ipl-logo

What Is Plato's Unjust Soul

1385 Words6 Pages

aligns with reason and resists the desires of the appetite. It is in this part of the soul where the courage to be good is found. In the unjust soul, the spirit ignores reason and instead aligns with the appetitive desires, manifesting as the demand for the pleasures of the body. Plato asserts that the wise and just soul allows reason to govern the other parts, while the unwise and unjust soul allows conflict between the parts.12 Just as there is the appetitive part of the soul—the largest part of the soul—there is the productive class, or the workers, who have souls of bronze and account for the largest part of the population.13 This class includes the general population of laborers, plumbers, masons, carpenters, merchants, and farmers. Justice and moderation are found within these individuals.14 These professions correspond to the ‘appetite’ part of the soul. The protective class includes the warriors or guardians, and Plato considers them to have souls made of silver. They are strong, brave, and comprise of the ‘spirit’ part of the soul.15 Courage lies within the auxiliaries. And then there is the governing …show more content…

Failure during the Peloponnesian War caused Greeks to question democracy and traditional Greek values. Plato disagreed with the way the state was run, especially after Athens’ loss at war. He discusses the meaning of justice and outlines how the ideal state should be governed in The Republic. He believes that the ideal state should be governed by a class of guardian rulers, who were trained as philosopher-kings. These rulers are the only members of society who could understand the Form of the Good and would be able to rule justly and logically. The rest of society would be made up of the class of warriors and the class of producers. With each member of society performing his own duty according to his class, and with rulers embracing the true Forms, peace and cooperation would be

Show More
Related

  • Ancient Greek Democracy Dbq Analysis

    332 Words  | 2 Pages

    Democracy, a noun that means the society is governed by the people, a system of voting, and majority rules. In ancient Greece, demokratia, otherwise known as democracy can be battered down into demo, and kratia. Demo, meaning the people, and kratia meaning the power or rule. Together it means rule by the people. The purpose of this essay is to prove that ancient Greece wasn’t truly democratic.

    Read More

  • Plato And Rose Wilder Lane Democracy Analysis

    519 Words  | 3 Pages

    He also believed that “the welfare of society had always been left to corrupt or incompetent politicians, ignorant voters, over-ambitious generals, and other people unsuited to run a state” (Plato: Democracy). He believed that philosophers should be in charge (Plato: Democracy) and in his mind, the government should be representative of the ordinary man. While Plato would never have considered himself a supporter of democracy, I believe that many of his ideas fit nicely into one. In my ideal government, the voice of the general public would be more important than those of politicians, because as humans, we are easily corrupted and when only a few individuals are in power, it is only the rich and powerful who end up with a

    Read More

  • Comparing Locke's Arguments Against Escaping Conditions In Athens

    527 Words  | 3 Pages

    Plato was highly against the collapsing conditions in Athens. Justice is to mind/do one’s own business. To Plato, justice is to be considered to one’s happiness. The idea is to fulfill one’s proper role without overstepping it by doing what is conflicting to one’s nature. In the just state, each individual has a certain set of duties, which are obligations to the community.

    Read More

  • Alcibiades Plato Analysis

    1013 Words  | 5 Pages

    Socrates in the dialogue Alcibiades written by Plato provides an argument as to why the self is the soul rather than the body. In this dialogue Alcibiades and Socrates get into a discussion on how to cultivate the self which they both mutually agree is the soul, and how to make the soul better by properly taking care of it. One way Socrates describes the relationship between the soul and the body is by analogy of user and instrument, the former being the entity which has the power to affect the latter. In this paper I will explain Socrates’ arguments on why the self is the soul and I will comment on what it means to cultivate it.

    Read More

  • Honor In The Aeneid

    1057 Words  | 5 Pages

    "The Aeneid both constructs a world and articulates an unresolved set of problems" - said by Philip Hardie in the introduction of the book Aeneid translated by Robert Fitzgerald. One of the problematic theme lies in the book is the Notion of duty itself and how it is related with the sense of honor. The figure of Greek and Roman heroes had their own specific ideals. It is often seen from most of the epics and poems , that the principle domain of 'polis ' in the society is held often by Men. However, the heroes who are not immortal like gods must suffer and endure the universal conditions of that period of time.

    Read More

  • John Locke's Concept Of Justice

    1751 Words  | 8 Pages

    Plato regarded justice as the true principle of social life. Plato in his day found a lot of evil in society. He saw unrighteousness rampant and injustice enthroned.

    Read More

  • Plato's Republic: Just Or Unjust?

    832 Words  | 4 Pages

    The just person’s soul entails motive for certain kinds of objects the most important of which is knowledge. Socrates describes the hardship and extreme effort required to gain knowledge of the forms and the form of the good, thus the just person will seek learning and not spend time to take care of the satisfaction of desires that typically lead to unjust actions. This approach to unite the gap between a just soul and just actions may have some drawbacks. One negative aspect may be that several unjust actions may be motivated by desires that are compatible with the desire for knowledge. For example, why wouldn’t a person with a great fascination for knowledge steal a book if it would contribute to their

    Read More

  • Plato's Argument On Why The Soul Is Alive

    524 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Republic, Plato gives an argument saying the soul is immortal. In this paper I will present his argument and show that his argument is invalid. I will show why the conclusion is not true and restate the argument to make it valid to help with Socrates’ claim. Plato’s argument on why the soul is immortal: 1. Something can only be destroyed by the thing that is bad for it.

    Read More

  • The Allegory Of The Cave, By Plato

    1152 Words  | 5 Pages

    It never changes and yet causes the essential nature of things we perceive in the world. These two perceptions are what Plato describes as the divided line or the journey of self discovery. This progression of the spirit, that can never be reached, becomes the ideal. Plato’s discussions include the involvement of the soul. It is clear, that the main reason for dealing with the soul is to achieve this state

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Arete In Ancient Greece

    1134 Words  | 5 Pages

    While some, like Plato in his The Republic, thought it weak to give government into the hands of the common people, Pericles countered this argument with a compelling argument of greatness. By putting government into the hands of the people, the people are united and more devoted to their country. Democracy bonds the people together in a way that no other government can understand. Pericles confidently states, “Athenians advance unsupported into the territory of a neighbor, and fighting upon a foreign soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their homes.”

    Read More

  • Plato And The Tyrant Analysis

    594 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through Socrates’s description of the life of the tyrant, Plato makes clear the apparent angst within the tyrannical soul and its direct correspondence to justice. Through describing tyrants as “unjust as they can be” (Book IX: 576b) as well as “the most wretched” (Book IX: 576c), Socrates is able to prove that “the man who turns out the worst” will “also turn out the most wretched” (Book IX: 576b). This defies Glaucon’s case that justice is valuable solely for its

    Read More

  • The Argument Of King Plato

    302 Words  | 2 Pages

    To illustrate for his argument of king-philosopher, Plato compares the structure of the state to that of a ship. He draws out a picture of a sailing journey being lead by an ignorant and incompetent person while everybody else in the crew is trying to compete to be at the helm, which result in a disturbing scenario. In this simile, the captain is whoever successful at convincing the owners of the ship to choose him as the navigator; he represents the current ruler under democratic government, while the crew or the sailors represent the politicians of the state. The sailors, who are just ordinary people and have no special knowledge about navigation, are rivaling against the captain, who is also not much different from them, for ruling power.

    Read More

  • The Republic By Thomas More: A Perfect Society

    784 Words  | 4 Pages

    They have attained the true and highest knowledge of the forms and are internally balanced. As such, these ‘philosopher kings’ are truly intelligent, wise, and uniquely qualified to manage society through the proper channels. In conjunction with law-making, Guardians were also responsible for the society’s educational matters. Plato believed that the education of young children should be equal across the board and void of any outside influence that could corrupt the three parts of the soul. Without outside influence, it would become apparent which aspect of the soul was dominant in the child and eliminated the possibility of incorrect placement of citizens in the proper areas of society.

    Read More

  • The Republic, By Plato

    1330 Words  | 6 Pages

    In addition, Plato defines the appetitive and rational parts of the soul very easily, as the spirited realm is not defined until human will, honor, and indignation is questioned to where they belong. While Plato places rationality on a higher tier than spirit or desire, I pose the question, would rationality alone grant an individual survival in the real world? I argue that the reasoning and desiring

    Read More

  • Plato's Theory Of Education Analysis

    2316 Words  | 10 Pages

    It was Plato’s way of stemming to the root of all human beings by insisting that they presented the same traits and functions as one another. In applying this concept, Plato assumed that every human being, just like the state they resided in, was made up of various distinctive traits, that took on specific roles to maintain. But Plato also disputed that there was little to no evidence of such a notion in an everyday sense of the meaning. As a human race, we constantly face choices of what to do, and in most cases, find ourselves at a crossroads to make certain decisions all at once. The only way we can distinguish these directions, is to categorize all the elements within ourselves.

    Read More

More about What Is Plato's Unjust Soul

Open Document