Republic 3 (386a-412b)

Education of the Guardians II

Contents:

• Introduction:  Where are We Now?

• Education of the Guardians Continued  (386a-412b)

  • The Content of the Guardian's Poetry, cont.  (386a-392c)

  • The Style of the Guardian's Poetry  (392c-398b)

  • Music  (398c-400c)

  • The Arts in General (400c-402d)

  • Sexual Relations (402d-403c)

  • Physical Training  (403c-412b)

• Suggestions for Further Reading

Introduction:  Where are We Now?

• Having been challenged by Glaucon and Adeimantus to provide a more complete account of justice (dikaiosune), Socrates has taken the unusual step of starting first with a discussion of justice in the city (polis).

• We have discovered that any viable city will require an army and navy of guardians to protect it and to help expand its territory.  Because Socrates is concerned that his guardians might become corrupted by the power they possess, he finds it necessary to provide the type of education that will ensure that they are gentle towards their fellow citizens and fierce towards their enemies.

• The first step in this educational system is to control the content of the  poetry (stories) to which the guardians are exposed.  Stories that portray the gods or heroes engaged in vicious behavior will have to be censored as untrue as well as true stories that portrays vices that might corrupt the young guardians. 

Education of the Guardians Continued  (386a-412b)

The Content of the Guardian's Poetry, cont.   (386a-392c)

• In 386a-392c Plato continues with his discussion of the content of  poetry that needs to be regulated in the education of the guardians.  Among the specific features of poetry that should be avoided at all costs are:

1. poetry that discourages courage by heightening the guardians fear of death  (386b-388e)

2. poetry that encourages excessive laughter  (389a-b)

3. poetry that inspires anyone other than the rulers of the city to lie  (389b-d)

4. poetry that discourages moderation (389d-392a)

5. poetry that teaches that injustice is profitable [only touched upon]  (392a-392c).  

• In this section Plato deals with two of the four cardinal virtues that he will return to in Book Four.  These four virtues are:  courage, moderation, justice and wisdom.  Plato can deal with the virtues of courage and moderation early on because he views their importance in the education of the guardians as uncontroversial.  "The other two virtues are left aside, justice because its desirability in general is what is at issue, and wisdom because its role in the city will not become clear until the discussion of the rulers, which begins only in 412c."  (White 96)

The Style of the Guardian's Poetry  (392c-398b)

• The discussion now moves from the content of poetry to a discussion of its style. Plato distinguishes between two different types of poetry:  

  • those involving mimesis   (e.g., drama or acting out a part)

  • those not involving mimesis  (e.g., simple narrative or description)

• mimesis, which is usually translated as "imitation,"  always involves taking on the character of another. "In an epic poem like the Iliad this happens in the passages which are...'in direct speech'; a play is entirely made up of imitation.  Here it helps to remember that for the Greeks all poetry was performed aloud (usually to musical accompaniment) so that reading poetry would involve taking on the role of the person represented" (Annas 95).

  • This can be contrasted with narrative, which involves the poet describing events that happened in his own person.

• Plato objects to mimesis on two grounds:  

1. because it leads to the lowering of one's character.   Imitation, he believes, can induce a person to become like the character they imitate.  If we imitate good people, it will elevate our characters;  but if we imitate bad people, it can make our characters morally worse.

2. because it leads to the fragmentation of one's character.  Plato's guardians must be focused exclusively on the task of ruling the polis (as per the principle of specialization); it doesn't serve them or the polis if their characters become dispersed    (Annas 95-96)

• The only kind of mimesis that Plato allows is of good men

  • otherwise he limits the guardian's poetry to those using simple narrative.

   

• Note:  Plato's views on imitation strike many contemporary readers as a bit odd.  Our own modern perspective is that it is healthy and good for children to identify with characters in films, novels, plays, or role-playing games because it inspires them to become more open minded and creative.  Imitation from a modern perspective, then, is viewed as a catalyst for moral growth (Annas 96-97).  But Plato is concerned that if the guardians imitate vicious or immoral behavior they will lose their "guardianly" characters, hence jeopardizing the health of the entire polis.

• Conclusion:  Implications of Plato's Views on Poetry:

  • Plato's views might also strike the modern reader as dangerous and authoritarian  If one takes his arguments to their logical conclusion one would have to allow for complete state control over all the arts.  Performances could not be allowed that would malign God or our national heroes or which might impart negative values.  Even adults would have to be prevented from exposure to bad art because they would transmit these values to their children (381e; Pappas 69)

  • On the other hand, our own society clearly has moved in a direction that would have appalled Plato. We might ask what the consequences are of allowing children—or even adults for that matter— to be exposed to the kind of questionable material that is available on television and in films today.  Are we as a society better or worse or for having virtually unrestricted freedom of expression?

Music (398c-400c)

• Plato's continued effort to instill courage and moderation in the guardians, will now be applied to the particular type of music to which they will be exposed.  Specifically, he seeks to control the content of music by eliminating:

  • "soft" music which are ill suited for the temperaments of warriors

  • erratic harmony and rhythm which can cause disorder in the soul

• Plato's aim is a simplicity of style that will benefit the characters of the guardians and to instill in them courage and moderation.  

  • Remember:  these folks have to be able to kill people in defense of the city.  Plato doesn't want them to be so pumped up by music that they might harm their own citizens or so softened by it that they won't be able to fight their enemies.

  • Through the proper use of music, Plato aims at introducing a kind of harmony and order into the young guardian's souls that corresponds to the harmony and order of the entire comos.

• Again, Plato's attempt to exercise rigid control over the arts, has struck some as being somewhat authoritarian.  Even Allan Bloom, who is not known for his liberal views, raises some objections:  Plato, he says, "has made himself the master of poetry; he controls what it represents, how it represents, and the accompaniments which intensify its appeal.  This mastery has been gained, though, only at the cost of what lovers of poetry find attractive in it  (360).

The Arts in General  (400c-402d)

• The attempt to instill harmony and order into the young guardian's souls continues with Plato's treatment of the kind of crafts, art and architecture to which they will be exposed.

  • He rejects all art and art and architecture that is "vicious, unrestrained, slavish and graceless (401b).  

• Plato believes that there is a connection between beauty and orderliness in the arts and the beauty and orderliness of the soul.  He, therefore, wants his guardians to be exposed only to things that are beautiful, virtuous and harmonious.   As Socrates says, "good speech, good harmony, good grace accompany good disposition...Mustn't the young pursue them everywhere if they are to do their work?"  (400e)  

Sexual Relations (402d-403c)

• Plato makes what seems to be a strange leap here when he moves from a discussion of beauty in the arts to the sexual relations among his guardians.  One would think that a discussion of sexual relations would be better left for the next section on the physical training of the guardians.  As we shall see, however, Plato treats sexual relations among his guardians as an aesthetic rather than a physical issue.

• The characters that the guardians should have is incompatible with extreme sexual passion or the pursuit of physical pleasure (i.e., excesses of desire are incompatible with moderation and virtue)  (402e)

  • The kind of attraction that the guardians will feel towards one another will be founded upon the orderliness and harmony of the other's soul, not upon some sort of shallow physical attraction.  Attraction, for Plato, is founded upon an appreciation of the beauty, intelligence and virtue of the other. 

  • Therefore, tender displays of affection are permitted among the guardians, but nothing more than this, lest a guardian be criticized for lacking proper aesthetic sensibility (403c)

Physical Training  (403c-412b)

• Having finished his discussion of the guardian's training in the arts, Plato goes on to discuss their physical training.  His aim here is to produce health in the body that is analogous to the harmony that he seeks to produce in the soul.

• Physical Fitness (403c-404e):  His program of physical training for the guardians is actually quite sensible.  In order to promote the health of their bodies, the guardians should:

  • avoid overeating and excessive indulgence in alcohol

  • eating food that are too rich (especially sweets and cakes)

  • engage in a simple exercise program (gymnasytics).

• Medical Treatment (405a-410b):  The aim of medicine, according to Plato, is to maintain the health of the body, not to restore it in a sickly individual.  

  • Plato reserves medical treatment only for generally healthy people and only in rare situations  (e.g., to heal wounds in battle or occasional illnesses)

  • The unhealthy and unfit are a drain on the community, and therefore, must be left to die or will be permitted to kill themselves  (408b; 410a).  This follows from the principle of specialization which necessitates that each person fulfill his specific role in the polis.  The sickly, however, can't fulfill their role:  "in every well ordered community each man has his appointed task which he must perform; no one has leisure to spend all his life in  being ill and doctoring himself."  (406a)

  • Again, many contemporary readers find Plato's support of euthanasia problematic, but we must keep in mind that such practices were not uncommon in the ancient world.  Life in ancient Greece was fairly hard, and to survive a community needed to rely on all its citizens.  On the positive side, Plato is quite egalitarian insofar as he doesn't make exceptions to this rule for the wealthy or powerful (408b).

• Education as a Harmony  (410b-412b):  We have already seen that for Plato's real education involves a delicate balance of physical and intellectual training.  If we load our guardians up with too much art, music and philosophy, they will become soft.  If we don't provide them with enough exposure to these arts, they will become too harsh and savage.

  • Plato believes that the balance that he provides in the guardians educational program will ensure that they are cultivated and orderly, courageous and moderate.  

• It turns out, then, that physical training is not just for the health of the body, but helps to harmonize the soul as well (410c).  As Socrates puts it, "the man who makes the finest mixture of gymnastics with music and brings them to his soul in the most proper measure is the one of whom we would most correctly say  that he is the most...well harmonized."  (412a)

    Suggestions for Further Reading

• Annas, Julia. An Introduction to Plato's Republic.  New York:  Oxford UP, 1981.  [94-108]
• Benardette, Seth.  Socrates' Second Sailing:  On Plato's Republic.  Chicago: University of Chicago, 1989.  [65-78]
• Bloom, Allan.  The Republic of Plato.  New York: Harper Collins, 1968.   [353-369]
• Pappas, Nickolas.  Plato and the Republic.  New York: Routlege, 1995.   [65-72]
• Rice, Daryl H.   A Guide to Plato's Republic.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.  [44-52]
• Tate, J.  "'Imitation' in Plato's Republic.  Classical Quarterly 26 (1928): 16-23. 
• White,  Nicholas P.  A Companion to Plato's Republic.  Indianapolis: Hackett, 1979.  [95-105]

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