The Ideal City

1
The Ideal City
2

• Three classes Guardians
• Auxiliaries
• Producers

3
The noble lie

• Everybody in the city will be taught that their
  souls are made of a metal depending on the class
  they belong to . Gold for rulers, silver for
  auxiliaries, and bronze and iron for the
  producers.
• Each is to stay in its own class.

4

• Each class is determined by merit. Those best
  suited to soldiers will be soldiers, those best
  suited to guardians (rulers) will be guardians
• The prospective rulers will be tested to
  determine their ability to rule and loyalty to
  the city.

5
How do the guardians and the auxiliaries live?

• There will be no wealth allowed for the upper
  classes
• They will live communally, allowed only food,
  shelter, basic clothes and weapons.
• Adeimantus But Socrates, wont these best
  citizens of the city be unhappy?

6
Two responses

• We are trying to make the city as good as
  possible, not focus on what makes an individual
  as happy as possible. To do this each part must
  have what is appropriate to itas in a painting
• It will turn out in fact that these rulers and
  auxiliaries will be the happiest people in the
  Republic.

7
The four virtues

• Wisdom
• Courage
• Moderation
• Justice
• The city has each of these.

8

• The city is wise because the guardians are wise
• The city is courageous because of the courage of
  the Auxilliaries
• It is moderate because each of the classes are in
  harmony and agree as to who should rule and who
  should be ruled

9

• The justice of the city consists in the principle
  of specialization. Each part of the city performs
  that task that it is naturally suited to perform.
• It is this principle that explains why the city
  has all the other virtues, what makes it an ideal
  (and differentiates it from other, less just
  cities)

10
Justice in the city and Justice in the individual
11

• Justice in the city each part of the city
  performing the function it is naturally suited
  for.
• Guardians ruling, Auxiliaries aiding the rulers,
  the producers obeying the rulers.
• The other virtues of the city, wisdom, courage,
  and moderation follow directly from justice.

12
The argument for the tripartite soul

• No one thing can have opposite characteristics.
• If one thing seems to have opposite
  characteristics this is because it has different
  parts
• Example Socrates is moving and not moving. This
  is only possible if one part is moving and
  another is not moving (his arms might be moving,
  and his legs not moving)

13

• If the soul has opposite characteristics, then it
  can be shown that the soul has parts.
• Socrates claims the soul does sometimes have
  opposite characteristics (at the same time)
  therefore the soul is divided into parts.
• What are the opposite characteristics?

14
The soul has opposite desires

• I desire ice cream and desire not to eat ice
  cream.
• This example shows that there are at least two
  parts of the soul . The part that wants ice cream
  (appetite) and the part that desires not to eat
  ice cream (reason)
• But what of the third part of the soul, spirit?

15
Leontius and the dead bodies

• Leontious was walking along one day and saw some
  dead bodies and was overcome with a strong desire
  to look at them. He gave into his desire and at
  the same time felt anger at himself.
• This shows that spirit, the seat of anger, is
  separate from appetite.
• But what of reason and spirit? What reason is
  there to think that these are distinct?

16

• Animals and small children are highly spirited
  and are irrational
• Therefore spirit cannot be the same part of the
  soul as reason.
• Also Reason and Spirit conflict when one is about
  to lose ones temper. Reason holds back the
  desire to get into a fight.

17
The just individual

• The individual is just if each part of the soul
  performs its natural function. Reason will be in
  control, spirit will aid reason, and the
  appetites will be kept under control
• There is an analogy between justice in the city
  and justice in the soul. Its the same property
  applied to different things

18
The just citizen and the Just individual

• In the just city, each person performs their
  natural function
• A just citizen, is one who does their proper role
• Are the just citizens also just people?

19
The citizens of the just city are like just people

• They are not themselves just (except for the
  rulers)
• But they are like just people in that they obey
  reason the reason of the guardians.
• The citizens in the city obey reason, but unless
  they are the rulers the reason they obey is
  external to them.

20
What about conventional morality?

• Socrates claims that a person who is just in his
  sense will also act justlythat is not steal,
  lie, murder.
• But why? The definition of justice says nothing
  about how a just person will act.

21
Possible solutions

• Unjust acts are usually motivated by physical
  desiresthe sorts of desires that do not dominate
  a just person.
• Perhaps a rational person would also possess
  moral knowledge, knowledge of the GOOD. More on
  this in Book VI and VII.