POT2002 Plato

Fundamental Problem for Plato

• Plato was the student of Socrates

• Athens claims to be a just society, but they executed Socrates.

• So, either democratic Athens is unjust, or Socrates is unjust.

Plato defines justice on which two levels?

macro and micro

societal and individual

they often mirror each other

Series of Definitions Put Forward that Do not Please Socrates

1) tell the truth and return anything you have borrowed or received

2) justice is helping friends and harming enemies

• classical conception of Greek Justice. Socrates challenges the fundamentals of justice in Plato’s own time.

• Plato argues that it is not right to harm any other human being. Harming enemies lowers you.

Overall, the problem is that habitual following of simple rules does not guarantee justice. They undermine human capacity for reason.

3) Thrasyamchus: might makes right

• socrates presses this, then Thra. makes an immoralist claim that “self-interest is the highest goal and injustice is a virtue, and justice is for weak people”

  • Plato challenges this through… Greek notion of an art or craft = something that is practiced for the benefit of the subject on who it is practiced. (ex: medicine, there is an art for politics, and because there is one, politics must benefit the people)

  • in moral matters, there is a measure of absolute right, even if most people do not recognize it (reason can reveal this standard)

Plato’s definition of Justice

division of labor - everyone doing what they are supposed to do

Tripartite Theory of the Soul

metals correspond to the faculties in the soul

• gold = reason

  • philsopher kings or queens

  • breaks the link between political power and self interest

    • philosopher kings have no real private property, can’t touch money, no family

• silver = spirit

• bronze = appetite

  • no virtue = but, they benefit from temperance (proper order)

• all souls contain 3 elements, but only one dominates.

• For Plato, in the just state and individual, they must be arranged in order from gold, silver, and bronze.

Plato’s definition of injustice

a violation of natural function or performing a variety of functions simultaneously

Gyges Ring

people only refrain from injustice because they are worried about the consequences.

if someone found a ring and became invisible, everyone would act unjust all of the time.

Why are Philsophers Kings (2 Reasons)?

• they know what the Truth and ultimate reality are

• Philsophers can take what they learned about the ultimate reality and bring it into the everyday world to create a truly Just society

The Divided Line & Where are Philosophers on the Divided Line?

• two different realms: becoming, and being. separated by a line.

• philosophers live right on the line because they live in the world of becoming, but have access to the line of being.

Allegory of the Cave

most people are the prisoners - all they see, and therefore all they believe is real, is shadow play

philosophers are those that break free and ascend

education is the key to ascension

The Good & The Forms

• Truth, beauty, and justice are forms of the Good

• the Good is a supreme principle that gives us access to what is objectively morally and politically true or false, only accessible by philsopher Kings

• the Good is not reducible to any form, and is not the sum of all forms. It is the form’s higher source.

• the Good is an experience.

• Greatest principle in the realm of being = comparable to the sun on Earth.

• there is only one version.

Plato’s Decline from Ideal

aristocracy → timocracy → oligarchy → democracy → despotism

aristocracy = ruled by Philsopher Kings

oligarchy = rule by the rich

• creates two worlds = one where the rich live and a world where the poor live

democracy = mob rule, class rule by the many that are poor

Is the private or public sphere more important?

public and political is more important and central than private

• aligns with ancient poltiical thought

• not concerned with making philosopher kings happy on an individual level, more about the whole society

Are politics natural or artificial?

Politics are natural

• no mention of a social contract

• human beings are political animals

View of human nature

heirarchical conception of human nature

• gold souls, silver souls, bronze souls

• gold souls = only properly ordered soul

• only gold soul should take place in politics

Purpose of Politics

Plato - to achieve unity and harmony aligned with the Good through realization of 4 virtues

• philosopher kings realize the good and bring it down into the world of becoming

• philosopher kings can set aside self-interest to do this

Economic Inequality

the fall from Plato’s heirarchy shows economic inequality increasing

• heirarchical republic → timocracy → oligarchy → democracy → despotism

• economic inequality increases as progresses

• oligarchy = rule of rich

• democracy = rule of the many that are poor