Plato: Ethics, Soul, and Political Justice
Ethics and Politics
Objective: To train rulers who might become righteous governors was one of the fundamental objectives of Plato’s philosophy, since ethics and politics are closely connected: both implement justice in public and private life. For Plato, ethics and politics are inseparable; the individual cannot live in happiness if society lacks justice.
Theory of Forms and Political Rule
The theory of Forms and politics are related in that only those who have contemplated the Forms and know the intelligible world may govern and apply justice correctly. In other words, rulers must have genuine knowledge of the Good and the Forms in order to govern justly.
Social Classes
Plato proposes a division of social classes based on natural aptitude with which people are born. The society is divided into three groups:
- Philosopher-kings: those who rule the city because of wisdom and understanding.
- Guardians: those who defend the city from enemies and maintain order.
- Craftsmen: those who produce goods and services necessary for the city’s life.
Justice in the City
Justice in the city consists in each social class performing its function well. If everyone performs their proper role, citizens will be satisfied and happy, and there will be harmony in society.
Who Should Govern
The best and wisest philosophers should govern, because philosophers receive the best education and are prepared to know the world of the Forms, especially justice and the Form of the Good.
Aristocracy and Democracy
The term “aristocracy” originally means rule by the best. Hereditary nobility substitutes birth for wisdom; Plato holds that the best rulers are not those of noble blood but those who have acquired wisdom.
Theory of the Soul (Phaedo)
In the Phaedo (and in related dialogues) Plato develops a theory of the soul. He especially emphasizes the immortality of the soul and its parts. Plato presents a dualistic conception of the human being: composed of body and soul. For him, the body is material and corruptible: the body is the tomb, the soul’s prison, and the source of many evils and ignorance. The soul opposes the body, which is full of desires and emotions.
Features of the Soul
- The soul is a supra-sensible reality, contrasted with the body.
- The soul is the principle of life; the body cannot live by itself.
- The soul is the principle of movement; it pre-exists and transmigrates.
- The soul is the seat of intellectual knowledge and understanding.
Demonstrations of the Soul’s Existence
- In the Phaedo Plato offers ethical reasoning: if the soul is to be rewarded after death, then it must continue to exist after this life.
- In the Phaedo and the Meno Plato advances the doctrine of recollection: if learning is recollection, then knowledge is not wholly acquired in this life, which implies the pre-existence of the soul.
- Also in the Phaedo Plato argues that the soul knows the Forms: higher, non-sensible realities are not accessible to the senses but are known by the soul.
Conclusion: The Forms exist, are eternal and perfect, and the soul knows them.
Myth of the Winged Chariot
Plato uses the allegory of the winged chariot to describe parts of the soul. The soul includes a white horse (noble impulses: good, beautiful), located in the chest; a black horse (base impulses: bad, ugly), associated with the belly; and finally the charioteer (the rational part) at the head, who drives the chariot.
The soul is the natural force that binds chariot and charioteer. The horses and wings enable ascent toward the Forms: the noble horse grows wings when it is nourished by truth, while the wicked horse resists and drags the chariot downward. If the charioteer and the horses rise together, they can contemplate the world of Forms; if the rebellious horse resists, the chariot cannot ascend and falls to the realm of the sensibles. Thus the soul can remain imprisoned within the body.