Plato - philosopher kings

A detailed Summary of Plato - philosopher kings

Why does Plato maintain that philosophers should be rulers? Should they?

In Plato's most famous work 'Republic' he puts forward the view that only the study of philosophy would allow man to see what was good and just. Therefore to cure the ill's of society it would be necessary to either make kings philosophers or make philosophers kings. I intend to show how Plato justifies this view and then attempt to point out some possible problems with this justification and to forward my own view that 'the people' should ultimately be king.

Plato's starting point was his recognition that justice was one of four cardinal virtues, along with wisdom, courage and moderation, that when working harmoniously together in a high level of order - he felt equalled the elusive 'good life'.

Plato thought that the best way to discover what justice was, was to create a 'perfect soul' - this he did by first creating a theoretical 'perfect city', which would have a good soul and all four virtues. Using the theory that the 'polis is the individual writ large' he intended to compare his perfect city with a perfect person and subsequently evaluate justice.

Plato's perfect city was to be a model of order, efficiency and discipline. Above all it would

Plato consolidated all of this with the 'myth of metals' taught to all, whereby the rulers had gold in their veins, the guardians silver and the producers iron and bronze, but they were all brothers and should all be happy in their situation.

Plato felt that he had now found justice through the concept of the ideal city and soul. If the soul was in order then the cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation and justice would exist in the person. The wisdom was present in the rulers of the city and the calculating part of the soul. The courage was present in the guardians of the city and the spirited part of the soul. Moderation was found when all three groups of the city and soul worked together, moderation was best seen in the soul when all three parts were equal, moderation showed harmony. Justice was created when every part was doing what it was supposed to do. With all of these different parts put together Plato created what he considered to be the ideal city and soul.

be governed by the strict adherence to what White refers to as 'the natural division of labour'. This was to take the form of vocational and social division within the city. Everyone had one job in order to specialise and become good at it. 'We forbade our shoemaker to try his hand at farming or weaving or building and told him to stick to his last, in order that our shoemaking should be well done.'

For the perfect city all three classes must work in harmony - the producers making materials, the guardians protecting and ensuring stability from both above and below, and the rulers determining through their enlightened reason what was good or bad. The soul would work in a similar way.

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Approximate Word count = 1762
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History