
Community
of Wives and children: In the two upper classes, there is to be no private
ownership and no family life. Marriage relations of citizens of these
classes should be under the control of the State. Family and private
property are not to be abolished on the artisan level.
Wisdom
(Prudence): The wisdom of the State resides in the small class of rulers or
Guardians.
Fortitude (Courage): The courage of the State resides in the Auxiliaries.
Temperance: The temperance of the State consists in the due subordination of the governed to the governing.
Justice: The justice of the State involves the harmony of all the parts (classes). Everyone attends to his own business without interfering with anyone else's.
Fortitude (Courage): The courage of the State resides in the Auxiliaries.
Temperance: The temperance of the State consists in the due subordination of the governed to the governing.
Justice: The justice of the State involves the harmony of all the parts (classes). Everyone attends to his own business without interfering with anyone else's.
An individual person is just when all the elements of the soul (concupiscible appetite, irascible appetite, will, intellect) function properly in harmony and due subordination of the lower to the higher. So too, the State is just (a just society) when all the classes and individuals in them perform their due functions in the proper way.
Ideal
State
Consequently,
Plato began the process of deconstruction of the Athenian system, and
reconstructing his theory of state and order. However, this paper will look at
the Athenian system of government and Sparta. This is because both systems
served as a reference point for Plato in the reconstruction of what he called
the ideal state.
ATHENS
The
Acropolis of Athens has been inhibited since Neolithic times. As early as 1400
BC it was fortified in the manner of Mycenae, Tirus, and other late BronzeAge
citadels. At that time and in the subsequent “dark age” (1200-900 BC) that
followed widespread warring among the Mycenaean Greeks, Athens was one of a
number of petty states in Attica.
Athens
practiced a direct system of democracy where every adult is to participate in
discussions of matters of the polis in the general assembly. The institutions
by which this body of citizen- members undertook to transact its political
business can be illustrated by taking Athens as the best- known type of
democratic constitution. The whole body of male citizens formed the Assembly or
Ecclesia, a town- meeting which every Athenian was entitled to attend after he
had reached the age of twenty.
The
interesting thing about Athenian government is therefore not the Assembly of
the whole people but the political means which had been designed to make the
magistrates and officials responsible to the citizen-body and answerable to its
control. The magistrates were selected from the cross-section of the whole body
of citizens, which has short term, there was a provision against re-election
and thus the way was open for other citizens to have a turn at the management
of public affairs.
Another
important body of Athenian officials which was outside the scheme of choice by
lot, and which retained a much larger measure of independence than the
others,was the ten generals who were chosen by direct election and were,
moreover, eligible to repeated re-elections. They were purely military officers
but especially in imperial days they actually exercised not only important powers
in foreign parts of the Athenian Empire but also very great influence over the
decisions of the council and the assembly at home.
SPARTA
The
ancient city even in its most prosperous days was merely a group of five
villages with simple houses and a few public buildings. The passes leading
intothe valley of the Evrotas were
easily defended and Sparta had no walls until the end of 4th century
BC. The inhabitants of Laconiawere
divide into Helots (slaves), who
performed all agricultural work; Perioeci,
a subject class of free men without political rights, who were mainly tradesmen
and merchants, and the spartiatai, or governing class, rulers and soldiers,
descended from the Dorians, who had
migrated to the area about 1100BC (Redmond:2008) .
The
foundation of Spartan greatness was attributed to the legislation of Lycurgus, but was more probably the
result of ascetic reforms introduced about 600 BC. From 6th century
on, Spartans looked upon themselves as merely a military garrison, and all
their discipline pointed towards war (ibid). At age seven, a Spartan boy was
taken from his mother and raised in barracks. They were whipped to inculcate
respect (aidos) and obedience; they went ill clad to make them tough; and they
were starved to make them resist to hunger. If they get too hungry, they are
encouraged to try stealing (as a way of improving their stealth) but were
punished if caught (Lendon: 2005).
Girls,
while not trained militarily, were expected to train physically. Fitness was
considered to be as important for females as it was for males, and girls took
part in races and trials of strength; this include running, wrestling, discus
and javelin throwing. They also learn to manage horses; they drove carriages in
processions and at the Hyacinthia- a
festival of Apollo and Hyancinthus (Blundell: 1995).
Spartan
in time developed a system of dual kingship (two kings ruling at once). Their
power was counter-balanced by the elected board of ephors(who only serve a single one-year term). There was also a
council of elders (gerousia), each member of which was over the age of 60 and
could serve for life. The general assembly, which consisted of each citizen,
also had the chance to vote on legislation.
DECONSTRUCTION
Plato’s
“Republic” was an indictment of the Athenian way of life and its vibrant
participatory democracy. Plato dismissed the Athenian practice of ‘happy
versatility’ whereby every Greek male adult could participate in the political
process and offer a political opinion, as amateurism. He attacked democracy for
the incompetence and ignorance of politicians, for that gave rise to
factionalism, extreme violence, and partisan politics, which were the cause of
political instability. Moreover, democracy did not tolerate highly gifted
persons; a view that was reinforced by the execution of Socrates.
Plato
wrote at the time when Athens was at the cross road after its defeat in the
Peloponnesian war. The defeat of Athens was due to an error in the military
strategy. The clash between Athens and Sparta was depicted by Plato as
representing two opposing ideologies competing political systems and different
lifestyles. Athens was individualistic, excelling in literary pursuit, highly
creative, democratic and open. Sparta on the other hand was statist,
regimented, oligarchic and militaristic. Plato concluded that Spartan military
victory was due to its political and social systems. He tried to infuse the
communitarian spirit of Sparta into the individualistic Athenian society, and
temper democracy with aristocratic values.
Leaders
in Athens were elected through the cast of lots. This is particularly what
Plato rejected as the ruler ship is open to everyone, thereby denying the
knowledgeable what was due to them. He believed that, only when the
knowledgeable and no other persons rule that justice will prevail in the
society. Thus “the total happiness of the society is achieved only when
philosophers become kings, or kings become philosophers.”
Women
in Athens had no right to participate in the affairs of the polis. This also
was not accepted by Plato, as he sees both genders capable of providing good
life for the society. Thereby did not differentiate between them in his ideal
state.
Besides
his admiration for the Spartan model, Plato was philosophically influenced by
some of his predecessors and contemporaries, one of which was Pythagoras; from
whom he borrowed many ideas including; the importance of mathematics, belief in
other worldliness and in the immortality of the human soul, sexual equality,
and the idea of the philosopher ruler.
Plato
also belittled the sophists In general. Sophism was a rival school of Socratic
tradition. Philosophically, it stood for relativism, skepticism, individualism,
and humanism, and was generally acknowledged as founder of democracy and social
change.
RECONSTRUCTION
What
Plato desired to do was to set an ideal for the state even for the times to
come. He also wanted to lay down standards or principles which the state ought
to follow under all circumstances and become ultimate goals and objectives which
it should struggle to achieve. His ideal state was not bound by any customs and
conventions but a romance of free intelligence.
To
him (Plato), it was superiority virtue which mattered much in the
administration of the state. If the wise and the virtuous rule the state there
can be no doubt that an ideal state can be achieved, as in the case of human
beings that reason and spirit dominate appetite, so as the case with the state.
In an ideal state, only a few reasonable shall rule.
Plato
starts with the human beings and divides soul into three elements namely:
Reason (Rational), Spirit (forceful), and Appetite (Concupiscent). In each
soul, one of these qualities would be the predominant faculty. Individuals in
whom the rational faculty was predominant would constitute the ruling class,
and the virtue of such a soul was wisdom. This soul, a lover of learning, had
the power to comprehend the idea of good. These in whom spirit was the
predominant quality were the auxiliaries or warriors, and the virtue of such
souls was courage, implying the ability to hold on to one’s convictions and
beliefs in adverse times. Together, the rulers and soldiers would constitute
the guardian class. According to him (Plato), appetite gives birth to love, he
however, attached great importance to Reason (Rational) alone. In the Ideal
State, there shall be functional specialization. There shall be overproduction
to raise national wealth, the warriors shall defend the frontiers and the
philosophers will rule the nation.
Therefore,
the diagram below depicts Plato’s conception of the Ideal State:
Virtue
|
Soul
|
Class
|
Wisdom
|
Rational
|
Rulers
|
Courage
|
Spirited
|
Soldiers
|
Temperance
|
Appetitive
|
Artisans
|
(Suprata
and Sushila:1999)
To
Plato, the good life is possible only in and through society (state). Society
is a natural institution. The state exists for the sake of the good life. To
him (Plato), the aim of the good society is neither freedom nor economic
wellbeing. Rather, the aim of the good society is justice. That justice is an
object of knowledge. That is why the statesman must be a philosopher. If not,
he will only lead the state downwards towards self-destruction. He (Plato)
therefore maintained that an individual person is “just” when all the elements
of the soul function properly in harmony and due subordination of the lower to
the higher. So also, the state is “just” when all the classes and individuals
in it perform their due functions in the proper way. Plato concludes in the Republic, that in the “perfect state”
the people who should govern are those who are superior in the ways of
philosophy and war. Plato calls these ideal rulers “philosopher-kings” (Mingst,
1999).
FEATURES OF
PLATO’S IDEAL STATE
In
an attempt for the construction of an Ideal State, Plato observed that there
should be the following features:
The Rule of
Philosopher Kings: According
to Plato, an Ideal state must be governed by a philosopher king who should be a
passionless person and seeker of truth and wisdom. He should also be above all
types of prejudices and be a symbol of human wisdom. By his actions he should
command respect from all. He should possess high qualities of lead and heart,
and shall not be corrupted by concentration of power of his own hands. He
should combine in himself virtue and knowledge. He is not to be bound by any
laws; such a king could be in a position to look after the welfare of all.
Specialized
Soldiers:
Plato well realized that defense of the state was most essential for all
states. He (Plato), therefore, gave this responsibility to soldiers. He
believed that these people should not be ordinary soldiers, but persons
specially trained for the purpose.
Division of
Labor:
Plato’s ideal state has three classes namely; rulers at the head to govern,
soldiers to defend, and peasants and artisans to work for the betterment of the
economic conditions of the people living in it. Each section of the society was
required to attain perfection in the particular assigned job. According to
Plato, it was only in class division that each class could give security,
property and proper administration to the people, and thus, helps in promoting
collective welfare. Unless society was divided into classes, no good could be
done to the people.
Ordinarily
Plato did not wish to impose any limitations on the authority of the
philosopher king. To him (Plato), virtue in action could not be corrupted. In
fact, a close study of the power and position of his philosopher king would
reveal that he was Hobbesian Leviathan.
Plato
believed in a system of complete functional specialization. He did not like
that each and everybody should go on performing functions of the type which
were not suited to his temperament and taste. He was of the firm view that
everyone should perform functions assigned to him and should not try to go
beyond it. Thus, the king should rule and let soldiers fight along on the
battle field. But he wished that everybody should be completely devoted to the
task assigned to him and should try to attain perfection in that field.
State Control
Education System:An
ideal state rule by philosopher was made possible through an elaborate and
rigorous scheme of education. According to Plato, state should have full and
final control over education. For him (Plato), it was only the agency which
could produce philosopher kings and train the minds and thoughts of the people
in the right and proper direction. In his philosophy, education had both social
and individual aspects. In society, education should promote social welfare,
while individually it should bring soul closer to reality. According to Plato,
children were national possession and as such, it was obligatory on the part of
the state to bring them up according to their aptitude. He also believed that
ultimately, the children should be under state control and the state should not
only provide them proper education, nourishment and development but proper work
as well.
For
Plato, human faculties were not hereditary. An individual’s functional role in
society was determined by his own natural aptitude, and not by parental
lineage. To ensure that the parents did not manipulate to get the best for
their child, they were made to give up their child to the state, which in turn
would categorize and educate him in the appropriate faculty that he was endowed
with.
Plato started the process of acquiring a
child’s education from the elementary stage. That elementary education would be
confined to the guardian class till the age of 18, followed by 2years of compulsory
military training, and then by higher education for those qualified. While
elementary education made the soul responsive to the environment, higher
education helped the soul to search for truth which illuminated it. At the age
of 20, a selection was made. The best ones would now take an advanced course in
mathematics, which would include arithmetic plane and solid geometric,
astronomy and harmonics. These helped easily in acquiring the vision of idea of
Good.
Those
who did not qualified to join this exclusive category of esoteric minds would
become soldiers, and form the second tiers of the ruling elite. The first
course in the scheme of higher education would last for 10years. It would be
for those who had a flair for science. At the age of 30 there would be another
selection. Those who qualified would study dialectics or metaphysics, logic and
philosophy for the next 5years. They would study the idea of Good and the first
principles of being. They would receive partial experience for ruling. They will
accept junior positions in military and political life till the age of 35. This
period will last for the next 15years. By the age of 50 the philosopher ruler
was fully equipped (Subtrata and Sushila,1999).
Proper
Administration of Justice: According to Plato, justice was an essential and
integral part of a state and it kept various organs and individuals in close
harmony with each other. Therefore, he pleaded that justice should be properly
administered. His concept of justice was somewhat different than the modern
one. It was not a legal concept as well, but something quite different from it.
It was something in which there was functional specialization and everybody was
required to remain within his limit.
Equal Treatment
of Men and Women:
According to Plato’s Ideal State, the philosopher king should make all efforts
in developing character of both men and women. Both should be brought up as
useful citizens, as both are an integral part of the state and as such, there
should be no distinction between the two, in so far as development of their
faculties is concerned.
Communism of
Wives and Property:
He believed that if the ruling class was to perform it duties devotedly and
honestly, it was essential that there should be communism of wives and
property. As long as rulers were not free from the bondage of family life and
rose above narrow interests of possessing maximum of private property they
shall never be in a position to solely devote themselves to the work of the
state. Without such a communism, there was every possibility of their becoming
corrupt and selfish.
Restriction of
Art and Literature:
According to Plato, in Ideal state, there should be positive restriction on the
production of art and literature. According to him (Plato), in such a state no
cheap, unpopular or immoral literature should come before the people. The
people should have only literature of a type which promotes high moral
character and develops character, wisdom and intelligence.
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