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Unit 1: Plato’s Life, His Ideal State and Theory of Justice

was because the ideal state was unrealistic and unrealizable, for the philosopher was not a natural Notes
ruler and governing was thrust upon him in the larger interest of the community. Therefore
“... the Republic conveys the broadest and deepest analysis of political idealism ever made”.
Randall (1970: 116-165) pointed out that the Republic was a comic irony written with the purpose
of demonstrating that the Spartan model was absurd and unworkable. Bloom (1968), agreeing
with Strauss, contended that:
Political idealism is the most destructive of human passions and the Republic is the greatest critique
of political idealism ever written .... The Republic serves to moderate the extreme passion for justice
by showing the limits of what can be demanded and expected of the city (Bloom ibid: 408-410).
Strauss and Bloom asserted that Plato did not show a relationship between the two aspects of
justice, namely psychic harmony and happiness (eudaemonia), at least in the case of the philosopher
ruler. There was no proof that ruling would promote the happiness of the philosopher ruler, nor
were there compelling and convincing reasons for the philosopher to renounce a life of
contemplation and take to ruling. They challenged the traditional viewpoint of Barker (1964: 277-
284), Cassirer (1946: 70-73), Cornford (1945: xxxv), Nettleship (1967: 211-215), Sabine (1973: 51-56)
and Sinclair (1951: 57-59) which contended that the philosopher ruled out of a sense of duty to do
good to others, and regarding the good of others as extended self-interest.
Sabine, explaining further, pointed out that Plato made two fundamental assumptions which were
interrelated. These were: (a) that government ought to be an art depending on exact knowledge;
and (b) that society existed for the mutual satisfaction of needs by persons whose capacities
supplement one another. While the first was intrinsic to human personality, the second referred to
education and experience. In view of these two assumptions, Plato was convinced that if ruling
was entrusted to experts who could be trained, then governance would be above mediocrity and
expediency. Political leadership was both an art and a science. Good governance would confer a
dynasty of political rulers who could meet every contingency, rather than have occasional premiers
of the people. It would eliminate factionalism and petty groupism in politics. Ruling, for Plato,
had to be in accordance with the true dictates of moulding and transforming the state and
individuals in light of an absolute standard. Political philosophy had to prevent incompetence
and knavery in public life. The philosophers’ vision of the Forms and Good was a moralizing
experience, and that explained their commitment to the Ideal State of which they were the architects.
It supplied the state with an active probing critical intelligence. For Plato every individual had a
social side. Besides ensuring his own good, a philosopher must also be useful to society, for it was
only within a society that an individual realized his true self. The philosophers ruled in order to
prevent victimization at the hands of inferior rulers.
1.4 Theory of Justice

One of the most fundamental ethical and political concepts is justice. It is a complex and ambiguous
concept. It may refer to individual virtue, the order of society, as well as individual rights is
contrast to the claims of the general social order.
An ideal state for Plato possessed the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance or
self-control and justice. It would have wisdom because its rulers were persons of knowledge,
courage because its warriors were brave, self-control because of the harmony that pervaded the
societal matrix due to a common agreement as to who ought to rule, and finally, justice of doing
one’s job for which one was naturally fitted without interfering with other people. For Plato, the
state was the Ideal, of which justice was the reality. Justice was the principle on which the state
had to be founded and a contribution made towards the excellence of the city.
The central question of the Republic was the meaning of justice or right conduct or morality. It did
not refer to legality. Plato critically examined contemporary views on justice and then defined the

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