Plato
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Plato has a concept of the ideal city and he thinks that society should be ruled by a king who knows a lot about philosophy. He also believes that there is a need for strict division of labor. Some people ask “is this the best way to run a society?” This essay will be answering that question and any others that happen to come up.
Plato argues that it is very important to have a well ordered city and thats its important to have people specialized in certain areas. He finds that the most efficient was to do this is to divide the city into groups and assign them special tasks according to their own special abilities. (Draeger Notes) Plato chose three groups to be in his ideal city they were: The Guardians, The Auxiliaries, and the Craftsmen.
The Guardians were the ruling class. They happened to be the best, the brightest, and the most educated people in the city. They were also educated to rule as philosopher kings. Plato seems to think that the guardians should be like a well trained dog, they should be nice and gentle to their own people but when their enemys come around be very harsh and mean. I find this statement to be true. If your going to have a ruler you want him to be nice to the people. If you have a ruler who is mean to his own people, then the city isnt going to function very well. No one wants to have a ruler who they are deadly afraid of, they want someone who they can go to and talk with about the city. Its also very important that the ruler is mean to the enemys. If they city gets attacked you dont want a ruler whos going to be afraid and not want to do anything, you want someone who is going to take action and go after the people who are trying to hurt his city and people. Plato also stated that the guardians must be spirited, the people dont want a ruler who is always down they want someone who is going to be happy to take care of there city. He said that “philosophy, spirit, speed, and strength must all be combined in the nature of anyone who is to be a fine and good guardian of our city” (Morgan p56). That is very true, a city needs guardians with those traits, he must be spirited and must have strength because being a guardian is a very tiring job, you are always working, and if anyone ever tries to invade the city you must show that you have strength and try to fight back. To get the guardians to this point Plato believed they had to go to excessive training in the physical means as well as mentally. He would censor any type of poetry that would set a bad example, such as stories with the gods drinking excessively and having bad behavior. He didnt want the guardians to read such things because if they read about the gods acting like that they would not see a problem with themselves acting in that way. He also believed that they should only listen to music that was not to loud or soft, but right in the middle. The question gets asked about whether they should be imitators or not ? I believe they should. Its gets argued that if they “dabbled in many things they would surely fail to achieve distinction in any of them.” (Morgan p 67) I dont agree with that, I think the guardians should go and try new things, this way they can really understand all the people who live in his city. If he has no idea how to do anything but rule how can he understand what the people around him are doing or going through. It goes on to say that if they are to imitate they must imitate people who are courageous. self controlled, pious, and free. (p. 67) I do agree with that statement, I think that the guardians should imitate people who possess those ideals. You want your guardian to be courageous so that when you go to war he can lead the warriors in, you want him to be self controlled because you dont want to worry about the ruler going and getting into trouble because he didnt know when enough was enough.
The questions gets asked that if someone is properly educated in music and poetry it makes them graceful, but if they are not trained in them it makes them the opposite. (p. 71) I disagree with that statement, just because someone hasnt been able to get educated in music doesnt mean that they are going to be any less graceful that someone who is educated in those things. They may not have a great understanding of the music or poetry but it doesnt mean that they are going be un graceful. Its said that the guardians are not allowed to get wealthy or won private property. I disagree with that, I understand that they think that if a guardian gets wealthy it could corrupt him but I also think that its important for people to own land because it gives them responsibility. I dont see how, by just giving them land it is going to corrupt them. I think it will make they grateful that they get to be like other people in their city and own land. I also think that this