The Nature of Marriage, Family and Why Philosophers Should Rule according to Plato
In Book V of Plato’s Republic, he details his view of an idealistic society. His main points include a platonic view of marriage, which is comparable to animal breeding. He also shows a strong belief in communal family. In addition, he explains why he believes that philosophers should rule.
Marriage is expressed platonically in the polis, which contrasts with the ideal of common monogamy in today’s society. Instead, the members in the guardian class share women along with their children, and marriage does not include living together. Plato proposes, “That all these women are to belong in common to all the men, none are to live privately with any man” (457c-d). …show more content…
To do this Plato proposes that no one in the city will be aware of their biological parents. Thus after birth, the children will be taken away to a rearing pen to be taken care of by nurses and the parents will not be allowed to know who their children are. Plato details his system,
“They’ll take the children of good parents to the nurses in charge of the rearing pen situated in a separate part of the city, but the children of inferior parents, or any child of the others that is born defective, they’ll hide in a secret and unknown place, as is appropriate […] they must deal with it in the knowledge that no nurture is available for it” (460c-d, …show more content…
Plato gives such qualities as their innate ability to understand the forms, their love for truth, leadership capacities and their thirst for wisdom. The first quality of a philosopher is that they must love wisdom above all else. Philosophers love and pursue for all of wisdom is established, “who readily and willingly tries all kinds of learning, who […] is insatiable for it, is rightly called a philosopher” (475c). In addition philosophers love the sight of truth, “[Glaucon] And who are the true philosophers? [Plato] Those who love the sight of truth” (475e). Philosophers are the only ones who are able to recognize and enjoy in what is behind the variety of appearances, specifically the single Form (476a-b). Plato distinguishes that philosophers are capable of understanding and knowing the single Forms. However, others only have opinions, which are just manifestations of the forms, but not the true forms (476d). Those who only have opinions do not know true forms, since opinions have differing and changing appearances as their object, while knowledge denotes that the objects are unchanging (476e-477e). These philosophic traits are the reason why Plato believes philosopher should rule. These philosophic qualities are also the reasons why philosophers are uniquely qualified to rule. Plato proposes a way of convincing those who lack knowledge that only the
In Book V of Plato’s Republic, he details his view of an idealistic society. His main points include a platonic view of marriage, which is comparable to animal breeding. He also shows a strong belief in communal family. In addition, he explains why he believes that philosophers should rule.
Marriage is expressed platonically in the polis, which contrasts with the ideal of common monogamy in today’s society. Instead, the members in the guardian class share women along with their children, and marriage does not include living together. Plato proposes, “That all these women are to belong in common to all the men, none are to live privately with any man” (457c-d). …show more content…
To do this Plato proposes that no one in the city will be aware of their biological parents. Thus after birth, the children will be taken away to a rearing pen to be taken care of by nurses and the parents will not be allowed to know who their children are. Plato details his system,
“They’ll take the children of good parents to the nurses in charge of the rearing pen situated in a separate part of the city, but the children of inferior parents, or any child of the others that is born defective, they’ll hide in a secret and unknown place, as is appropriate […] they must deal with it in the knowledge that no nurture is available for it” (460c-d, …show more content…
Plato gives such qualities as their innate ability to understand the forms, their love for truth, leadership capacities and their thirst for wisdom. The first quality of a philosopher is that they must love wisdom above all else. Philosophers love and pursue for all of wisdom is established, “who readily and willingly tries all kinds of learning, who […] is insatiable for it, is rightly called a philosopher” (475c). In addition philosophers love the sight of truth, “[Glaucon] And who are the true philosophers? [Plato] Those who love the sight of truth” (475e). Philosophers are the only ones who are able to recognize and enjoy in what is behind the variety of appearances, specifically the single Form (476a-b). Plato distinguishes that philosophers are capable of understanding and knowing the single Forms. However, others only have opinions, which are just manifestations of the forms, but not the true forms (476d). Those who only have opinions do not know true forms, since opinions have differing and changing appearances as their object, while knowledge denotes that the objects are unchanging (476e-477e). These philosophic traits are the reason why Plato believes philosopher should rule. These philosophic qualities are also the reasons why philosophers are uniquely qualified to rule. Plato proposes a way of convincing those who lack knowledge that only the