Plato And His Philosophy Of Thought

Plato and his philosophy of thought

Although Plato’s works cover virtually all areas of philosophy The thought of the Greek author is deeply oriented towards political and ethical reflection;In fact, in the most extensive works of him, the Republic and the laws, Plato tries to recreate a political utopia where his ideal of combining ethics and political.

The Republic

For Plato, justice is the end of both ethics and politics, therefore, by analyzing the ethical model of good life we are analyzing, in turn, the perfect political status model. Platonic ethics is an intellectualist ethic since it affirms that the mere knowledge of what is good makes man act with goodness;Evil is a mere ignorance of what suits us since, according to the Greek philosopher, moral good coincides with happiness: if we want good it is because it is good not only ethically but because it is good for our happiness. Thus Plato considers that what ethics pursues is the happiness of the individual while politics pursues the happiness of the political body.

From this intellectualist perspective, the evil one moved by an unbridled desire, envy or any other passion is like the young child who believes that taking only sweets will make him happy unaware that this behavior will carry stomach pain or, putting another example, theFair man is like the one who even knowing that a medicine is bitter and unpleasant takes it because he knows that he is useful and will heal him. In this way, we must know what man is to know what his happiness is, for this reason Plato tries to found his ethics and politics in an anthropology, that is, in an analysis of what man is.

Plato analyzes the man and finds that there are three motivations in his actions that corresponds to three types of soul. The three souls are: the rational soul, the irascible soul and the appetitive soul. The appetitive soul is one that seeks the satisfaction of desires such as sex, money, food, etc.;Plato represents it as an amorphous monster with multiple heads and in his dialogue the Timeo locates it in the liver. The Irascible Soul is in which aggressiveness and desire for struggle resides, is usually allied to the rational soul: when a person suffers an injustice struggle more ardently and more strongly than when he knows that reason is not on his part;It is represented by a lion and in the Timeo is located in the heart. Finally, the most important soul, the rational, identifies with our theoretical and ethical intelligence, that is, it is that part that builds arguments and reflects on concepts;It is like a little man who is within ourselves who sits, according to Timeo, in the brain.

Justice for Plato is that the rational part controls the irrational and appetitive part with the help of the Irascible Soul. Thus justice is defined as that state of affairs where each one attends to their own and fulfills its function. Ethical justice is that state where appetites are measured and controlled by intelligence and the fiery impulses of the Irascible Soul are equally subject to the control of reason. In this way, man is happy since otherwise his soul would be continuously contained by insatiable appetites that would force man to enslave his own rational nature in a blind and endless search because the desires of the appetitive soul are innumerable and by his very natureInsatiable. Plato, following the Pythagoreans, will be one of the first philosophers who bet on a contemplative ethic with ascetic dyes.

In the same way that there are three souls in man in the state there must be three parts;The fair state will be one in which its parts fulfill their functions more harmoniously and strictly. The working people correspond to the appetitive soul in the state;The army corresponds to the irascible soul;And finally, philosophers are to the State what the rational soul is the individual. The function of the philosophical class is to govern the State, in the same way that the rational soul in the righteous man had to control his actions;The guardians are intended to defend the State and assist philosophers in the task of governing but always being at their orders;Finally, the working people have the function of fulfilling the orders emanating from the other higher classes. Before continuing we must make it clear that when Plato speaks of philosophers as a ruling class, he does not simply refer to someone who has studied philosophy as we understand the word philosopher;Plato takes the word philosopher in an etymological sense, that is, the ruler is the friend of wisdom, the understanding, the person who reflects and understands political problems, in a word, a technician of public affairs. It is very recurring in Plato? The answer is obvious to Socrates’ disciple: the ship must be governed by whoever knows, by the pilot;In the same way the State must be directed by those who have a more perfect knowledge about reality: philosophers.

As well as in the individual, the harmony between the parts of his soul had as its purpose the happiness of the same the harmony of the hierarchies of the Platonic ideal state has as its purpose the happiness of the political body. To avoid the end of the State and the rulers and the guardians begin to seek their personal profit, certain norms must be instituted in the State. First, among the guardians everything must be common and there should be no private property;They will all eat together as a family and sleep in common rooms as if they were soldiers in campaign. Since among the animals we admit that males and females of the same species are equal and have the same characteristics, except that females are physically weak and that males cannot give birth, among the men and women guardians they will have the same rights and will liveAlso in common. Even relationships between men and women will be free and families will not be established as we know them since the children of the Guardians will all be raised in common and not even the parents will know who their children are. From the caste of the Guardians the philosophers rulers will come out, those who stand out in intelligence and justice will be those selected to form the ruling caste. The caste of guardians-philosophers will not be mixed with the rest of the town since you have to try as much as possible that the best children of the best parents and the best parents are born for the command are those of the ruling caste;In the event that by chance a son of ruler is not up to the height of his parents will be delivered to the governed so that they educate him and maintain, in the opposite case that a woman of the people has a child with a superior nature this thisson will be promoted to the ruling caste to be educated among them.

To ensure that rulers are the best possible for the function of directing the State must be strictly educated to fulfill their task. It is of vital importance that the children of the guardians and the philosophers are educated through gymnastics and music;From a very young age, children will learn to coordinate their movements at pleasant and soft rhythms to internalize the principles of harmony and order and so that they also strengthen their bodies by making them agile for the fight for. Plato takes great care of music education and outlaws of its ideal state the soft and broken rhythms;Through the degeneration of the rhythm, the degeneration of customs could be introduced, so all innovation that is not strictly approved by the kings-philosophers must be avoided.

As for intellectual education, the first years of life Guardian-philosopher will spend them by studying mathematics since this discipline allows to familiarize itself with immutable things and, in addition, awakens the intellect. Shortly after the young man will study astronomy to be able to perceive the order and harmony that is the trace of demiurge in the physical world. Finally, at thirty years who have shown greater intellectual acuity and moral strength will be introduced into the study of the dialectic. The dialectic is the discipline that tries to know the things that are in itself, in the Platonic metaphysics, the forms;Those who advance in the knowledge of the forms will reach the contemplation of the supreme form: the way of good. The knowledge of the ontological cusp, the apprehension of the idea of good is not a mediate, merely intellectual and communicable knowledge with ordinary language;The supreme form that gives entity to everything real is only known through direct and incommunicable experience not accessible to most men. Those who have experienced good will be the kings-philosophers, of age not under 50 years, while all those who have not reached the total understanding of the good or lack features to evolve in their learning will be those that form the caste of the caste ofthe Guardians.

Plato admits that his ideal state as any other reality in the physical world is subject to degradation for the sooner or later degenerates another less perfect political system. The ideal state is called by the author "aristocracy" that means "government of the best";When in this ideal state, warriors begin to occupy the position that corresponded to philosophers appears the first degenerate political system: the "Timarquía". In the Timarquía the guardians accumulate wealth and the power behind the back of the working people, they do not commit excessive excesses but the desire for honors is what moves their decisions instead of the good of the majority of the majority. In many ways the Timarquía remembers the militaristic regimes of the twentieth century and today.

The Timarquía degenera in "oligarchy" (government of few) where the ruling class is composed no longer by the warriors but by those who possess the riches. Since in the Timarquía the end of the rulers was to accumulate wealth, the evolution towards the oligarchy is logical. The biggest problem of oligarchy is social cohesion, in this system of government there are two states in one: the state of the poor and the state of the rich always in conflict with each other.

The poor situation of the poor class in the oligarchy leads to this to degenerate in "democracy" (Government of the People). The poor people ally and snatch the power from the richest establishing as much as possible an equal system of political participation and the greatest possible political freedom. All rule in the democratic state and everyone can live in freedom doing what seems good for them. But this system is also imperfect since while in the oligarchy there were two political bodies in democracy there are countless, as many as individuals or families. Everyone does what it wants and there is no order or law that is respected, the ignorant have as much power as the wise and the crowd is believed expert in all issues. Governing a democratically state, says Plato, is like piloting a ship by voting to people on board know or do not know about the art of navigating. Democracy generates dissension, continuous confrontations and social chaos.

Democracy degenerates into the political system farther from good governance: tyranny. In the democratic state a demagogue is presented as savior of the poor or a wide layer of population, with zalameras words he takes power in the assembly and they all follow it. After achieving political power, he needs a guard that protects him from the aggressions of his enemies, with this guard and with the collusion of other city’s allies or foreigners is done with absolute power. The one who looked like the savior of the town becomes a tyrant with full powers that to maintain his preeminence has to exterminate all his enemies. Examples of tyrannies have them in the totalitarian regimes of fascist or communist cutting.

Written in its maturity, the Republic is perhaps the most influential dialogue of Plato and the first political utopia of which we have written record, however, in his old age the Athenian author rebuilt this utopia in his work "The laws" giving him a more open nuance and democratic to his political project although retaining a lot of the elements that appear in the Republic.

Laws

"The laws" is Plato’s most voluminous work and in the opinion of most experts also the last. In this work of Old Agez Plato the utopia built in "La República" is rethinking trying to give it a more possibilist nuance. In the face of the utopia of the work of maturity "the laws" is presented as a realistic adaptation of that ideal; They attract attention in this last political project of Plato not only the changes that have occurred in his thinking but also those elements that have remained equal since "the Republic".

In this work Plato shows his rejection of tyranny and democracy that he puts as an example of systems that understand the freedom of their citizens in an extreme way. Tyranny by reducing political freedom to nothing makes its members feel part of the political unity of the State; Democracy, on the contrary, by providing its citizens with an extreme freedom to disadvantages them from the political unity of the State and makes them individualistic people. A well -governed city must take this into account and try to be something intermediate between these two political systems.

The city founded on "laws" must have certain geographical and demographic peculiarities. It must have enough land so that all citizens of the city have land to grow; It must be close to the sea but not have a port so that contact with trade does not corrupt the moral of citizens. Demographically this State must consist of 5.040 families, which would make a total of between 40.000 to 48.000 citizens who should not work manually or in the countryside, where slaves will work, nor in artisanal trades, who will be commissioned to resident foreigners; In this way the citizens of the city described in "Las Laws", Magnesia, can exclusively devote themselves to the Government of the City and their education that are work that occupy plenty of hours of the day.

Plato renounces communism in "the laws" by unrealizable but continues to think that this is the best system to divide wealth; As a substitute for communism Plato proposes that there are four social classes that will be classified depending on the wealth they possess. The members of the less rich class must always possess enough to keep the family and slaves, the members of the richest class cannot have a wealth of more than four times the value of the culture land they have assigned, in case that these riches exceed this value would pass to the State. As money must be the latest in the scale of magnesia values ​​all public positions can be chosen from all classes and in the collective power bodies there will be the same number of representatives of each of the classes. Of course, a family can change class according to the fortune of their wealth. With this division in four economic classes that participate equally in political decisions Plato wants to ensure that there is no social fracture between rich and poor that always leads civil wars and the dissolution of the political body.

As for the political organization in Magnesia, public office is chosen by universal suffrage, the positions that can only be exercised for a certain time and at the end of the mandate those who occupy public office must account for their actions before a court constituted for this purpose. Men and women have the same political responsibilities and the same rights, equality that Plato retains from "the Republic". As the most important political body is the "nighttime council" that receives its name because it meets from the first lights until the sun rises; The "Night Board" is responsible for monitoring compliance with the law and making reforms in case it is absolutely necessary. The nighttime council will be formed by diverse age men although most will be more than 50 years old and will be old public positions that stood out for their virtue and wisdom and who will have a complementary education in philosophical matters.

Education is one of the fundamental pillars of Magnesia that is mandatory since the age of three and will be one of the fundamental occupations of the city of the city. From three to six, children attend Game groups where teachers play games of their own invention under the supervision of the teachers. At age six, education will begin with multiple subjects but singing and dance will occupy a fundamental role. From ten to thirteen years you will learn to read and write and thirteen at sixteen, music will be taught, especially to play the lyre. Literacy must be general. Other subjects should also be taught but Plato does not specify at what age, they are: arithmetic, measurement art, practical astronomy that allows to calculate time, stations, etc … The guardians of the Law of the Night Board must have deeper knowledge of theology and an understanding both theoretical-philosophical and justice practice.

To prevent Public Education from being won no inhabitant of Magnesia will be able to leave his city before the age.

If it was said before a fundamental pillar of the city of Magnesia, education was the other fundamental pillar will be the law. The law has an educational purpose, tries to make citizens as the best possible and try to punish and with the arguments the same: change the way of acting of that person who unfairly works. For this reason the death penalty is only applicable to incorrigible criminals whose moral nature is so corrupt that it is unrecoverable to society.

In "the laws" as in "the Republic" the entire political universe revolves around the common good of the city rather than over the good of the individual. Modern individualism is unthinkable for a thinker as Plato and considers that the State can not only be interference in private morality matters, from there that marriages are concerted by the State rather than by individual whims or that public positions must comply Its function although they prefer to retire from public life.

"The laws" implies a review of the project of "the Republic" but the depth of that review is still something of controversy among scholars. What is unquestionable is that the strongly hierarchized State devised in "the Republic" has given way to a division of the most democratic political power but it is equally obvious that for Plato individual freedoms occupy in their two political projects a very secondary role.