[Plato] Plato's Theory of the State, Theory of National Education, Summary of Theory of the State, Summary of Plato's Philosophy
1. Plato's Theory of the State
We count Plato as the first communist. Plato mentioned 'sharing', which is the starting stage of the ideal state, through his book 『Theory of the State』, and his ideas have been continuously studied and continued in various forms in later generations. Plato emphasized the need for three classes to form a state. These are the producer class, the protector class, and the ruler class, which correspond to the craftsmen, soldiers, and iron men, respectively.
They correspond to the three parts of the human soul, each with a unique mission. In the Guardian class, since they have a heavy duty to defend the country, they must be sensitive people, light movements, strong power, and possess a brave and spirited spirit. In the case of the ruler class, it is desirable to have the most virtuous among those belonging to the guardian class, or an iron man with correct reason and wisdom. In particular, property, family, and wives should be shared, and wives should be provided as prizes to those who made a contribution in the war, and healthy children among the children should be handed over to committee members, and all compatriots should be treated like family. There is no discrimination between men and women, and women and women can enter the guardian class if their physical conditions allow. Here, the theory of the soul, which is also directly related to the theory of ideas, will be described in correspondence with the theory of classes.
The three classes correspond to the three parts of the human soul, and each idea also corresponds to it. The producer class responds to the desire for moderation as a virtue, the protector class responds to courage as a virtue, and the ruling class responds to wisdom and consideration as a virtue.
Injustice in the state appears when any one of the three classes invades a function that does not belong to them.
Conversely, when the three virtues of temperance, courage, and wisdom are in harmony, the virtue of justice is realized. The most ideal idea in Plato's theory of the state is justice.
Plato proposed several forms of state. Examples are the honor system, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny. However, Plato's ideal national figure is the Iron Man. In other words, because the function of the ruler is important in realizing the justice of the state, the ruler must learn philosophy or the philosopher must rule. It is quite natural for people in each class to do their duty well to form a right nation.
2. National Education Theory
Plato said that education is more important than anything else in order to create wisdom as much as possible in the countries, but to eliminate foolishness. In 「The State」, a curriculum is proposed for the education of the guardian class, but in 「Law」, the curriculum is not presented in more detail.
Plato emphasizes early education and lifelong education. Emphasizing early education that the younger is better, he taught poetry (literature) education and basic math education that it is necessary to instill a soul of love for beautiful and wonderful things by the age of 17 or 8. It emphasizes physical education and military education, which should be focused on
When the children's education through poetry and physical education is finished in this way, the task now is to select among them those who will be raised as guardians in the future. Through this primary selection, the ruler, guardian, and producer are divided into three tiers, and in the 20s and 30s, preliminary education (propaideia) is performed and the secondary selection is conducted to divide the rulers and guardians. In addition, it is said that after the 30-35 year old dialektike and the 35-50 year old dialektike are related to practice, the ideal of goodness should be practically applied at the age of 50.
3. Situation and context at the time
At that time, in the Greek polis, where democracy was established, there was a lot of middle-class politics, agitation, and strife. A decisive event occurred for Plato, who had doubts about democracy itself. It was that his teacher, Socrates, was brought to trial for an injustice, and the death penalty was decided by a vote of the jury. Plato, unable to prevent Socrates' death, reveals a strong distrust of mass rule. Accordingly, the book he wrote was 'Theory of the State'.
In his writings, Plato defines a free man as follows:
"They always look down, as animals do, crouch down on the ground and on the table, devour, gain fat, and mate. For their greed for these things, they beat each other, and even kill each other with insatiable desires. ”
As can be seen from the above quotation, Plato asserts that the rational part no longer works for free men, and they will constantly seek the maximization of desires and pleasures. In other words, he emphasized that if freedom, the core of democracy, was given to irrational people, that state would only cause extreme chaos, like the democracy of Greece and Athens at that time.
Based on these human regulations, he proposes a class society ruled by an iron man as an ideal society. The King of Iron Man is a ruler who is wise and has realized the truth itself through philosophy, and is without any flaws like a god. Because he masters the idea of goodness and the principle of happiness, says Plato, every political action and decision must be good in itself. The iron man king has no desire for possession and does not pursue personal interests, and since he is also freed from family relationships, no interests work.
In this way, a perfect iron man would rule the country, and the most important thing was 'education'. This is because he had a belief that the selfish nature of human beings can only be transformed into an altruistic being through education. To this end, Plato wrote that a permanent class should be bestowed upon man who has been edified through education. There are three main types of human beings: those who love wisdom, those who love victory, and those who love gains.
However, the important thing is that their classes are not in a completely vertical relationship. The reason can be found in Plato's 'justice'. He defines 'justice' as 'to focus on one's work without interfering with each other'. In other words, since Plato saw the ideal state as a society in which the state achieves a stable order centered on the king of iron men, the class is nothing more than a tool for defining each role.
Nevertheless, it is true that Plato gave strong authority to the iron man. This is because only the iron man was the ethical center of absolute dominion and could demand absolute obedience and devotion from citizens. In other words, Plato believed that the state could come closer to the ideal of goodness when a person fit for rule ruled.
Plato's theory of the state also states that the iron man can use lies for the benefit of the state. As mentioned earlier, an iron man who is completely free from possessiveness and interests is always good because he only makes good decisions for the sake of the state. Even Plato saw iron man that men and women should build families and establish relationships from an eugenic point of view, and stipulated that only superior human beings should be nurtured by the state. It was also a just measure to allow inferior human beings to die as soon as they were born, and even that was considered 'good' for the country. Therefore, it is the role of the iron man to destroy the parent-child relationship and to create a myth or a lie so that the citizens can believe it so that these tasks can be carried out without problems.
4. Summary of Plato's Theory of the State
Book 1 What is Righteousness?
Socrates, on his way home from the festival, goes to Polemarchus' house, meets the old Cephalus, and converses with some of the men there. The topic of the conversation is 'What is right?', and Polemarchus and Thrasymachus are the main arguments with Socrates here.
First, Polemarchus defines uprightness as 'paying each one what one owes'. And specifically, it says that the friend does the good, but the enemy does harm. However, Socrates refutes Polemarchus's claim, saying that it is possible for the right person to harm others. In the end, Polemarchus also accepts this.
Thrasymachus, who appeared next, defines righteousness as 'the interest of the strong (ruler)'. The strong seize power and enact laws that benefit them, and force the weak (those who are governed) to follow them. Socrates says that just as a true doctor cares about the health of his patients and a true captain cares about sailors, so a true ruler does not care about his own interests, but the interests of those who are ruled.
By this objection, it turns out that Thrasymachus' claim of correctness is also wrong. In the end we come to the conclusion that right has more power than wrong, that right is more profitable than wrong, and that the right person is happier than the wrong person.
Book II Righteousness and the Origin of the State
Glaucon and Ademantos give some general ideas about what is right. In other words, people act right not because they like correctness itself, but because of the reward or reputation it brings. They also claim that people who are not right have a happier life than the right ones, so people can commit wrong actions if it benefits them. Glaucon tells the famous 'Ring of Gyges' myth as an example of such a case.
Glaucon hypothesizes that if there are two rings of Gyges, one given to the right person and the other to the wrong person. And he concludes that even the right person uses the ring to do the wrong thing for his own benefit.
In response to this reality, in which correctness itself is not properly treated, Socrates first establishes and explores the correct state in order to find out what the meaning of correctness is. As the 'minimal state' gradually expands into the 'luxury state', it is in a situation where it will be at war with other countries, and guardians are needed to prepare for it.
Subsequently, the curriculum for cultivating guardians and its contents continue to the third volume, where Plato's unique class distinction appears. Plato divides the class that constitutes and runs the state into the ordinary citizen (production) class engaged in a livelihood and the guardian class that protects the state.
Book 3 Education and Life of Guardians
In the second book, Plato divides the classes that make up the state into a civil class and a (broadly) guardian class. And in Volume 3, the guardian class is divided into the guardian (warrior) class and the ruling class that assist the ruler. Consequently, Plato presents three classes: the civil class, the patron class, and the ruling class. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between the (broad sense) guardian class, which includes both assistants and rulers, and the (narrow sense) guardian class, which refers to the assistants, collaborators, and warriors of the ruling class.
Based on this class distinction, the content of the education of children who will become guardians of the nation (in a broad sense) follows. Here, there are references to the norms that poets must follow when describing death, the underworld, and heroes, the narrative method and progression of the story, imitation, and the musical elements of the poem. After the poetry education, the discussion of physical education continues, emphasizing that physical education is not just to take care of the body, but to train the soul along with poetry. That is, through poetry and physical education, the primary purpose of education is to properly harmonize the passion of the soul and the love of wisdom.
After passing through all of these training courses, all sorts of tests are made to determine the future rulers from the group of Guardians (in the broadest sense). After the selection is over, a fictional myth of the founding of the nation is created to prevent them from changing their status while ignoring their inclinations. Those who are not elected here become assistants or collaborators of those who are elected. And the Guardians live together under control in the same house, and have no private property.
Book 4 The State of Righteousness and the Right People
Judging from the contents of the third volume, it seems that those who are chosen as the protectors of the state will not be happy. This is because they have no private property, no pleasures, and a strictly controlled communal life. In response to this situation, Socrates replies that the purpose of the establishment of the state is not for the protectors, but for the ward to live as happily as possible. Because such a country is a right and good country.
According to Socrates, three virtues are necessary for the realization of a just state. That is, the wisdom of rulers, the courage of guardians, and the temperance of ordinary citizens. And finally, when these three are in harmony, national correctness is formed. In the end, it is concluded that correctness at the national level means that each of the three groups of people who make up a country does their own thing that suits them.
Then, it puts into practice what was initially intended, that is, to search for the correctness of the individual by searching for the correctness of the state. Socrates asserts that just as the state has wisdom, utility, and temperance, so too does the individual soul have three parts: reason, passion, and desire. Also, just as the three parts of the state each fulfill their respective roles and are in harmony, correctness appears. In the case of individuals, it is also believed that correctness is formed when the three parts are harmonious and harmonious under the control of reason. Ultimately, it is concluded that national or individual correctness is the harmony of these factors.
Book 5 A country ruled by iron men
Volume 5 is divided into two main parts. The first part is about the common problem of the guardian group, and the second part is about the rulers. The sharing problem in the Guardian community is a very sensitive and difficult problem, as Socrates describes it as the three waves. Regarding the first wave, the role and education of female guardians, Socrates demands non-discriminatory treatment from male guardians. The idea of equality between men and women appeared. The second wave is the issue of sharing between spouses, which deals with matters of marriage, sexual intercourse, childbirth and nurturing to create the best group of guardians. And the third wave is the debate about whether the sharing problem discussed so far is realistically possible. In this regard, Socrates concludes that he should be satisfied with the fact that the discussion he has made so far has been to find an example of a good human being and the state, and how he can approach the state he has envisioned in theory.
Next, Socrates argues that the reason why the great state he had envisioned so far did not come out was because philosophers did not rule. According to Socrates, he asserts that the good state we have been discussing never sees the sun, unless a true philosopher becomes the lord of the state. So, who is the philosopher who plays such an important role? He should be a person who welcomes 'every existence itself' and a 'lover of wisdom'.
Book 6 The Idea of Qualities and Goodness of a Ruler
Now that Book 5 reveals who the lovers of wisdom and those who do not are, Socrates asks who should be the rulers of the state. In the end, philosophers must be the rulers of the state, who then discusses what qualities they should have. Although philosophy is so important, the evaluation of philosophy by ordinary people is not good. Philosophy is what makes the capable person the incompetent. Therefore, it is evaluated that philosophy is something to try when you are young, but if you spend a long time with it, you will be reduced to an incompetent human being. In this way, wrong people who do not even have philosophical qualities become philosophical, and the honor of philosophy is lowered.
However, since the country ruled by a philosopher is the best country, it is an unavoidable task to train rulers through proper philosophical education. Accordingly, the educational content and process for nurturing future rulers are discussed, and the most important thing to learn is the 'idea of goodness'. Then, we need to clarify what this 'idea of goodness' is. The 'parable of the sun' appears to explain its meaning, and the 'parable of the line segment' appears to explain the objects and stages of knowledge up to this knowledge. used
Book 7 The Completion of the Iron Man Ruler
In Volume 6, the path to the 'idea of goodness' was explained through the 'parable of the sun' and 'the parable of the line segment'. In addition to these explanations, in Volume 7, the 'idea of goodness' is explained more realistically through 'the parable of the cave'. In other words, it shows what a true cognitive attitude is through the appearance of people who have spent their whole lives staring at the shadows in the cave. The inside of the cave refers to the visible world of phenomena, and the outside refers to the real world that can be known by the intellect. Therefore, to do philosophy is to recognize the world outside the cave, that is, the realities, and the steps and contents of the preliminary education to reach this knowledge are presented.
After the preliminary education to develop the rulers of the state, intensive training in dialectics is carried out. Dialectic is the final discipline that good young people must go through in order to become an iron man ruler. After undergoing such training, they are given practical experience for many years, and finally, in order to become an example for government, eligible people who have reached the age of 50 are allowed to enter the path of recognition of the 'idea of goodness'. In this way, the training of an iron man ruler is completed.
Book 8 The Fallen State and Soul
At the end of Book 4 and at the beginning of Book 5, we stop trying to deal with the stories of the different types of states and the types of souls that resemble them, and actually deal with these stories in Books 8 and 9. According to Socrates, there are five types of state and the type of soul that resembles it. Among them, since we have talked about the best-in-class identity (the iron man rule system), from now on, we will deal with the four types of states and humans that are corrupt and appear as the best-in-class identity. Honorary identity and its resemblance, oligarchy and its resemblance, democratic identity and its resemblance, and tyrant identity and that.
First of all, when the identity of the best person is corrupted, it becomes the identity of honor. People with great qualities fail to give birth, and different qualities appear in the rulers. Here, passion prevails over rationality, and the desire for victory, honor, and wealth is strong. Then comes the oligarchic stagnation, in which the endlessly wealthy and the poor oppose each other.
In this state of confrontation, when the poor win, democracy is born. In this identity, 'freedom to do whatever you want' is guaranteed. But the insatiable desire for freedom and indifference to others undermines democracy and creates a tyranny. A tyrant cleverly exploits and exploits the people to achieve his personal ambitions, and in the end becomes a murderer who murders the people who raised him.
Book 9 The Ideal State in the Mind
Following the eighth volume, the discussion of the tyrant and the stagnant human is developed. The tyrannical human being is born when our rational element emerges while we sleep, and our desires dominate the soul. Such a person is intoxicated with lust and drunkenness. He constantly squanders his fortune to satisfy new needs, then takes away his parents' property and commits theft and all sorts of crimes. He is the most unreliable man, the most wrong and the worst. The worst person like this, the tyrant man, lives the most miserable life.
Socrates concludes that tyrannical human beings are the most miserable and unhappy, and then returns to the central point of his initial discussion: 'It is profitable to do wrong.' To this end, we try to create a single shape in which the rational part, the passionate part, and the greedy part are mixed together. But, according to Socrates, anyone who argues that injustice is beneficial is the same as assert that it is better for the passion and desire parts to overwhelm the rational part. Socrates regards this assertion as an absurd claim. How is it profitable for the sacred element of the human soul to be subject to lesser things? Those who do so will only become more wicked.
In the end, it is concluded that the rational part overwhelms the greedy part, and a person with temperance and wisdom becomes upright, and such a person's life is happy. And such a person lives dreaming of a right country that exists in the ideal, not the reality.
Book 10 Rewards for the Right Life
Volume 10 consists of two parts. One is the role of poetry and philosophy in relation to education. Here, it is emphasized that philosophy should take charge of the education that poetry has taken over. Poetry, as an imitation activity, is far from reality or truth, so it is inappropriate as an education for cultivating good guardians. Accordingly, the importance of philosophical education is emphasized.
The second part deals with the immortality of the soul and the reward for a righteous life. What is important here is that the rewards of righteous living are greater not only while alive, but also after death. To support this, the 'myth of Er' is introduced. The myth of Er is the story of a person named 'Er' who came back to life 12 days after he died, and what he saw in the underworld for 12 days. According to Er, all the souls of the underworld cast lots in front of the goddess of fate to choose the form of life they want to live. However, since most souls draw lots according to the habits of their previous lives, they regret or grieve over the aspects of life they have chosen. Therefore, the useful life and the unprofitable life are distinguished, and we teach the lesson that we must strive to be the scholars who teach us to choose the best at any time and any place.
If we believe that the soul is immortal, we must always live sensibly and practice right, so that we do not choose the unfortunate life of a tyrant. In the end, correctness is good on its own, but because of its consequences, the same logic applies in the afterlife.
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