Through this essay I will demonstrate that though Plato’s Kallipolis would be an ordered state, it would not be just according to our modern definition of justice. I will first attempt to define the term ‘justice’ and then apply it to some examples in Plato’s proposed state. I will be showing this through the use of the ‘noble lie’ told in order to keep people in rigid classes and how this leads to a lack of social mobility. I will also be looking at the lack of freedom that seems to come with Plato’s society and how this cannot truly be just, especially to our current society that holds the value of freedom so highly.
In order to show that Plato’s society would be unjust it is necessary to sum up what is meant by the term ‘Justice’. The definition …show more content…
He suggests that the citizens be convinced into believing the ‘myth of the metals,’ ( et al. 2007, p.414c–415c) which states that all the people are born of the earth, which should lead to them viewing each other as family and that each class has a separate metal merged into their souls (gold for the guardians, silver for the auxiliaries, iron or brass for the producers). The point of this myth is to warrant Socrates’ plan of selective breeding and to decrease likely bitterness between the classes. When measured against Plato’s classification of justice the notion of using the ‘noble lie’ does seem to work. ‘But for Plato, his noble lie is superior to the lies of the poets he rejects, because it is told knowingly. It is designed to support a social structure that Plato feels is good in all ways, both for the individuals, who are inherently inferior in Plato’s construction, and for the good of the social order as a whole. The knowledge that informs it, its accurate reflection of the truly good, makes it an acceptable kind of lying within Plato’s system.’ (Pratt 1993, p.153) In order to achieve a just society, Plato believed that classes and individuals have a certain responsibility to the community which, if everybody completes, will end with harmonious …show more content…
Plato undervalues self-determination and its importance to self-respect and therefore to justice. Plato’s guardian class conceivably can experience the enjoyments of self-determination, but everybody else in Plato’s kappollis are forced to live an essentially unfree, non-self-determining, life. They will therefore experience an absence of self-respect; the fact that they are lesser in relation to others will create anger and rivalry disturbing the harmony of the person’s mental state and their opinion of their role in society. It will cause conflict within themselves and with the state, consequently, as Plato himself admits, making unjust
In order to show that Plato’s society would be unjust it is necessary to sum up what is meant by the term ‘Justice’. The definition …show more content…
He suggests that the citizens be convinced into believing the ‘myth of the metals,’ ( et al. 2007, p.414c–415c) which states that all the people are born of the earth, which should lead to them viewing each other as family and that each class has a separate metal merged into their souls (gold for the guardians, silver for the auxiliaries, iron or brass for the producers). The point of this myth is to warrant Socrates’ plan of selective breeding and to decrease likely bitterness between the classes. When measured against Plato’s classification of justice the notion of using the ‘noble lie’ does seem to work. ‘But for Plato, his noble lie is superior to the lies of the poets he rejects, because it is told knowingly. It is designed to support a social structure that Plato feels is good in all ways, both for the individuals, who are inherently inferior in Plato’s construction, and for the good of the social order as a whole. The knowledge that informs it, its accurate reflection of the truly good, makes it an acceptable kind of lying within Plato’s system.’ (Pratt 1993, p.153) In order to achieve a just society, Plato believed that classes and individuals have a certain responsibility to the community which, if everybody completes, will end with harmonious …show more content…
Plato undervalues self-determination and its importance to self-respect and therefore to justice. Plato’s guardian class conceivably can experience the enjoyments of self-determination, but everybody else in Plato’s kappollis are forced to live an essentially unfree, non-self-determining, life. They will therefore experience an absence of self-respect; the fact that they are lesser in relation to others will create anger and rivalry disturbing the harmony of the person’s mental state and their opinion of their role in society. It will cause conflict within themselves and with the state, consequently, as Plato himself admits, making unjust