Plato’s “The Republic”

Socsci2- Social, Economic and Political

Thought
Prepared by: Dennis V. Blanco, DPA
UP-Diliman Department of Political Science

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Who Should Rule?
“Elder must have the authority over the young,
and the rulers must be the best.”
Characteristics of a Guardian/Auxiliaries
1.must have the right sort of intelligence and
ability
2. must look upon the commonwealth as their
special concern

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Who Should Rule?
3. must be full of zeal to do whatever
they believe is for the good of the
commonwealth
4. must be capable of preserving such
conviction of protecting and promoting
the commonwealth’s interest

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How Guardians Should Live
and be Housed
1. none of them must possess any private
property beyond the barest necessities
2. no one is to have dwelling or store-house
that is not open for all to enter at will
3. receive fix wages from other citizens, have
common meals and live together in a soldier’s
camp
4. deny themselves of gold and silver

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The Functions of Rulers
1. “Take the greatest care not to overlook the least infraction of the rule
against any innovation upon the established system of education either
of the body or of the mind”
2. “Our children’s pastimes must be kept from the first within stricter
bounds.”
3. “ There will be no need to dictate to men of good breeding about
business matters. They would soon find out for themselves what
regulations are needed.”
4. “ There is something very like invalids in some states with bad form of
government , which forbids their citizens , under pain of death , to
make any radical change in the constitution….”
5. “We shall be wise to consult no other religious authority than our
national identity”.

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The Composition of the State
1. Wisdom- appears to be ordained by nature that the class
privileged to possess it should be the smallest of all
2. Courage- its being brave will mean that, in this part, it possesses
the power of preserving, in all circumstances, a conviction about
the sort of things that it is right to be afraid of- the conviction
implanted by the education
3 Temperance- a kind of orderliness, a control of certain pleasures
and appetites; being master of oneself. It resides in both the
governors and the governed
4. Justice- minding one’s own business and not meddling with
other men’s concerns

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The Composition of the Soul
1.reason- to rule with wisdom and
forethought on behalf of the entire soul
2. spirit- a subordinate and ally of reason
3. appetite- for the greater part of each
man’s soul and are by nature insatiably
covetous.

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Of Justice and Injustice
 Justice- is produced in the soul, like health in
the body, by establishing the elements
concerned in their natural relations of control
and subordination
 Injustice- is like disease and means that this
natural order is inverted

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Of Virtue and Wickedness
 Virtue- the health and comeliness and well-
being of the soul
 Wickedness- is disease, deformity, and
weakness of the soul. Such turmoil and
aberration identifiable with injustice,
intemperance, wickedness, cowardice and
ignorance

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The Three Waves
1. Equality of Women
2. Abolition of the Family
3. Philosophers Must Be Kings

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Equality of Women
Two Questions
“Women must have the same two branches of
training for mind and body and also be taught
the art of war, and they must receive the
same treatment.”
Do men and women should have the same
occupation?
Does woman nature different from man’s nature
in terms of profession and occupation?

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The Abolition of the Family
 No one man and woman are to set up
house together privately
 Wives are to be held in common by all,
so too are children
 No parent is to know his own child , nor
any child his parent

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The Abolition of the Family
 “ If we are to keep our flock at the
highest pitch of excellence, there should
be as many unions of the best of both
sexes, and as few of the inferior as
possible, and only the offspring of the
better unions should be kept. Only the
ruler must know how it is being
effected.”

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The Abolition of the Family
 ‘When one of us hurts his finger, the
whole extent of those bodily
connections which are gathered up in
the soul and unified by its ruling
element is made aware and it all
shares as a whole in the pain of the
suffering part ; hence we say that the
man has a pain in his finger.

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Philosophers Must Be Kings
 “Unless either philosophers become kings in
their countries or those who are now called
kings and rulers come to be sufficiently
inspired with a genuine desire for wisdom;
unless, that is to say , political power and
philosophy meet together… there can be no
rest for troubles for states, nor yet, as I
believe, for all mankind…”

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Characteristics of a
Philosopher
 With his passion for wisdom, will be the one who desires all
wisdom , not only some part of it
 Are those whose passion is to see the truth
 Has the power of thought to behold and take delight in the
nature of beauty
 A man who holds that there is such thing as Beauty itself and
can discern the essence as well as the things that partake of its
character, without ever confusing the one with the other…
 Are those who can apprehend the eternal and unchanging

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Characteristics of a
Philosopher
 Constant passion for any knowledge that will reveal to them
something of that reality which endures for ever and is not
always passing into and out of existence.
 One who desire to know the whole of that reality and will not
willingly renounce any part of it as relatively small or significant
 Lover of truth and a hater of falsehood
 Temperate, free from the love of money, meanness,
pretentiousness and cowardice
 Honest, fair-minded, gentle and sociable, good memory
 Quick to learn and remember, magnanimous and gracious, the
friend and kinsman of truth, justice, courage and temperance

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Characteristics of a
Philosopher
 Knowledge- has for its natural object the
perfectly real- to know the truth about
reality…and has the power of knowing the
real as it is.
 Belief- the power of believing. It cannot be
either ignorance or knowledge.
 Ignorance- correspond to the unreal

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State of Blindness
 The condition of men who are entirely
cut off from knowledge of any reality,
and have in their soul no clear pattern
of perfect truth.

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Why Philosophic Nature
Should Be Saved
 With such gifts, already as a boy/girl he will
stand out above all his companions ,
especially if his person be a match for his
mind; and when he grows older , his friends
and his fellow citizens will no doubt want to
make use of him for their own purposes.
They will fawn upon him with their entreaties
and promises of advancement, flattering
beforehand the power that will someday be
his.

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Characteristics of the
Philosopher-King
 A man whose thoughts are fixed on true reality has
no leisure to look downwards on the affairs of men,
to take part in their quarrels, and to catch the
infection of their jealousies and hates.
 Contemplates a world of unchanging and harmonious
order, where reason governs and nothing can do or
suffer wrong
 In constant companionship with the divine order of
the world, reproduces order in his soul and, so far as
man may, become god-like.

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Characteristics of the
Philosopher-King
 Takes society and human character , as
his canvas, and begin by scraping it
clean.
 Sketches the outline of the constitution

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