Republic (Book IV) by Plato
This post is part of my journey through the classic texts of Western civilization.
Continuing from Book III, Adeimantos brings up the objection that the guardians might become miserable, being barred from the pleasures that others are able to partake in such as marriage, land, gold, and silver. Socrates replies that the goal is to make the city as a whole happy and well, not just one class of people. Consistently so far we have seen Plato's concern for the whole city; later we will see his concern for the whole man, not just one part of him.
Guardians must guard against both excessive wealth and poverty in the city. For wealth can result in luxury, idleness, and faction, whilst poverty can create meanness and bad work. A lack of wealth will not be a concern for war, as their men will be fit and athletic rather than wealthy and fat. Regarding the size of the city, Plato believes that a city should grow as big as it can/wants but only so far as the city remains a unity.
Plato is quite conservative about education, not wanting innovations against the established order. He says, "For the methods of music cannot be stirred up without great upheavals of social custom and law." How true we see this in our own day.
Three Classes, Three Parts of the Soul
The following discussion that ensues is what in my mind cements Book IV as the most important book in Plato's Republic (at least so far). As we recall, the whole reason that Socrates embarked on this discussion of what makes a city just is in order to discern what makes an individual man just. We finally see some resolution in this endeavor.
Socrates begins a discussion on the common saying of a man being "stronger than himself." This paradoxical phrase can be understood as the better part of a man's soul mastering the worse parts. So in the same way, a city can be said to be stronger than itself when the better part of the city rules the worse part. Plato sees the guardian class "guided by reason along with sense and right opinion" as the fewer and better men ruling over the masses/common people who possess multitudinous desires.
In a moment of epiphany, Socrates remarks on what justice is:
"... to do one's own business and not to meddle with many businesses is justice."
In other words, "each one must practice that one thing, of all in the city, for which his nature was best fitted." For this is the very thing that makes it possible for the other three of the four Greek cardinal virtues (temperance, courage, wisdom/prudence, and justice) to be present. A city is called brave by the courage of its soldiers; a city is called wise by the wisdom of its rulers. A city is called temperate if harmony and agreement is present between the classes as to who should rule the city. If each class were to try and act as another class (e.g. were the common people to try and rule in place of the guardians), then such a city could not have any of these virtues. So a just city would see the people in its three classes (the working class, the fighting class, and the guardian class) dealing with their own respective class and business, not meddling themselves with the other classes. Plato goes so far to say that "meddling and interchange between the three classes would be the greatest damage to the city, and would rightly be entitled evildoing in chief," thus resulting in an unjust city.
Plato recognizes the apparent contradiction of the common human experience when one desires something yet at the same thing is averse to it; he gives the example of a man who desires for drink to quench his thirst, yet something in him also resists it. Like a good logician who properly understands the law of non-contradiction, he recognizes that it is impossible for a man to at the same time both desire and not desire something if it is in the same sense. Thus, the only explanation is that there must be at least two aspects to soul. In the example above, the desiring part of the soul is the one that seeks after drink to quench thirst, but the rational part of the soul may for whatever reason be averse to satisfying that thirst (e.g. a fast). Plato also reasons that there is a third part of the soul, the spirited part or the temper, that gets angry and assists the rational part in reproaching and ruling over the desiring part.
"It is clear that the same thing will never do or undergo opposite things in the same part of it and towards the same thing at the same time; so if we find this happening, we shall know it was not one thing but more than one."
The city and its three classes serves as a macrocosm of the individual man and his soul/psyche. Namely, we see each class correlate with a part of a man's soul:
- Working class -> The appetitive part of the soul; desires for common pleasures like food, drink, sex, etc. largest part of the soul much like the working class makes up most of the city.
- Fighting class -> The spirited part of the soul.
- Guardian class -> The rational part of the soul.
In the same way that a just city should have its guardian class rule over the others for the good of the city, a just man is one whose mind using reason is able to rule over the other parts for the good of the man, particularly the desiring part; the spirited part aids the rational part in this. The unjust man is one who has one part of the soul revolting against the whole and refusing to act its place—an example would be a licentious man who cannot control his desires and instead succumbs to them despite his reason telling him contrary.
Now that the question of what justice is has been answered—particularly what makes an individual man just—the next question to be answered is whether or not justice is worth pursuing.