Analyzing Plato's Four Big Ideas

They are educated through their strict curriculum, and due to the virtues that they learn, they are able to rule in a just manner (Plato 515a). The purpose of life for Plato is to create a just state. Through a broad education, and a democratic government, justice can be pursued. Justice is defined as the harmony that results when everyone is actively engaged in fulfilling his role and does not meddle with that of others (Plato 434e). When each person follows their role in life, stability can be achieved in the state.

Plato is remembered as one of the worlds best known philosophers who along with his writings are widely studied. Plato was a student of the great Greek philosopher Socrates and later went on to be the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s writings such as “The Republic”, “Apology” and “Symposium” reveal a great amount of insight on what was central to his worldview. He was a true philosopher as he was constantly searching for wisdom and believed questioning every aspect of life would lead him to the knowledge he sought. He was disgusted with the common occurrence of Greeks not thinking for themselves but simply accepting the popular opinion also known as doxa. Plato believed that we ought to search for and meditate on the ideal versions of beauty, justice, wisdom, and other concepts which he referred to as the forms. His hostility towards doxa, theory of the forms, and perspective on reality were the central ideas that shaped Plato’s worldview and led him to be the great philosopher who is still revered today.

Answer: The dialogue explores two central questions. The first question is “what is justice?” Socrates addresses this question both in terms of political communities and in terms of the individual person or soul. He does this to address the second and driving question of the dialogue: “is the just person happier than the unjust person?” or “what is the relation of justice to happiness?” Given the two central questions of the discussion, Plato’s philosophical concerns in the dialogue are ethical and political. In order to address these two questions, Socrates and his interlocutors construct a just city in speech, the Kallipolis. They do

In the Republic, Plato sets up a framework to help us establish what the four virtues are, and their relationship between them to both the city and the soul. According to Plato, the four virtues are wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. There are three classes within the city: guardians, auxiliaries, and artisans; and three parts within the soul include intellect, high-spirited, and appetitive. By understanding the different classes of the city or parts of the soul, one will be able to appreciate how the virtues attribute to each one specifically.

Speaker Notes: What Plato is saying is that a person must spend their entire life trying to understand what else there could be instead of living for what we have now.

This was Aristotle’s theory of the Golden Mean.”(Pacquette 268) Aristotle thought that true happiness could only happen when people live a balanced life, Plato also agreed. “The ethics of both Plato and Aristotle contain echoes of Greek medicine: only by exercising balance and temperance will achieve a happy or ‘harmonious’ life.” (Gaarder 115) Both Plato and Aristotle agreed that a balanced life is a good life, and that with reason people will make morally good choices but Aristotle believed that this did not come naturally. He felt that “moral virtue is the result of habit and training. Because if this, he believed that people can be taught to be virtuous. He said that people must know- the deliberately choose to do- what is good.”(Pacquette 269) Aristotle and Plato had very similar views on ethics due to both living in the same era in ancient Greece.

“If the truth of all things always existed in the soul, then the soul is immortal” (The Philosophical Journey 89). This states that since the soul has all knowledge integrated, one recollects this knowledge through situations in an individual’s life and use one’s reasoning. With the dialogues of the Meno and Phaedo, Plato discusses the ideas of recollection and immortality of the soul in general. As well, the Republic, through the three different situations shown, Plato shows the ideas of the forms and what is real and what is not.

He found that there was no order in everyday life; history was composed of the downfalls of man, follies that were repeated generation after generation. He believed that the only way to purge one’s body from the cycle of unending meaninglessness was to live by logic. Logic allowed the body to exist in harmony with the soul by casting aside anything without meaning. The unity of body and soul represented ultimate control. Plato stated, “When the soul and body are united, then nature orders the soul to rule and govern, and the body to obey and serve” (513). When the soul was in complete control, the bodily weaknesses disappeared and the mind was left to think freely. Eventually, through thought, one could achieve bodily transcendence and purpose within life.

Plato’s object was the creation of a utopian society--a civilization that abhorred war and centered itself upon moral virtue and honor. He saw war as evil; and evil was merely the failure of justice. He believed that there should be a standing army to defend the republic but that war for the sole purpose of waging battles was highly unjust. His utopian

Socrates continues the conversation with Glaucon and now focuses on the obligation of the guardians and philosophers to serve the people as a result of their education.

Rulers, otherwise known as “True Guardians” held the most worthy role, although not the most important. Their social metallic property was gold. The Rules were leaders and philosophers who kept society in order. To fulfill this role one must be specially educated in specifically math and dialect. Plato believed that rulers must live in poverty, with any possessions they do have held in common. The very things, then, that mean the most to commoners will be denied to the rulers. The next class were the Guardians, otherwise known as “auxiliaries”. As the name implies, they were soldiers or warriors. They were responsible for defending the city from invaders, and for keeping peace. They enforce convictions and ensure that rules were obeyed. Their metallic property was silver. Although not as worthy or as looked up to as Rulers, the Guardians held what is considered the most important role in society, much as in modern day society our

       The theory of the Ideas is the base of Plato’s philosophy: the Ideas are not only the real objects ontologically speaking, but they are the authentically objects of knowledge epistemologically speaking. From  the point of view  of ethics and  politics,  they are the foundation of  the right behaviour,  and anthropologically speaking they are  the base  of Plato’s dualism and they even allow him demonstrate  the immortality of  the soul.

In his most well known work, The Republic, Plato states that in his view, only in a good society can the good life be achieved. The Republic outlines Plato’s idea of a perfect or utopian society. He also identifies the four cardinal virtues that are required for a good society. These cardinal virtues are temperance or self-control, courage, wisdom, and justice. Without these virtues he believed that the good life could not be obtained. In The Republic Plato also discusses two different forms of

"An unexamined life is not worth living."  (Plato, trans. 1871, pa.68)   As Socrates stands against the court, on his final moments, he stands against his firm beliefs, and his insubordinate teachings.  He feels that it is his mission, by God, and his purpose, to seek for this truth within both himself, and other men.  It is often asked what makes life worth living?  In the eyes of Socrates, this 'unexamined life' is one who lives with ignorance, and is not willing to live through experiences, and constantly searches for the truth.  Both self-reflective and self-critical, they walk on a path that seeks for answers to the bigger (and sometimes smaller) questions.  The thirst for knowledge and, through examining his own life, encouraging and reflecting on others' lives, and being critical of those who do not examine their own, Socrates drew to the assumption that an unexamined life is certainly just not worth living.

In order to compare these great philosophers, it is important that we first of all view their history from an individual perspective.