Plato Research Paper

Vyrypaeva Veronika

Group 1

Essay

To what extent could Plato’s Republic be or not be justifiably characterized as a closed and authoritarian society without freedom?

Plato is one of the most influential and well-known philosophers of all times. Although he lived in the 4th century B.C., Plato tried to find solutions to many problems we are facing even today.

I am going to analyze his Utopia as an idea of the ideal state with its own laws and principles. Being a pupil of Socrates, Plato did not like the democratic system because he associated it with Socrates’s death. This is the reason why he turned to Sparta as a perfect state to use as a basis.

Let us consider whether can Plato’s ideal republic be named “the authoritarian society” or

The first one was a class of common people. The second class consisted of the guardians and the soldiers. And the third one was a class of the political power. The guardians were to be legislators.

Talking about education, Plato divided it into two parts: gymnastics and music. According to Russell, “music” meant “everything that is in the province of the muses”, while “gymnastics” meant “everything concerned with physical training and fitness”.

In addition, education should have taught children to be serious, decent and courageous. Plato insisted on having a rigid censorship as some music and literature could bring up wrong ideals. For instance, he argued that in plays men should have played just parts of heroes, not women and criminals.

In Plato’s ideal state people ate just natural food so that there was no need in doctors.

The young was prevented from seeing any “ugliness or vice”. The philosopher was afraid that bad pleasures could suddenly appear. But young boys had to see battles until they are grown up. That is how Plato tried to bring up courage.

One of the most important points in his ideal state was proposing communism for the guardians. They were to have a simple life without any surplus. The guardians had to live in camps and eat common

Plato wanted the rulers of the state to control the population by arranging marriages. Rulers were to choose brides and bridegrooms by themselves, not by lot. People had no voice to resist.

Moreover, people should not have known their families, so they had to name unknown people as “sister”, “son”, “father” etc. According to Plato, by this reason young men could not hurt old ones. Every old man could be his father or even grandfather.

The last point I want to highlight is the theological aspect of Plato’s ideal society. There was “one royal lie”, which was a prerogative of the political power. The most essential part of it was that “God has created men of three kinds, the best made of gold, the second best of silver, and the common herd of brass and iron. Those made of gold are fit to be guardians; those made of silver should be soldiers; the others should do the manual work”.

From the above we can make a conclusion that Plato wanted to create a state, where everyone did his own work and did not interfere in others jobs. According to him, this was the definition of justice, the main purpose of the