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

individual”. On balance, his critics were right, for the individual’s development retained meaning Notes
only if it was socially useful. For achieving social ends, individuals were denied their freedom and
privacy, and subjected to excessive regulation of their lives. Plato’s society was inherently elitist
and meritocratic. He tacitly assumed that it would be possible to find the right person for every
available job, and one could anticipate the economic requirements of society and plan accordingly.
Self-Assessment
Choose the correct option:
1. Plato’s work ‘The Republic’ published in ............... .
(i) 380–370 BC (ii) 360 BC (iii) 340–350 BC (iv) None of these
2. Friendrich Wilhelm Neitzsche characterised Platonism as the intellectual side of ............... .
(i) Islam (ii) Farzi (iii) Christianity (iv) Yahudi
3. Plato met Socrates in 407 BC the age of ............... .
(i)20 (ii)25 (iii)28 (iv)21
4. In ............... Athens witnessed an obligarchia revolution led by Plato’s relatives.
(i) 405 BC (ii) 300–260 BC (iii) 400 BC (iv) 432 BC
5. Justice in the state meant ............... social classes.
(i) Rulers (ii) Warriors (iii) Producers (iv) All of these.

1.5 Summary

• Western thought, one might say, has been either Platonic or anti-Platonic, but hardly ever
non-Platonic.
• Plato was the first systematic political theorist, and a study of the Western philosophical
tradition begins with his masterpiece, the Republic. He was the first to create a body of
writing that spanned many areas—art, epistemology, ethics, language, love, mathematics,
political theory, religion and science. He was credited for establishing philosophy as a unified
and complex discipline, proposing radical solutions to the political community and human
life. Utopian thought in the West also begins with Plato. While the Republic would always
remain a timeless classic, Plato influenced successive generations of followers with his the
Statesman and the Laws, for Aristotle made the latter two the starting point of his inquiry.
• The Republic dealt with the question of achieving justice in society. In answering this question,
it focused on other interrelated themes, like the right kind of life, the nature of human
beings, the purpose and goals of political association, the ideal type of political system, the
classification of constitutions, the need for good, upright rulers, and the nature and meaning
of knowledge.
• Plato emphasized that a good political community was one that promoted the general well-
being of all its citizens. An important feature of such a society was the strong sense of
community that its members shared. No one was favoured at the expense of the other. All
were granted a fair share in the benefits. The philosopher ruler was the right kind of person
to rule, for he was least interested in capturing power or making money. With a number of
allegories like master-slave, shepherd-sheep, Plato tried to replicate automatic command
and obedience as a model of the ruler-subject relationship, which, however was rejected by
Aristotle on the ground that a political relationship, unlike others, was based on equality.
Interestingly, this argument of Aristotle was reiterated by Locke in his critique of Robert
Filmer (1588-1653) and patriarchalism.

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