Plato

The Greek thinker Plato is generally regarded as the key figure in the development of Western philosophy. Plato was born to an aristocratic Athenian family hostile to the city's democratic constitution. His opposition to democracy hardened after Athens executed his teacher, Socrates, in 399 BC, for allegedly corrupting youth and rejecting the city's gods.

In the Republic, his most widely read work, Plato discusses justice and argues that it is rational to act justly. In the course of a wide-ranging discussion covering metaphysics and epistemology, as well as ethics and psychology, he compares the human soul to the structure of a well-ordered city.

Plato suggests that just as a ship should be steered by an expert pilot, not the majority of the crew (who would run it aground), the ship of state should be run by experts with knowledge of the good, and not the ignorant majority. The ideal city should be governed by guardians with expert ethical knowledge (“philosopher kings”), who will control a class of military auxiliaries, and, through them, the producers who constitute the majority of the population. Among the controversial policies Plato advocates are artistic censorship and eugenics.

Just as experts should rule a city, Plato argues that in each individual's soul, reason should control spirit (analogous to the auxiliaries) and the appetites (analogous to the producers), which he believes amounts to acting justly. In Plato's ideal state, children with the aptitude to acquire genuine morals communally, and given the appropriate philosophical training, become guardians. As guardians, they will also live communally and will not be permitted to own individual property or wealth, which might corrupt their devotion to reason.

Plato is concerned that the majority will not willingly accept this political vision. In order to gain their acquiescence, it is necessary to propagate the “noble lie” that God partly composed the guardians of gold, the auxiliaries of silver, and the producers of brass and iron, making the last group unfit to rule.

Plato's later writings suggest that he came to see the society described in the Republic as unworkable in less than ideal circumstances. In the Statesman he unenthusiastically acknowledges democracy as the best safeguard against political abuse in the real world.

The 20th-century philosopher Karl Popper denounced Plato as a totalitarian, but conservatives have often found his defense of hierarchy and the noble lie appealing. Plato has also influenced more [Page 1126]progressive thinkers. His advocacy of communal living, for instance, inspired 19th-century utopian socialists. And because women as well as men can become guardians, Plato is sometimes called the first feminist, although there are also many places where he speaks disparagingly about women.