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Comparing Plato's Republic And Athenian Democracy

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Plato believed that the way the Republic was structured, that it was crafted in such a way that so called “Philosopher Kings” were required to rule, as they had the ability to think to higher standard that others. Plato mentions this in his ideas of “Utopia”, which only an idea rather than an actual theory. Plato’s main aims for this was to improve the already existing Athenian democracy which at the time was growing more destabilized. Plato believed the current leaders at the time to be incompetent, Plato believed that having philosophers rule would be a step closer to achieving the Kallipolis, meaning beautiful city in Greek. Plato believed in educating the people, and his ideas were totally different to the already established Athenian democracy. …show more content…

The appetitive relates to the needs and desires of the citizens. The rational section evaluates the need or gains to be made from the desire, and the spirited section controls neutrality and reason. Plato believed that a combination of these three things in a person’s spirit would make their soul “pure”. Plato related the three parts of the soul to the class of the individual. The appetitive is related to the producers, the rational section is paired with the guardians and the spirited part relates to the “Philosopher Kings.” It is with this theory that Plato demonstrates why “Philosopher Kings” should be in …show more content…

Which brings the whole idea back to square one. Plato assumes the other two polis will simply accept the rule of the third polis, he has no answer to and has not considered this possibility, Aristotle was to later to criticize Plato on his theory as well. However just as Plato’s theories could arguably not work, it is also plausible for them to be possible and if so it would be more that possible for a Kalipolis society to

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Amanda Milito HI 101-OL3 Professor Brozyna October 21, 2016 Essay #1 Athenian Democracy & American Democracy Similarities The similarities between Athenian Democracy and American Democracy are uncanny. The Athenian democracy was the first of its kind developed in 508BC.

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This Greek city-state, or polis, is also the first well documented democracy in all of history consisting of three main political bodies.

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Plato 's kallipolis is not a totalitarian nightmare, but it does call into light the striking differences between the common conception that democracy is the best system. Plato created his city to be based around the idea of a just city. Some people may view a system that is perfectly just as a negative thing as it would affect their ability to be unjust and take advantage of other people. Plato proselytized the fact that people have always wanted to be able to have more and that there is a pit of greed in some men. Plato had a system to remove these temptations from the civilians of the society.

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Plato was highly against the collapsing conditions in Athens. Justice is to mind/do one’s own business. To Plato, justice is to be considered to one’s happiness. The idea is to fulfill one’s proper role without overstepping it by doing what is conflicting to one’s nature. In the just state, each individual has a certain set of duties, which are obligations to the community.

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One trait that our democracy today has in common with ancient Greece democracy is the fact that both hold nationalism and patriotism very high ("Ancient Democracy vs. American Democracy -Democracy in Ancient Athens," n.d.). Another likeness was the demonstrations, people marching and speaking out for what they believe in and want heard ("Ancient Democracy vs. American Democracy -Democracy in Ancient Athens," n.d.). A huge difference with the two concerning democracy was the fact that Greeks only considered the rights of citizens and they were troubled with the many differences between groups of people where today Americans make sure disparities are a thing of the past ("Ancient Democracy vs. American Democracy -Democracy in Ancient Athens,"

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3. Compare and contrast the idea of democracy in Ancient Greece and Rome. Which system was more democratic and why? Democracy is the modern day standard for governmental systems. However up until 500 BCE, the concept of Democracy was a foreign concept, and the great civilizations of that era were run by monarchs, aristocrats, and religious leaders of sorts.

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While the Athenians did have their government centered on three major institutions, they were not

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HIST 1421 Learning Journal Unit 1 • Different classical Greek philosophers held different opinions about democracy, include Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato. Socrates saw republic as a defective system since it provided power to the uninformed people and held the view that only the intelligent and righteous should rule. He favored a system of governance where philosopher-kings would rule, using their knowledge and goodness to make judgments that would benefit the whole nation. Many of Socrates' ideas on democracy were also held by Plato, whom was a pupil of the philosopher.

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The Democracy of Athens meant that the people rule themselves. It was easy for the Athenians to see who the people are due to the population number at the time. Therefore, they could easily make decisions. The biggest difference between Athenian democracy and almost all other democracies is that the Athenians had a direct democracy rather than being representative. The city-state of Athens, 5th century Athens to be precise, is the inventor and first practitioner of democracy.

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Due to how extensive The Republic is, there is going to be selective choosing of dialogues in order to understand Plato political opinion. The republic begins with “Socrates: I went down to the Piraeus yesterday with Glaucon, son of Ariston, to pray to the goddess” the Piraeus was the port city of Athens where commerce was exchange, however the Piraeus was not a place of knowledge, because only Athenian citizens were allowed to live up in the city. Soon as Socrates was about to leave with Glaucon, Polemarchus, son of Cephalus ordered for Socrates to wait and to have dinner. As soon as they get to Polemarchus house his father Cephalus Polemarches father and, as stated “Socrates, you don’t come down to us in the Piraeus very often, yet you ought to” the dialogue that is occurring here is important to take note of, due to the context behind it. Cephalus has asked why doesn’t Socrates come down to the Piraeus, and the reason why is because the Piraeus was not a place of philosophy, learning did not occur in a place of trade.

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Bodily desires ensured a person’s survival, the spirited emotions allowed people to have aspirations and finally the most important, as Plato stressed, knowledge and reason. He believed that without disciplining reason people would become self-destructive. The society that Plato described in the Republic had a homogenous tripartite structure like that of the human soul. The bodily desires and appetites became the main classes of the people within a state, all of which belonging to a craft (farmers, merchants, manufacturers, etc) and were referred to as “lovers of money”. Spirited emotions became the smaller class of soldiers who were referred to as “lovers of honour”.

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aligns with reason and resists the desires of the appetite. It is in this part of the soul where the courage to be good is found. In the unjust soul, the spirit ignores reason and instead aligns with the appetitive desires, manifesting as the demand for the pleasures of the body. Plato asserts that the wise and just soul allows reason to govern the other parts, while the unwise and unjust soul allows conflict between the parts.12 Just as there is the appetitive part of the soul—the largest part of the soul—there is the productive class, or the workers, who have souls of bronze and account for the largest part of the population.13 This class includes the general population of laborers, plumbers, masons, carpenters, merchants, and farmers.

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Greece is a democratic state. That is not to say that it’s a perfect or pure democracy, but when determining whether it is more democratic or authoritarian, the answer is rather clear. According to democracyrating.org, a site which compiles several factors such as political rights, civil liberties, press freedom, corruption rating, and several other important considerations, Greece in 2015 was ranked the 41st most democratic nation in the world. [1] For the sake of comparison, the United States was 16th.

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Introduction Monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy and democracy were all forms of government found at different times and in different city-states in Ancient Greece. Elements of more than one of these forms also co-existed, however, and the modern connotations of labels such as these are not necessarily the same as those that prevailed in Ancient Greece. In this paper I firstly describe these various forms of government and provide examples of their use in Ancient Greece. I then compare and contrast the models.

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Some people think that ancient Athens was truly democratic, I think not. Democracy is the rule of the whole of the people,excluding minors and maniacs only. Democracy was rule by citizens only, excluding women, free foreigners (Metics) and slaves. By our understanding it was an oligarchy, not democracy.

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