Socrates In PlatoS The Republic Essay Research

Socrates In Plato`S The Republic Essay, Research Paper

At the end of Book II in Benjamin Jowett’s translation of The Republic, Socrates began a detailed description of the construction of a good city. The good city is Plato’s view of the perfect state and its relation to the human soul, and its four virtues. In the following paper I will discuss Plato’s views about the various parts, or aspect, of the soul and their proper relation to one another. I will also discuss how Plato would apply his theory of the individual soul to his theory of the proper political order of the state. I will also discuss whether I would find Plato’s application successful.

The first concept we must discuss if we are gong to talk about Plato’s vision of the human soul are the four virtues the human soul posses. The four virtues described by Plato are prudence, courage, temperance, and justice. Plato relates the virtues to a community, which is made up of the rulers, army, and workers. With the base line being the workers, who do not try to blend with the army as the army doesn’t blend with the rulers. When all of these do their own job, the community becomes one.

The first virtue to be discussed is prudence. Prudence, also known as wisdom, is found in the rulers. “The people who have it are those rulers…” (The Republic 428d) In order to have wisdom one must be resourceful, in which he/she has obtained knowledge. Plato says, “… resourcefulness is obviously a kind of knowledge… it’s not ignorance which makes people resourceful; it’s knowledge.” (The Republic 428b)

The second virtue is courage, which is found in the military section of the community. Courage is not the virtue of standing in front of a tank and say it will not hurt me, that is stupidity. Courage is the ability to apply what you have been taught: what is to be feared and what is not to be feared. Plato relates retention to courage, “I’m saying courage is a sort of retention…the retention of notion.” (The Republic 429c) The ability for one to retain what one has learned is courage. “Ability to retain under all circumstances a true and lawful notion about what is feared and what is not to be feared is what I’m calling courage.”(430b)

The next virtue temperance, is found in the workers of Plato’s community. Temperance, also known as self-discipline, is needed by the workers, so that they do not desire to be in the ruler’s position. It is seen that each position has its own importance in the community, and for the community to function correctly each one must agree on their position in life. Plato relates, “… in this community… the rulers and their subjects agree on who the rulers should be.” (The Republic 431e) Temperance is also used to control the desire to go against one’s free-will. Plato says, “To be self-disciplined is somehow to order and control the pleasures and desires.” (The Republic 430e)

The last virtue to be discussed is Justice otherwise known as morality. Justice is found when all of the three work together, and no crimes are committed. If one breaks pattern then the community becomes immoral, or if one becomes out of place then it is immoral. “…when each of the three classes… perform its own function and does its own job in the community, then this is morality…” (The Republic 434c)

Now that we have discussed the virtues we can now discuss the human soul, and it’s three parts. The human soul is a larger version of Plato’s community, therefore each of the virtues relate to the human soul. The first part is reason, which is the capacity to think rationally. Next is passion, which is the fighting for what is right, and the two together work as allies. “… the rational part is wise and looks out for the whole of the mind, isn’t it right for it to rule, and for the passionate part to be its subordinate and its ally.” (The Republic 441e) As passion and reason work together, passion is found in the military. The last part is desire, which can be found in temperance, and is closely related to passion. Desire is the temptation to do what is wrong, but self-discipline corrects it. “…desirous part, which is the major constituent of an individual’s mind and is naturally insatiably greedy for things.” (The Republic 442a) Justice is again found in all three parts of the soul, because when they all work together justly, they are successful.

The virtues are arranged in a hierarchical pyramid, in which the rulers are found at the top. The top resembles the highest position, in which the rulers are in charge of the community. The next position is the military, which takes orders from the rulers and sends orders to the workers, which are last on the pyramid. The only virtue that cannot be placed in the pyramid is justice. Justice is found in all three of the virtues, therefore it reigns in all of them. The way that the virtues are arranged makes it impossible for any of them to mix, be missing, or trade places. One must have all four virtues to be completely moral. Each virtue is directly related to each other in an indirect way. “The rational part will do the planning, and the passionate part the fighting. The passionate part will obey the ruling part and employ its courage to carry out the plans.” (The Republic 442b)

The three “H’s” which underlie each virtue are Head, Habitual, and Happiness. In the Head the person must contain the rational ability to know what he/she is