Comparing Plato 's Republic, The Philosopher And Plato

Justice should be controlled by wise rulers. because they will understand and know the needs of the community. It is important to wise and educated people in the community who know what is best for the community’s basic needs is in charge. Decisions from philosophers must be made with proper reason. “When is a man likely to succeed best? When he divides his exertions among many skills, or when he devotes himself exclusively to one? When he devotes himself to one (Plato 60). As the quote discusses, it is important that people who have some sort of specialty or wisdom about something, use their life to explore what justice is and how they should inforce it. Plato believes only those who are wise enough and understand what the surrounding community needs can be in power. Plato believes, on Abbot Kinney, those in the community who should make decisions about Abbot Kinney are researchers, intellectuals, and educators. Modern day that might look like professors, researchers, or philosophers who spend their time studying the city. Even city developers would be successful according to Plato because of the time they spend studying Abbot Kinney. Modesty and serving the community is most justice to Plato; he believes that Abbot Kinney should be run by intellectuals who are dedicated to learning about Abbot Kinney and its surrounding community.

In Plato's most famous work 'Republic' he puts forward the view that only the study of philosophy would allow man to see what was good and just. Therefore to cure the ill's of society it would be necessary to either make kings philosophers or make philosophers kings. I intend to show how Plato justifies this view and then attempt to point out some possible problems with this justification and to forward my own view that 'the people' should ultimately be king.

What Plato considers an acceptable citizen is to be just to friends and unjust to enemies. which is wrong in the catechism it says “hope,” he says “ cherish the soul of him who lives in justice and holiness, and is the nurse of his age and the companion of his jouney;- hope which is mightiest to sway the restless soul of man” Plato, and Benjamin Jowett. The Republic and Other Works. New York: Anchor, 1973. Print. page 13

When looking at The City of the Sun, the description of the city from the captain's dialogue seems very similar to Plato's "Republic". It is a strict specialized society where an elite king and his subject’s wisdom, love, and power rule above all seem to have a reminiscent feeling from Plato. Campanella is clearly being very direct in his symbolism, where the lords and princes are directly representative of values in European society as well as Christian theology. This utopian world was clearly created using European/Western centrism. For instance, this City of the Sun praises Jesus and the 12 apostles, because for Europeans this is the utopian and correct theology. It is similar to Bacon's "The New Atlantis" but a bit different in government

In summary of The Republic, Socrates sets out to answer not only what justice is, but also why we should be just. The first book sets up these challenges. The interlocutors engage in the dialectic similar to that found in other Platonic works. While among a group of both “teachers” and “students”, Socrates poses the question, “What is justice?” He proceeds to deny every suggestion offered in his usual fashion, showing how each contains contradictions [331c-337e]. As is also common, Socrates offers no definition of his own, and the discussion ends in aporia. In Plato’s early dialogues, aporia usually ends the dialogue, but The Republic moves beyond this typical endpoint. While The Republic is concerned with justice, it also addresses the other virtues and knowledge. Looking at The Republic as a work on justice, why justice has to be defended is apparent. As Thrasymachus makes clear, justice is not universally assumed to be beneficial. For as long as there has been ethics, there have been anti-ethicists, people who think that it is better to look out for your own selfish interest than to follow morals. Traditional Greek conceptions of justice came from epic poets as a set of actions that must be followed. The reason for being just, as presented by the traditional view, was consideration of reward and punishment: the gods reward those who are good and punishes those who are not [*]. By the time of the work, this was no longer vogue thinking. No one believed that the gods

believes that the son will realize to be just is only worth it if you can get a

The Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.” Plato, who was also a philosopher, was Aristotle’s teacher. Aristotle thought highly of Plato and respected him. However, as Aristotle’s wisdom grew, he started to question and even disagree with the concepts Plato taught him. This is why Aristotle wrote that he admires and respects Plato, but admires and respects the truth more. Aristotle started to develop his own philosophies, views, and ideas. Aristotle’s philosophy is the opposite of Plato’s, because his methods of inquiry, his realist philosophy, and ideas about mimesis, or imitation, directly countered Plato’s methods, idealism, and ideas about

Though we’ve discussed many kinds of governments, ideal cities and even ideal rulers over the course of the semester, from Aristotle’s Politics to the city described in the Melian dialogue, there is one that undoubtedly left a greater on me than the other- the city described in Plato’s Republic. From Plato’s remarkably feminist ideals and vague sense of barebones socialism, there’s a lot in this city that I hypothetically would throw my support behind. This is not to say that I think that this is the “best” option of the cities that we studied options, or even that it would even work if applied to real life. However, the ideas brought up about how to create this city and what would be required of all it’s citizens in order to make it work are undeniably fascinating and are never black or white. But what I love about the Republic, and why it so personally resonates with and has impacted me, is that it brings up interesting questions about morality and how far one should go in order to create a perceived “perfect society”. Questions that there is no easy answer to.

Once parties agree on the meaning of words and imagine the situation from their opponent’s perspective, conversations can then evolve to apply those definitions in a larger context for a common good. Achievement of stasis can progress to further development of the topic. For instance, in parts of The Republic when the group discusses one of Socrates’s questions, characters have the chance to contribute to the inquiry and then they often come to a consensus. If a character struggles with a certain aspect of their communal conclusion, he will ask Socrates to elaborate. Like Plato’s model of discussion, politicians come from varied backgrounds and hold various opinions, but the ultimate decision is a group decision. In order to reach that final decision, many steps of modification and editing are necessary, just as Plato’s characters realize. An answer to political polarization is not as simple as placing important politicians in the same room—this is already the case. Rather, these individuals need to focus on the development of the argument and honestly debate the topic, not accuse one another of irrelevant offenses.

This past semester in Western Heritage, we have read an array of works- from works about ancient Gods to more in depth works such as Ethics or The Bible. All of these works show serious teachings about multiple things such as justice, Gods, and philosophy. In my paper, I am going to discuss the concepts of Aristotle 's Ethics and Plato 's The Republic in order to hopefully achieve whether or not the ideas that have stuck out to me, are true or not.

Throughout the history of the world, many pieces of literature have been written in which many messages can be extracted to help an individual understand themselves, as well as the world around them. Some of the most common examples of these texts are religious texts. According to Steven Ward, when discussing some of the most important religious texts in history, “...many of which had a major influence on the future course of history and many of which continue to shape the lives of millions of people worldwide.” The ways in which these texts influenced people in the past, as well as continue to influence people, are through the messages which they portray. Although religious tet are well known for their life altering messages, other texts can also have similar influences on people. One such text is Plato’s The Republic. As said by Professor Jon Dorbolo of Oregon State University, “The Republic is considered by many to be Plato 's masterwork. It certainly is one of the most important texts of political theory.” While reading this text, several different messages begin to reveal themselves throughout the text. Some of the most important ideas that can be found within Plato’s Republic, include, humans are inherently good, people should perform tasks that they are good at, and his definition of justice.

Towards the end of his twenty years at the Academy his position became difficult to hold due to the political problems at the time and Aristotle found politics to be constantly hindering him in doing the things that he thought right and best for himself and those around him. Aristotle stood to be head of the Academy after Speusippus died but found himself to be an unpopular choice. In 335 BC he founded his own school, the Lyceum and began to make distinctions from Plato’s work including the fact that philosophers should not be kings but advisers. Our interpretation of ethical understanding depends on the way that Aristotle and Plato choose to treat the issue and what their focus is. Plato’s concern in ‘The Republic’ is to create an ideal state.

Plato and Aristotle’s views on the nature of a human being and the city are fundamental blocks of forming the best political regime. The ideal city of Plato stands upon the four virtues: wisdom, courage, moderation and justice. The concept of justice embodies the understanding that only when citizens are fulfilling their obligated roles while not interfering with others can a city achieve harmony. For this purpose, farmers, artisans, and shepherds will do what’s expected of them per their expertise while the Guardians, a special class, is fit to rule the state. So his view that since every individual has a different yet pertinent role in the city and as most men are only

The analogy of the divided line that Plato proposed dealt with two sections divided into two more sections. The bottom part of the line can be labeled as what is not, here contains what is of the imagination or copies of the sensible and or images. Moving up the divided line, we then reach the top of the bottom sections, which contains the belief or the sensible. Entering the first part of the top section, what is thought or the scientific forms are encountered. Following that section at the top is knowledge or the form; the top of the line is labeled as what is. Now once someone understands the two extremes of what is and what is not in relation to Plato and his divided line, then it becomes clear why he only allows only specific pieces of art. When it comes to poetry and actual paintings then Plato becomes very unsettle because of the imitations that they posses whether it be a painting of tree or poem that is very relatable. When a painter creates a painting, he or she first uses the imagination to visually create a tree in the mind. Once then when the painting in the mind is actually drawn, it essentially holds no value for it is not the actual tree. A painter can artistically manipulate how a tree actually looks but it still would not be considered good enough art for his Republic. Then someone can get into the genetic and biological make up of the tree in an artistic way, which then will bring it closer to being exhibited in the republic. Now when the tree is

Humanity has evolved in more than one way since the Ancient Greek times with technological, cultural and political advancements. Honestly, we wouldn’t be as advanced as we are today without these basic advancements within Philosophy. Society has grasped onto some philosophers ideas more than others because their ideas appealed to what they knew, or arguably to what they thought they knew at the time. Greece was home to most of our famous philosophers. Some have overcome the most complex questions in humanity, this lead to many disagreements among philosophers, which influenced creative new philosophies that intertwined with each base idea. One of the most intriguing subjects was what is the truth? The three opinions of three major influential Greek philosophers; Parmenides, the Sophists and Plato will together elaborate on the subject of truth.