The Republic, By Plato And Modern Day Social Classes

As Socrates was building the city, according to his different accounts of how city ought to be. There were different classes of people and the position they held in the cities community. In a just city as Socrates claims there will be citizens, guardians and a philosopher king as the ruler of the city. In order to maintain order, politics influence on human nature by politically influencing laws such as stopping peoples from changing their division of labour. For example, Socrates claims that it is impossible for an individual to practice many crafts proficiently as discussed by the companions earlier. (Plato, 1992, p. 49). The reason there is division of peoples in the city is so the city can run efficiently, if there were many people doing many thing, there will not be an efficiency of work. For this reason, politics constrained human nature in which individual as human nature wants to do more than one thing, but it is stopped through influence of ideology of how one ought to be. That individual does not want to do one job for the rest of his life; this form of ideology is first form pre capital which was discussed in the republic. Continuing, as politics influence increases in the republic the more constrained human nature becomes. In politics, the political thought of Socrates creates a guardian for city, a protector to defend against an enemy or to conquer land for the city. In

The term aristocracy comes from the Greek word aristos, meaning the best. Aristocracy therefore is roughly translated into meaning ‘rule by the best’ (Hooker R 1997). This encompasses the ideas of an aristocratic society. Within Plato’s book, The Republic, he outlines the basis of an aristocratic society being split into three groups. Socrates describes them as being the gold, silver and bronze or iron (Plato 380 BC). Though the gold class rules over the others it is not considered and more valuable than the others classes. Whether someone was a warrior or a blacksmith they all had a key job to uphold within society and none were considered above an others for things like status and wealth, unlike that of an oligarchic society. In an aristocracy people are placed into careers and hierarchies almost from birth, normally, but

The lowest and largest class is the bronze class. If you have bronze infused into your blood, you are considered a worker, and will be doing the labor of the city. This class is associated with the groin of classical virtues, or the temperance. Socrates believes that the worker class’s capability of truth is simply that of public opinion. This is the only class that allows people to have families, enjoy free time, and indulge in life’s pleasures.

Throughout Plato’s explanations, he utilizes the myth of the three metals to provide justification for the class system which he believes will create a perfect society. As Plato idealizes, each metal represents a specific class in society. ““Appropriately so. Nevertheless, listen to the rest of the story. “All of you in the city are brothers,” we’ll say to them in telling our story, “but the god who made you mixed some gold into those who are adequately equipped to rule, because they are most valuable.””

The tale and structure of a society or city that Plato would like to create entails a lot. It cannot be forced upon the current generation, but the cultivating of the following beliefs, justices, and rules over time can be passed onto the current generation’s offspring. Plato’s plan is to do this so that it would then continue until all that anyone knows is the laws of justice with Guardians, or gold citizens, Auxiliaries or silver, and Producers who are bronze and iron citizens. Plato wants the citizens of the State to believe that God has made them different in that may have more power than others and hold the greatest honor which is gold. Those made of silver will be auxiliaries, but those made of brass and iron will be husbandmen and craftsmen. A golden parent may have a silver son and vice versa. (Plato 3)

In Plato’s Republic a person duty is determined by their natural ability. Unlike Thomas Mores Utopia, Socrates believes that a person should focus on achieving the most for themselves rather than the community being primary purpose. Plato’s Republic greatly supports the idea of inequality, and shows that social stratification is essential for the movement of the economy. For a country to function, there must be some sort of hierarchy and inequality. In page 118 of the republic Socrates states that he “leaves it to each class to achieve the kind of happiness that nature confers it”(pg. 18). Citizens in each class must work hard to prosper in theirs own class. People in the Republic must have the mentality of working hard for themselves. What they don’t realize is the domino effect that is triggered. As they work more, the classes above them are also greatly impacted because they are able to benefit. Social Stratification is valued in Socrates to a certain extend. Socrates mentions the importance of each member in each class to be apart of neither wealth nor poverty. In Plato’s republic, the importance of not being rich and not being poor is greatly expressed. Socrates gives Adeimantus the example of the craftsman.

The roles in which people play are the backbone to Plato’s ideal city, he believes if people excel at one task, then we should let them do that one task as they can do it better than anyone else. This concept is stated in Plato’s Republic that “one man is naturally fitted for one task,

In the discussion between Socrates and Glaucon that involved how to create an ideal city, they divided the people into three classes: rulers, auxiliaries, and craftsmen. In this city each class has a certain role. The rulers are the highest of rank in the city. They are older, wise men who govern the state and make decisions in the best interest of the

The Greek classes system consists of four different classes. Those classes are called Athens, Metics, Freedman, and Slaves. Athens are the topmost class, and they handled the government, philosophy, literature, and war. The Metics were the middle class, and they worked in the trading and manufacturing jobs. The Freedman were the lower class. Freedmen were never given citizenship, because they were slaves that became free people. Slaves had no rights, not even the right to live. They were rescued from war, criminals, or bought. (Hierarchystructure.com, 2013)

Throughout the early books of Plato’s The Republic, Socrates and his interlocutors Adeimantus, Polemarchus, Glaucon, Thrasymachus, and to a lesser extent Cephalus, explore what it means to be just and why justice is preferable to injustice. This topic was brought up in a monologue from Cephalus, who is an old patriarch that represents Greek tradition and thus offers a traditional view of justice. One by one, all of the interlocutors attempt to define justice, with Socrates disagreeing with at least some part of each definition. After not being able to define justice for a majority of the early portions of The Republic, Socrates finally comes to the conclusion that “[the just man] doesn’t let each part in him mind other people 's business or the three classes in the soul meddle with each other, he arranges himself, becomes his own friend, and harmonizes the three part” (443d2-6). In other words, the just man lets each part of his soul rule itself. The rational part of our soul seeks truth, the spirited part of our soul seeks honor, and the appetitive part of our soul seeks our more earthly desires, such as sex, food and economic success. After this, the conversation would seem to be over. As we know, however, The Republic is not even half over. There are several critical factors behind the continuation of The Republic, but it all has to do with unanswered questions, continued debate and, above all, digression..

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

The ideal society as suggested by Plato is composed of three classes: the producers, the auxiliaries, and the guardians.

The Republic by Plato was a fascinating piece of literature to read. This book focuses on issues that are still very relevant to this day. That just really shows two things, how smart Plato was and also how humans haven’t changed. Over the years’ humans may have developed and advanced so much, but who we are and how we behave, think and feel hasn’t changed a bit. Prior to reading this, I believed that as time has gone on we have developed as a people, but Plato shows that the problems and issues of Ancient Greece are similar, if not the same as our modern day ones. Plato has made me aware that we have only developed on the surface, our natural desires and instincts however are something that hasn’t changed. In fact, it bares to question if we will ever change.

In Plato’s perfect society everybody would be assigned to a specific division of labor.There were three divisions: workers, auxiliaries, and guardians. Which group you were placed inis slightly up to you, they took into consideration what you enjoyed to do, but mostly what youwere good at doing. Plato also believed that virtues needed for a perfect society were: wisdom,courage, moderation, justice, and the three parts of the soul. Wisdom was the knowledge of theGuardians. Courage was the “dyeing” of the soldiers, the auxiliaries. Moderation was theagreement over who should be in charge. Plato believed that for his perfect society to havejustice, each class of people does the job they were assigned. He seemed to almost have a “mindyour own business”

Plato is one of histories most prominent philosophers who studied under the philosopher, Socrates. He is well known for his book, Republic, which presents different philosophical concepts including the concept of justice and how it is always in the individual’s best interest to be just. In this book we meet Thrasymachus, a Sophist, who has an opposing view on the value of justice. Plato’s notion of justice conflicts with that of Thrasymachus and possible consequences of morality are contentment and trust.