Part IV: Guardians and Auxiliaries

Pages 112-129

Part I: The three classes and their mutual relationships

Socrates introduced the third and final class of the just society: rulers (guardians). Thus, there are now three classes; the guardians, the auxiliaries and the workers.

The auxiliaries’ role is to aid rulers by carrying out and enforcing their decisions.

To ensure the right selection of rulers, all young guardians in training are closely observed. They are made to go through various tests which are intended to determine which of them remain steadfast in their loyalty to the city, and which are the best at ruling others, and watching over the city - “who ought to govern, and who ought to be governed”. They are exposed to various fears and pleasures meant to tempt or frighten them out of their convictions “under the influence of force or witchcraft, the conviction that they must always do what is best for the community”. Those who do best in these tests will proceed onto the higher forms of education that will prepare them to rule “any man who survives these continuous trials shall be given authority”.

To ensure there is never any controversy over who should rule, Socrates suggests telling all citizens a useful fiction, “some magnificent myth”, usually termed “the myth of the metals, or the noble lie”. First Plato would attempt to make everyone in the society believe that their “upbring and education.. happened to them only in a dream”. The myth would then contend that all citizens of the city were born out of the “Earth herself”, persuading people to be patriotic, as they believe the land to be their “mother”, and they ought to “protect her if she is attacked”. They have reason to swear loyalty to their particular plot of ground and their fellow citizens. The ground is their mother and their fellow citizens their siblings.

The myth holds that each citizen has a certain metal mixed in with his soul. In the souls of those “most qualified to be rulers” there is gold, in those suited to be auxiliaries there is silver, and in those suited to be producers there is bronze or iron. The city must never be ruled by someone whose soul is mixed with the wrong metal - that will ruin the city.

The people will be told that for the most part, people will produce children of their own metal - but this is not always the case. Those born to producers with the nature of auxiliaries or guardians will be whisked away and raised with such children, and vice versa (relegated). Whilst the society is rigid in terms of adult mobility between classes, it is not so rigid in terms of heredity.

In this section, many of the authoritarian aspects of Plato’s republic come to the fore - this is shocking to the contemporary reader. Personal freedom is not valued, the good of the state overrides all other considerations. Social classes are rigid, and people are sorted into these classes with no thought for their preferences (Plato would object to this by saying that each person will find their class most pleasing to them as it is best suited to their nature). A citizen’s fate is decided at an early age, and no provisions are made for individuals to switch classes as they age.

It is also important to analyse and criticise the fact that there is state-controlled propaganda in the form of the ‘noble lie’. The irony is that for someone who basically values truth as the highest form of all, Plato has little trouble justifying widescale deception. The good of the state truly overrides all else, including the importance of truth.

It becomes apparent here that Plato believes “justice” to mean efficiency, and the smooth functioning of society - as opposed to individual happiness.

Part II: The Rulers’ and Auxiliaries’ way of life

The guardians all live together in houses provided for them by the city. Guardians receive no wages and can hold no private wealth or property, as Plato thought this to be “the chief temptation that led men to sacrifice public for private interests”. They are supported entirely by the city through taxing the producing classes. “Austere simplicity”.

The guardians are forbidden from handling gold or silver - they cannot mix earthly gold and silver with the divine gold and silver in their souls “no need for mortal or material gold and silver”. Socrates says this because he wants to forbid the ruling classes from acquiring private property, as they will inevitably abuse their power and begin to rule for their own gain, rather than the good of the city.

Here, Adeimantus interrupts Socrates to point out that being a ruler sounds unpleasant. The ruler has no private wealth - he cannot do things that make him happy. Socrates then reminds his friends that the purpose of the republic is not to make one group happy at the expense of the others, but to make the city as a whole as happy as it can be “our goal is not to promote the happiness of a single class, but so far as possible the whole community”.

‘We cannot provide the guardians with the sort of happiness that will make them anything other than guardians’. To justify this statement, Plato employs the statue analogy. He states that the most beautiful colour in the world is purple, and that if we were attempting to make a statue with eyes as beautiful as possible, we would make them purple - but, no human being actually has purple eyes, so if we did paint the statue’s eyes purple it would detract from the beauty of the statue as a whole. Thus, in the state, as in the statue, we have to deal with each part appropriately to make the situation best for the whole.

The statue analogy brings in the idea of beauty, or goodness, being conducive to “proper functioning”. What he means is that, if he were to prioritise making one group as good or as happy as possible, then it would detract from the happiness of the society as a whole.

Part III: Final provisions for unity

Socrates proceeds to address several topics regarding the lifestyle of the guardians. He tells Adeimantus that there will be no wealth or poverty in the city at all since there will be no money “both poverty and wealth have a bad effect on the quality of the work and on the workman himself”. Adeimantus objects that a city without money cannot defend itself, but Socrates reminds him that the state will have the best warriors.

Socrates limits the size of the city, warning against it becoming so large that it can no longer be governed well - he talks about how other communities tend to be a “plurality” of states - with different sub-groups making “enmities” of one another. He suggests that guardians guard their own elementary education above all else - and that they share everything in common (including women and children) “all things held in common between friends”.

Socrates also declares that the just city has no reason for laws. If the education of the guardians proceeds as planned, then guardians will be in a position to decide any points of policy that arise. Everything we think of as a matter of law can be left to the judgement of the properly educated rulers.