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Republic
4 (419a-427c)
The
Lifestyle of the Guardians II
Contents:
Introduction
-
By
the end of Book III, Socrates has laid out a preliminary sketch of the
lifestyle of his guardians. His description of the role of the
guardians in his ideal polis continues in Book IV with a discussion of
their specific duties.
-
We
then move into an important discussion of justice in the city and in
the individual.
-
Remember:
In Republic 368c-369b, Socrates assured us that once we
have gotten a handle on the nature of justice in the city, we will
then be able to apply what we have learned to justice in the
individual soul. It is in Book 4 that this connection is
made.
Lifestyle
of the Guardians, cont. (419a-421c)
-
Upon hearing that the
Guardian Rulers live entirely at the expense of the State working
tirelessly for the interests and advantage of the citizens without a
salary, property or privacy, Adeimantus interrupts: "You
are hardly making the Rulers happy."
-
At this point,
Adeimantus doesn't appreciate the difference between the kind of
happiness that money, pleasure and property obtains and the
happiness (eudaimonia, human flourishing) that the virtuous
life of wisdom, justice, courage and moderation obtains the
rulers. Skirting that issue, Socrates responds that the
point is not to make the rulers happy, but rather to make the
whole city happy.
The
Duties of the Guardians (421c-427c)
-
Socrates suggests that the
two factors that militate against a happy polis are wealth and
poverty (Since the Guardians have no wealth and the artisans
have no power, this problem is resolved in the Ideal State).
-
Adeimantus complains that
a ruling party with no wealth will have no resources to wage war,
especially against a wealthy State. Socrates observes that in the
Ideal State, the Guardians will have no wealth to defend and thus
their State will be of no interest to avaricious enemies.
Further the Guardians will have no trouble enlisting allies against
wealthier states because any spoils will be promised to the allies and
not appropriated by the Guardians.
-
Socrates claims that by
virtue of the training and education provided the Auxiliary guardians,
they will defeat even the wealthiest of States. (The Athenians
defeated the Persians who outnumbered them two to one at Marathon).
-
The Rulers should
contrive not to make the City too large or too small.
Expansion of the population is to be curbed at that point in which
the city ceases to be a functional unity. (Tyrannies,
Aristocracies, Plutocracies, Democracies are divided cities
because the rich are pitted against the poor or vice versa.)
-
Guardians are to see
to it that untalented children of Guardians are sent off to learn
a trade and competent children among the artisan class are
recruited to become Guardians and rulers, for each one must find
and perform the one task most suited to him ( or her, see
Book V).
-
The guardian Rulers cannot
fail if they attend most to the task of education and rearing the
Auxiliary guardians and continuing their own education. Plato
seems to believe that acquired traits such as intelligence, wisdom,
justice are passed on genetically. In the interbreeding of the
Guardians, good natures will abound among offspring, along the lines
of animal husbandry.
-
The Guardians must guard
against innovations in music making (The singing of epic poetry was
the principle vehicle of education in Plato's Athens). Socrates
asserts that "never are the ways of music moved without the
greatest political laws being moved." (Revolutionary ideas
have been spread by Troubadours, student singing societies, anti-war
folk singers, gangsta' rappers and Marilyn Manson groupies).
-
If the Guardians
attend to the education of their own and public education, they
need not micro-manage the youth is such matters as the care of
parents, hair-do's, clothing, etc.
-
Glaucon and Socrates
decide not to further speculate on specific laws or regulations for
the market place, the juries, rents or the use of the harbor because
well-educated Guardians will be quite competent to judge these matter
for themselves.
Suggestions for Further Reading
- Annas, Julia. An Introduction to
Plato's Republic. New York: Oxford UP, 1981.
[109-152]
- Cooper, John M. "The
Psychology of Justice in Plato." Plato's Republic:
Critical Essays. Ed. Richard Kraut. Lanham, MD:
Rowman and Littlefield, 1997.
- Benardette, Seth. Socrates'
Second Sailing: On Plato's Republic. Chicago:
University of Chicago, 1989. [78-105]
- Bloom, Allan. The Republic of
Plato. New York: Harper Collins, 1968. [369-379]
- Irwin, Terence. Plato's Ethics.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. [223-243]
- Pappas, Nickolas. Plato
and the Republic. New York: Routlege, 1995. [81-98]
- Robinson, R. "Plato's
Separation of Reason From Desire." Phronesis 16 (1971):
38-48.
- Sallis, John. Being and Logos:
Reading the Platonic Dialogues. 3rd ed. Bloomington,
IN: Indiana Univeristy Press, 1996. [361-371]
- White, Nicholas P. A
Companion to Plato's Republic. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1979.
[106-138]
- Wilson, J. "The Argument of
Republic 4." Philosophical Quarterly 26 (1976): 111-124
Department
of Philosophy | Sophia
Project | Plato
Page
© 2000, S. Mayo
For more information contact: smayo@molloy.edu
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