Tuesday, September 7, 2010
This whole excerpt is concerned with describing a truly just city or state and, by extension, a truly just person. Plato’s summarization is that the just state is one in which the three classes of a state each do their own jobs, using reason and temperance to act with wisdom. He then states that an individual also contains these three virtues or classes within and therefore, is affected similarly. The just person is one who is ruled by reason but also balances the spirit and desire as subjects of his inner reason. The ideal ruler is one who is the master of these three elements, one who knows himself and is at peace with that knowledge. By extension, Plato is stating that the truly just ruler is one who has power over himself first, and because of this inner control, is then able to control a just nation, being simply an extension of the just person and their elements. Because a truly just ruler would provide no opportunities for ousting or offence by the rational observer, he is above contestation as to his power. A ruler who cannot be contested is never in danger of losing the power he holds, over himself or his people. A truly just ruler is also the most powerful form of ruler. Self-exploration and discipline are therefore essential processes on the road to obtaining true and unalienable power.
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Plato would like it to be this way, but isn't this a little optimistic and naive? The three parts of our soul are not always in harmony and so doesn't the rational self have to control our desires by force. Doesn't the guardian also have to use force to eliminate the desiring class of the polis? Oh, I know he doesn't want to think this--but really?
ReplyDeletePractically, I'm not entirely convinced that this idea would stand either, but philosophically I would argue that because the state and its three parts are extensions of the human spirit and its elements, logically both sets of elements would rebel in the same ways. Therefore someone who has already mastered these protests within himself with reason and argument would be able to respond to anything the state would try because he has already subdued these same uprisings within himself and without violence, albeit at a different scale.
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