Page 7 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Sukanya Das, Lovely Professional University
Unit 1: Plato’s Life, His Ideal State and Theory of Justice

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

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
1.1 Life Sketch
1.2 The Republic
1.3 Ideal State
1.4 Theory of Justice
1.5 Summary
1.6 Key-Words
1.7 Review Questions
1.8 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit students will be able to:
• Know about the Republic
• Understand Plato’s Ideal State
• Evaluate Plato’s Theory of Justice.

Introduction
In the history of political thought no thinker evoked the admiration, reverence and criticism that
Plato (428/27-347 BC) did. This outstanding Greek philosopher has left behind many important
works, out of which three, the Republic, (380-370 BC), the Statesman (360 BC) and the Laws (350 BC),
are of perennial interest to all those interested in the history of political ideas. Plato has been
generally regarded as the founder of philosophical idealism by virtue of his conviction that there
is a universal idea in the world of eternal reality beyond the world of the senses. He was the first
to formulate and define political ideas within a larger framework of a philosophical idea of Good.
He was concerned about
... human life and human soul or human nature, and the real question in it is as Plato
says, how to live best ... what is the best life?... is to him inseparable from the question,
what is [the] best order or organization of human society (Nettleship 1967: 5).

Plato perceived political philosophy as an architectonic science of society, and like Socrates (469-
399 BC) and the Sophists, distinguished the political from the other dimensions of life. Within the
European intellectual tradition he conceptualized the disorders and crises of the actual world and
presented to his readers a vision of a desirable political order, which till today fascinates his
admirers and detractors. He has been described as a poet of ideas, a philosopher of beauty and the
true founder of the cult of harmonious living. He has been praised for his denunciation of crass
materialism and brutish selfishness. Both Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire (1694-1778) and Friedrich
Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) characterized Platonism as the intellectual side of Christianity
(1955). Many like John Ruskin (1819-1900) and William Morris (1834-1896) were attracted by
Plato’s concern for human perfection and excellence. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) exclaimed
ecstatically

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