Plato had observed both the oligarchic rule as well as the democratic rule of Athens, and he didn’t like either of them. He felt that oligarchy only favoured few people who were in power, whereas democracy leads to a battle between different groups and opinions, people only want to stay in power for their own benefit and that people are easily swayed. He also believed that democracy often leads to tyranny, which was an interesting point made by him nearly 2000 years ago, since in modern times we have seen many tyrants emerge out of a democracy, most notable of them being Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Saddam Hussein.
‘Republic’ by Plato is his most important book about his political philosophies. The book, like many of Plato’s works is told from the Socrates’ perspective. It begins with a discussion about justice. The book through its characters, offers different ideas of what justice is. Some of the ideas of justice given are:
· Justice is people performing their legal obligations.
· The idea of Justice is meant to satisfy the needs of those who are in power.
· Justice is a social contract and that people only act just because they have to face the consequences of their actions. And that if that wasn’t the case, even the most just person in the world would act unjust.
· Religious people act just to get rewards in the afterlife.
Socrates rejects these ideas and says that justice is every citizen of a society seeking truth, not in their own interest but in the interest of the society. He says that to understand a just person, one must analyse a just state. He claims that just people and cites are happier that unjust ones. He then goes on to describe what an ideal city-state would be like.
Plato’s Myth of the Metals:
He believes that an ideal city would divide the society into three classes- the rulers (gold), the soldiers (silver) and the producers (bronze). He believed that only philosophers were fit to be rulers because they would have a moral understanding of good and bad. The rulers would not be allowed to have any families or property, in order to prevent any corrupting influence of greed and power. Their children would be taken away from them as soon as they are born and raised in common institutions, where they would be educated. The producers on the other hand could have property and families. The soldiers would carry out the role of enforcing the laws and protecting the citizens. The citizens, through their education, would be made to believe that their purpose of life is to fulfil the responsibilities of the class that they were born into. He believed that justice is every class performing their role and living in harmony.
Plato’s view on art:
At Plato’s time, most of the art in Athens told stories of the gods and men, revolving around the ideas of jealousy, greed and deception. He thought that this corrupts the minds of citizens. He thought that in an ideal city, art would only tell stories of gods and men performing noble deeds. These stories should promote the ideas of good morality, discipline, respect and harmony, among other things.
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