PWM-1

Plato

PYQs: Plato

1. Comment : “Reality is the shadow of ideas”. (Plato) (1992)

2. Comment : “For, no law or ordinance is mightier than knowledge.”

(Plato) (1993)

3. Comment : “Until philosophers are kings, or kings and princes of

this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, cities will never
have rest from evil.” (2000)

4. Explain Plato’s communism and compare it with modern communism. (2003)

5. Plato’s theory of education ‘is the logical result of his conception of justice’. Discuss. (2004)

6. Comment : “The State is Individual Writ Large.” (Plato) (2006)

7. Comment : “Plato’s communism is a supplementary machinery to given effect to and

reinforce that spirit which education is to create.” (Nettleship) (2007)

8. “Plato was an enemy of the open society.” (Popper) Comment. (2015)

9. Comment : “Western thought, one might say, has been either platonic or antiplatonic but
hardly ever non-platonic.” (Popper) (2020)

Universal Introduction

Founder of philosophical idealism , gives an universal idea in the world of eternal reality beyond the
world of the senses. Perceived political philosophy as an architectonic science of society.

Quotes

“The entire European philosophical tradition is nothing but a set of foot notes to Plato…” Whitehead

“One can be either Platonic, or anti-Platonic, but can never be non-platonic.” – Karl Popper.

"Plato is philosophy , philosophy …" R.W Emerson

Methodology :
Deductive, Dialectical approach (Socrates,Thesis, anti thesis, synthesis)
Highly imaginative, romantic and utopian ,idealist thinker → suggests extreme solutions.

Influences

Spartan model

Pythagoras - Immortality of the human soul, sexual equality, idea of the philosopher ruler. “we find a
decisive break with the Greek tradition of rationalism and humanism. The mystic tradition is
definitely un-Greek in its character”(Radhakrishnan).

Heraclitus: Nothing was permanent in this sensory world

Parmenides : concept of Permanence (something is permanent) which led to the concept of Idea.

Socrates: “Wisest man” , Teleological rather than a mechanical explanation of the world, Perceiving
political phenomena in an ethical framework. → “virtue is knowledge” , “a life unexamined is not
worth living”

Objective/Concern: Athens as an ideal State, ‘the ignorance’ of the ruling class → ‘Philosopher King.’
Ignorance → knowledge.

Books

The Republic –young Plato, Investigate the causes and solution for the condition of Athens ‘city of
Pigs’→ Ideal state→ The Philosopher King,

The Statesman - Rule of law > P King.

The Laws→ Mature Plato, mixed constitution as the best → similarity Aristotle → Aristotle’s “ideal
state is always Plato’s second best” (Sabine).

Apology - satirical version of Socrates’ defence trial, “know thyself”

Theory of Idea.

Most important contribution of Plato and the strongest reason to call Plato as the “Father of ..”.
Establishes philosophy as the ultimate knowledge.

Based on - Socrates’s Theory of Knowledge : Know Thyself, Unexamined life is not worth living, Virtue
is knowledge.

Socrates : concept of True Knowledge : Knowledge can be categorised as two :

Ultimate Knowledge (cannot be gained through sensory organs)

Opinions (knowledge of matter and material)

Concept of Idea - Reality into two types- Matter, Idea or material, spiritual.

Matter - Physical, sensory organs, world of change.

Idea- Spiritual , reason, world of permanence.

Combines various dimensions of Plato’s Philosophy : His Ontology (study of reality), his
Epistemology(Theory of Kn), his meta physics (Theory of soul), his ethics.

Allegory of caves.

“Reality is the shadow of Idea.” – Plato.

Chain of Ignorance and arrogance

Sun = True enlightenment

Fire = Illusion of knowledge

Real knowledge is the knowledge of Ideas

World of Idea = Real World

World of Matter – Illusion

Indian Culture- Hindu belief – Guru helps to attain enlightenment from darkness. , Adi
Shankaracharya = This world is world of Illusion (Mithya )

Aristotle : Rectified Plato’s Theory of idea. Believes in coexistence of Idea as well as matter.

Theory of soul – Myth of metals

Myth of Metals and of Earth-born - All human beings were born of earth, and their bodies were
mixed with different metals

Reason, courage → Virtue

Appetite → Vice

Statecraft = soul craft

Guardian and Producer class

Not hereditary → functional role in society was determined by his own natural aptitude → Social
mobility → a revolutionary step, considering that all ancient societies were stratified.

Plato’s Theory of Justice

Book : Republic, REPUBLIC → subtitle of the republic is “Concerning Justice.”

The Republic in Greek meant “justice”, and should not be understood in its Latin sense meaning “the
state or the polity” (Barker).

Plato critically examined contemporary views on justice –

Cephalus ( paying one’s debts, Idealist view),

Polemarchus ( “good to friends and harm to enemies”),

Thrasymachus (a Sophist, interests of the strong , realist view) → Tulsidas : Samrath ko nahi Dosh
Gosain ),

Glaucon (Pragmatic , interest of weak, social contract tradition)

Plato’s: Not narrow legalistic sense → broad sense denoting the right conduct.

Principles of Justice are

→Functional Specialization
 →proper stationing.
→Non-interference.
State is ‘inter-dependence.’

Justice was “one class, one duty; one man, one work”. Each soul had a corresponding social class.

Indian concept of Dharma: Dharma of each Varna (Class), Rajya Dharma, Justice in terms of duty of
the different classes living in the state.

“State is individual writ large.”

“State does not come out of Oak or rock… it inheres in the mind of the people living in the
state”(Plato)

The two conception of justice :

1. At Individual level (Just man) – Ethical conception of justice

2. At state level – Political conception of justice

For Plato both are parallel and interlinked.

Gandhi

Machiavelli (Dual Morality) → realist .

An ideal state for Plato possessed the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance or self-
control and justice.

The functions of a society were broadly three—ruling, defence and production.

Criticism:

Too much Control and monitoring.

Nietzsche criticized Plato for founding a just and a rightly ordered society with the help of a
necessary lie and to give philosophy its political influence.

The compulsory acceptance of such myths is incompatible with philosophy..(Russell).

The abuses of the myth far outweighed its uses…….Plato is against Equalitarianism and
humanitarianism, anti-individual…believes in natural privileges (Popper ).

Sabine "not only is it a bad politics but also bad psychology"

Other critics :subordinating the interests of individuals to the requirements of the social whole. To
justify the Philosopher King.

Concept of state
Totalitarian , inhuman ,regimented and hierarchical

Historicism
Aristocracy → Timocracy → oligarchy → democracy → tyranny.
Plato’s account of historical change was pessimistic.

PLATOS SECOND-BEST STATE

In the Laws, government by law .

Theory of Communism
“If education is the primary machinery, to create the ideal state, communism is the supplementary
machinery.”

What? Communism of property, communism of family, marriage and wives.

Why? – Corruption , additional safeguard, P King has reason + appetite.
For Whom? - The guardian class
Producer class - neither possible nor required

Marriage for eugenic purpose.

Liberation of women - identical in natural endowments and faculties.

Critical Evaluation:
excessive regimentation, privacy and individuality, challenged some of the cherished conventions within
human society.
Plato’s perception of marriage, he felt, was more a view of a “stock breeder”.

Aristotle : private property were important for the happiness of the individual and the welfare of the state
→ constructive implications, source of motivation, achievement, men of reason, stability
Family : Regressive idea, barbaric ages , source of emotional stability
“Remedies as worse than the disease itself”
"Don't sacrifice good for the best"
“Everyone's property is no ones responsibility"

Supporters : Early socialists like Saint Simon, Owen and Fourier.

Conclusion
Plato‘s diagnosis about evils created by property and family are correct but his prescription are wrong →
transparency and accountability in public life.

Similarity between Marx and Plato :

Both believed in existence of class and both consider private property as evil.

Plato’s Communism Modern Communism (Karl Marx)

Idealist Materialist
Ideal State, supremacy of the state. state as an instrument of exploitation, wants to
end the state.

Plato expect citizens to sacrifice their interests Marx calls for revolution against the state.
for the sake of state.
Plato believes that it is desirable to divide the Marx wants to abolish the class and create
people in the state into three classes classless society.
 Plato do not support violence Marx is a supporter of violence
Plato considers Idea as the ultimate reality Marx considers ideas as ‘false
consciousness.’

Plato proposes communism of wives and family Karl Marx talks communism only in terms of
besides communism of property. means of production i.e. abolition of private
property.

Conclusion

The similarities are superficial and the differences are fundamental .

Theory of Philosopher King.

“Those states are best governed where rulers are reluctant to govern, rather than the states where
rulers are eager to govern. ”

“For no law or ordinance is mightier than knowledge.”

"Not wise to replace an expert practitioner of medicine with a book of medicine"

“Until philosophers are the rulers or the rulers learn philosophy , there is no end to the predicament
of human life.”

The theory of the philosopher ruler was the linchpin of Plato’s Ideal State.

Who is a Philosopher?

Who loved wisdom, had a passion for knowledge, one who loved Truth , understands the Idea of
Good.

Philosophic Absolutism - Supremacy of reason untrammelled by laws through the idea of philosophic
rule.

Only limits : maintain the size of the state, no extreme poverty or excess wealth (city of two), retain
the prescribed system of education, cannot change the constitution of The Republic.

Criticism

Unchecked power, even wielded by the best and the wisest, would be intoxicating, for power
corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Plato denied the participation of the average person in politics and decision making processes
(Wolin).

Aristotle : “Law is a reason without passion.” “one should not sacrifice good for the sake of best
because best is unachievable.” if a political community was tightly organized and unified, it would
cease to be a political association.

Strauss considered the Republic as the greatest critique of idealism , a satire written with the
purpose of demonstrating the limits of what was politically feasible
Randall : Republic was a comic irony written with the purpose of demonstrating that the Spartan
model was absurd and unworkable.

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).

Karl Popper, -’Open society and its enemies’ - Plato wanted himself to be the Philosopher king.

Levenson in ‘The defence of Plato’ that we do not have any definite basis to doubt Plato’s intentions.

In the Laws, Plato made a theoretical shift → Rule of law → Aristotle’s ideal state (Rule of Law) is
Plato’s second best state (Sabine).

Plato as Fascist
Winspear : blueprint by an authoritarian reactionary….

Toynbee looked at Plato as being cynical, reactionary and inhumane

CEM Joad saw many similarities between Fascism and Plato’s tyrant state, but conceded that there
were fundamental differences too.

Like Popper, Isaiah Berlin attacked the historicism of Plato in Historical Inevitability, along with that
of Hegel and Marx.: …enemies of the open society.

Karl Popper in his book “Open Society and its Enemies.” calls Plato, Hegel and Karl Marx . Three
arguments.

1.Essentialism. divorced us from the reality.

2.Holism - sacrifices individual in the name of collectivity.

3. Historicism - ideological use of history → his version of the kyklos (life cycle of state)

Plato’s hostility towards progressive, humanitarian and democratic ideals, and regarded him as
the philosophical forerunner of modern day totalitarianism.

“I believe that Plato’s political programme far from being morally superior to totalitarianism, is
fundamentally identical with it” : Popper"

Levenson " superficial comparison ,comparing uncomparables

Rajiv Bhargav : Popper‘s analysis of Plato was misleading and Popper is ideologically biased.

On democracy
anti – democratic
Reasons: Socrate’s life, admiration for military discipline prevailing in Sparta , the rule knowledge
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were essentially aristocratic conservatives, keen on revitalizing and the
aristocracy
Democracy did not tolerate highly gifted persons
Democracy is against nature → political equality.

His opposition to democracy was a part of his project to establish rule of knowledge. He was deeply
concerned with the welfare of people which is the ultimate end of democracy.
Plato as first Feminist.

P Queens

Despite coming from a highly patriarchal society.

Matter of debate: liberation of women vs utilization in the service of the state.

Theory of Education

According to Plato, state is essentially Pedagogic which means imparting education is one of the
most important functions of the state.

A process of filtration.

Book - In Republic

“Plato’s theory of education is the logical result of his theory of justice .” → Plato regards education
as a means to achieve justice, both individual justice and social justice

The Ideal State ruled by the philosopher → elaborate and rigorous scheme of education.

Theory of Communism → Education..

Rousseau : Republic as the finest treatise on education to be ever written.

“It offered a formula for dividing work and achieving harmonious cooperation” (Nettleship).

Influence

Socratic belief that “virtue is knowledge”

state-controlled education in Sparta, training in martial arts

Athens values of creativity

Education would be a lifelong process (Pythagorean idea of the immortality and transmigration of
souls). Knowledge was to be acquired for the sake of perfection and excellence. Platonic education
is primarily a moulding of souls.

Plato’s Academy