PLATO (427-347 B.C)


One-liners for MCQs:

-Plato was born of young Athenian parents.
-He was prepared as a young man for career in public service, however changed his mind due to unpleasing circumstances.
-After the condemnation and execution of Socrates, his mentor, Plato was completely disenchanted with the system of democracy since it destroyed the best within it by relegating them.
-Plato built a philosophy based on the basic tenet ‘virtue is knowledge’, inherited from his master Socrates.
-During his period of soul searching, he mystics of Pythagorean society which emphasized on class structure and mathematics. This education played a drastic role in shaping his thought.
-In Syracuse, Plato incurred the wrath of Dionysius I by lecturing that monarch on art of ruler ship and was imprisoned for a brief period.
-Plato afterwards returned to Athens to found his academy, the first in great academies of politics. He conducted coaching classes on statesmanship.

His Works:
The arguments in Plato’s latter works are found to have some precedents in his earlier dialogues.

Earlier Dialogues (Negative in form – mainly criticism on Athenian systems)
1)Crito
2)Apology
3)Protagoras
4)Phaedo

Latter Works (Positive, Constructive)
1)Republic (The best of all)
2)The Statesman
3)The Laws


The Republic

The Republic is a product of Plato’s early maturity and speculative vigor. It is a major contribution to political philosophy; however it’s a lot more than that. It covers all the major human preoccupations such as education, economics, metaphysics, history and philosophy etc. that help in development of social life. One should not be surprised to know that all these human preoccupations are described within the context of state since Plato strongly believed that ‘good life’ could not be possible without a ‘good state’. To put it simply, good life and good citizenship were synonymous to him – each of which was not possible without the other.

Plato assumed there is a good and there are truths which if discovered and implemented, would create and preserve the good life in the good state. As an endeavour to discover the good and those truths in The Republic, Plato had somewhat transgressed from reality. Nevertheless, Plato seriously intended The Republic to be a scientific approach to the discovery of those truths. Plato knew that such a system didn’t exist anywhere in the world, but he was convinced that it should.

Plato considered politics as an art. And to successfully practice any art, expert knowledge is required. On the basis of this consideration, Plato attacked the democratic system of Athens which was based on the Periclean Principle of “Happy Versatility – government by the civic-minded amateur is the best”. He had frequently compared the skills of a ruler to those of a physician. The ability to govern depended on knowledge which had to be acquired by intelligent man through rational processes. As a physician could not acquire any knowledge through divine revelation, similarly a ruler also could not get any knowledge through intuition. Thus, Plato considered public opinion incompetent to direct the state policies. Virtue is knowledge – the basic foundation of Plato’s treatise led him to assume that since different people had different capacities to acquire knowledge, only the few best might develop the virtue that was required for rulership. The Republic, is therefore, a treatise throughout which tools are employed to ensure that the virtuous elite rules.

Education


"If a man neglects education he walks lame to the end of his life and returns imperfect and good for nothing in the world below." Plato

Plato believed that a state should be ruled by those who know. This assertion of Plato is quite persuasive and has had its supporters through all ages. Indeed if the premises of Plato are granted, the conclusions logically follow.

Plato considers the problem of determining capacity and developing it and the problem of maintaining the equilibrium of the society once it is established. The answers to these questions are substantially found in his proposed education system to a substantial level.

Plato's criticism of Athenian Education System
Athens though had a compulsory education system, yet it was privately owned. According to Plato the welfare of a state depends on the educational training of the citizens; hence he accused the state of gross negligence as it allowed private agencies (that have no such welfare motives) to control the system.

Athens had an education system limited to elementary level, which in Plato's view, was inadequate. This system generated mediocre people whose incompetent rule led Athens into troubles.
Athens did not educate women which according to Plato was a considerable loss of human capital.

Education System of Plato

The educational plan in the Republic has two phases. The first consists of elementary training for citizenry up to the age of eighteen and is followed by a two year military training. Since Plato's theory is based on the principle of deciding one's role according to his capacity/capability (judgment of which was undertaken in a following phase), it can be concluded that this phase of education was allowed to all without any discrimination. Education was given free to all men and women.

During the first phase, citizenry was to study gymnastics and music. These terms must be perceived broadly. Gymnastics is to include not only exercise but all training in bodily care including diet. Though gymnastics help in development of a sound physique, nevertheless, Plato believed that mental and physical fitness are related, hence gymnastics served the purpose of mental development as well. The training is moreover designed to develop spirit and courage in those, yet to form the military class. Training in music was less concerned with singing than with poetry and literature in general. Plato adopts a strict screening/censorship of the literature material. All literature was to be revised to conform to the accepted standard and new literature was to be scrutinized by the philosopher kings. After this phase, followed the screening phase in which the capacities of citizens were to be judged for deciding their stations/roles.

The ones who survived the selective screening process of the elementary education passed into the second phase. This phase extends from the age of 20 to 35. Since only a few are involved in the advanced stage of education, a more individualized technique of instruction may be employed. The first ten of the fifteen years are devoted to study of mathematics and Astronomy. The final five years are spent in the study of dialectic or philosophy. This is the ultimate period of â formal education. Here first the principles are explored and then the search for â good i.e. the truth is launched.

At the age of thirty-five, the ones who have qualified the advanced education level are assigned key posts in civil and military administration so as to benefit from their education. This is in fact a sort of practical training that goes on for fifteen years with intermittent screenings. The ones who emerge triumphant and perform excellent during their assignments are admitted to the class of guardians. The guardians have their time divided between administration of the highest level and periods of pure speculation. The guardian class always works for the preservation of the state, to say it precisely, maintaining the status-quo.

Education is thus a chief concern in the Republic. Justice, Plato contends, consists in the creation of a community in which each individual is located in that particular niche in society where he belongs and does the work for which he is suitable by aptitude and training. The educational system of Plato's Republic accomplishes this ordering of society in a systematic manner. Through it specialization is facilitated and justice is achieved. Education in the Republic is also devoted to maintenance of the society as conceived and planned.

Criticism:

Plato employs censorship and absolute authority of the rulers which might be repudiated by the liberal minds.
Modern education is closely related to democratic society but Plato tries to avert democracy through his educational system.
His system was totalitarian since censorship repelled freedom of expression.
His scheme of education condemns his guardians to life of military monasticism.

Note: Sometimes, a quote is taken from the great writer on Western Political Thought, G.H. Sabine, which goes as “If the citizens are well educated, they will readily see through the difficulties that beset them and meet emergencies as they may arise as a question.

COMMUNISM

One of the most novel features of the Republic is Plato’s plan for communism in the upper classes. It served the same purpose as the education i.e. maintaining the status quo. Plato’s communism is not actually similar to the modern communism formulated by Marx and other sociologists.

Differences between Plato’s communism and modern communism:
• Plato’s communism was not designed to improve the living standards of people.
• It does not apply to the entire community, just the upper class.
• It is more comprehensive wherever applied since it extends to family as well as property.
• Plato’s communism has a political or moral rather than economic end.
• Plato divided society into three classes unlike Marx.
• Plato’s system demands equal abnegation of material gains by the guardians; while modern communism is based on equal distribution and enjoyment of material goods.

Plato understood the disruptive forces in society of disagreements over property holding. The struggle for political power (to earn economic advantage) between the haves and have-nots was well observed by Plato. If rifts over political power were to be permitted, the ideal state Plato was so keen to establish would crumble down to pieces. Such a bugbear could only be avoided by abolishing private property.

Plato understood the practicability of his system well. He knew it was impossible to extend his communism to the entire community, thus he permitted the artisan class (majority) driven by appetite to hold private property since they could not do without it. He limited his system to the upper classes only, since it was a system established for them. For them the dangers of excessive individualism, encouraged by disparity in property holdings, would be lessened. In the end, the many distractions due to the ruler in one way or another by virtue of private property, would be absent in the harmonious republic.

The scheme of communism in the Republic was not just confined to private property but extended to family as well. Neither marriages nor monogamous sexual relations were to be allowed among men and women in the upper class i.e. ruling and military.

Breeding was to be regulated so as to produce the offspring from the best possible stock. Such regulation was for the welfare of state. The offspring of these controlled unions were to be reared up by the state. No individual parent-child relations were to be recognized, for parents were parents of all and children were children of all. The state was to be maintained at optimum size with the best possible offspring as its population. Plato recommended abortion, infanticide and neglect of chronologically ill or unfit as measures of controlling population.

The eugenic and communistic aspects of family life are related but not identical. Plato sought eugenic ends through state control of breeding; but the idea of community of wives and children was devoted to the same end as involved in communism of private property. Family implies and is traditionally associated with property, required for its maintenance. Plato was of the opinion that one can not be abolished without the other. Besides he was concerned with the efficiency of these classes that was naturally supposed to have a setback if the rulers were involved with marital relations and children. Hence he concluded that both marriage and property were diverting influences and can not be countenanced in an idea state.

Criticism:
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WOMEN

Plato's attitude for the emancipation of women was unique. He doubted any distinction between men and women, aside from their physical distinctions. Hence, according to him, women should therefore not only be permitted but compelled to perform to the best of their ability the role of citizen. Women were to share ruler ship and military duties equally with men. Women in upper class had to bear children but they were not to be further concerned with the care of child after its birth. This freedom of Plato implies duties rather than rights. Having his definition of Justice in mind he was intent upon its complete implementation. Women were supposed to do whatever job they were fit for, be it household chores or any other occupation. Plato considered the Athenian female relegation to the status of child-bearer and housekeeper a flagrant waste of valuable human resource rather than encroachment on women's right.

The ascetic quality of Plato is well apparent from his system of communism. He objected to the Athenian system in part since it had become too complicated and luxurious. Pre-occupation of appetite urges had, Plato believed, weakened the resolution of Athenian citizenry and resulted in military and moral collapse. Not reform but renovation of the kind in the Republic could save the state.

VIRTUE IS KNOWLEDGE


The fundamental idea of the Republic came to Plato in the form of his master’s doctrine that ‘virtue is knowledge’. His own unhappy political experience re-inforced the idea and crystallized it in the founding of the Academy to inculcate the spirit of true knowledge as the foundation for a political states craft. But the proposition that virtue is knowledge implies that there is an ultimate/objective good to be known and that it can infact be known by rational or logical investigation rather than by intuition, guesswork or luck. The good is objectively real, whatever anybody thinks about it, and it should be realized not because men want it but because it is good. In other words, will comes into the matter only secondarily; what man wants depends upon how much they see of the good but nothing is good merely because they want it. From this it follows that the man who knows – philosopher or scholar or scientist – ought to have decisive power in government and that it is his knowledge alone which entitles him to this. (This is the belief which underlies everything else in the Republic and causes Plato to sacrifice every aspect of the state that can not be brought under the principle of enlightened despotism.)

Upon examination, however, this principle is more broadly based than what might be supposed at first. For it appears upon analysis that the association of man with man in society depends upon reciprocal needs and resulting exchange of goods and services. Consequently the philosopher’s claim to power is only a very important case of what is found wherever men live together, namely, that any co-operative enterprise depends upon everyone attending to his own part of work. In order to see what this involves for the state, it is necessary to know what sorts of work are essential, an investigation which leads to the three classes of which the philosopher-ruler will obviously be the most important. However, this dividing of tasks and securing the most perfect performance of each, depends upon two factors, natural aptitude and training. The first is innate and the latter is a matter of experience and education. Thus enterprise of state depends upon getting the best human capacity and developing it by the best education. This total analysis reinforces the initial conception: there is no hope for states unless power lies in the hands of those who know – who know:

1)What tasks the good states require?
2)What hereditary and education will supply the citizens fitted to perform them?


PLATO’S theory is divisible into two parts


1 – Government ought to be an art depending on exact knowledge.
2 – Society is a mutual satisfaction of needs by persons whose capacities supplement each other.

Plato got the first part from his master in the form of ‘virtue is knowledge’ and expanded it to form the second.

Nice work started by Farooq. U really deserve our applause. I hope u will continue with it and let us know abt others political works.

salam farooq
that is a great idea u floated on this forum.i'll try to make my contribution soon.i request to all those members who are opt for this subj;should make an endeavour to improve on this sub forum

way to go farooq...! yaar if u or ne1 else comes up with something on JJ Rosseau ( i hope i've got the spelling correct!!)...i wud really appreciate that...also the comparison b/w the theories of Hobbes, Locke and Rosseau
Thx a lot!

Here is some thing on JJ Rousseau it,s complete book on his life hope it will help u in your quest

http://www.westmagz.com/uploads/reco...tmagz.com).pdf

dear politicain
u hav done a magnificiant job regarding sharing such a huge bulk of knowledge with all junior members like us and v hop v wil b getting much more in future.