Plato’s republic essay

Plato has developed a unique concept of the city of justice, which he then translated to the level of an individual, and has determined how the justice of the soul can be reached. To convey Plato’s idea of justice in the soul described in the Republic, it is necessary to outline the components of the city of justice in Plato’s model.

Plato stated that there existed three main social needs and, therefore, three key social functions: provisioning the city, defending the city, and ruling it (Santas, The Blackwell guide to Plato’s Republic, p. 190). Second Plato’s assumption was the idea of inherent talents: he suggested that all people are born with a natural inclination for one of these social functions. If every person received appropriate education and training from the very childhood, then these people, according to Plato, would be able to fulfill their function in an optimal way (Hall, Plato, p. 56). The society would thus be divided into three distinct classes: rulers (Philosophers), soldiers (Guardians) and producers (money-makers).

Plato’s key idea which should lead to the automatic formation of justice was the Principle of the Division of Labor – all people in the city should perform tasks natural for their essence, and the relationships between three classes should be properly ordered: the philosophers should rule and all other classes should obey them, the guardians should ensure that the directions of the rulers are implemented, and the money-makers should obey the directions.

Plato defined justice in the city as the proper functioning and balance of all three classes: “The proper functioning of the money-makers, the helpers and the guardians, each doing his own work in the state… would be the justice and would render the city just” (Cohen and Fermon, Princeton readings in political thought: essential texts since Plato, p.84). Plato stated that justice was not one more inherent virtue of the city; rather, it was the consequence of a well-ordered system.

Plato elegantly translated his concept of social justice to justice of the soul. In the model of the soul, according to Plato, there were three parts: rational, appetitive and spiritual part (Ferrari, The Cambridge companion to Plato’s Republic, p. 124). The appetitive part is responsible for a person’s material desires, the spiritual part deals with emotions and wish for victory and honor, and the rational soul is the intellectual part of a person, which is responsible for seeking truth and for philosophical inclinations.

Plato draws parallels with the model of the city: the analogue of appetitive soul is the class of money-makers, the class of guardians is associated with the spiritual part of the soul, and the class of the rulers corresponds to the rational part of the soul. Thus, Plato formulated that to achieve justice in the soul, an individual should maintain the balance between the parts of the soul similar to the balance between the classes of a just city: the rational part of the soul should rule, the spirited part should obey the reason and support its decisions, and the appetitive part should obey the spirit and follow the direction set by reason.