Plato’s Philosophy: True Knowledge and Ideal City Governance

Plato’s Philosophy: True Knowledge and Ideal City Governance

This dissertation will try to explain the relationship between knowledge of the truth and city government. But this raises the question: is there true knowledge? If it exists, can we get to know the truth? The answers to these questions depend on the historical moment and the person you are wondering about, but as Plato says, there does exist real knowledge, and it is accessible to people. But, how does true knowledge relate to city government? Throughout this presentation, we will discuss Plato’s position on these questions. For that, I will focus on explaining the epistemological and ontological dualism, the theory of Ideas, the Platonic theory of the philosopher-ruler, and what an ideal city should be. We must first consider whether, for Plato, there is true knowledge.

The Theory of Ideas: Epistemology and Ontology

The answer to this question is found when Plato, in his philosophy, advocates a theory of knowledge, or epistemology, that explains the origin and path of knowledge and how to distinguish truth from error. He also advocates a theory of reality, or ontology, that differentiates between the real and the apparent. These two theories are combined in the theory of Ideas, which constitutes the core of Platonic philosophy. This theory asserts the existence of immaterial, immutable, eternal realities, not accessible to the senses but to intelligence. These realities are separate and independent of the physical world of sensible things and of human opinions. Ideas are ideal models that are the essences of sensible things, and sensible things imitate them more or less imperfectly. This theory of Ideas is an ontological dualism that affirms the existence of a higher level of reality, the level of the truly real, the intelligible world or world of Ideas. Secondly, it affirms the level of sensible reality, called the sensible world, visible or physical world. These two worlds are interrelated since sensible things copy or imitate the Ideas, that is, they participate in them. It is also an epistemological dualism that defends the existence of two levels of knowledge:

• First, the episteme represents the top level of knowledge and shows the real truth. It speaks about the Ideas, that is, knowledge is infallible, universally valid, objective, unchanging, and accessed through intelligence, not by the senses.
• Moreover, the doxa represents the lowest level of knowledge, which is based on the world of sensible things, and changing materials, which are just copies of Ideas. Therefore, it is relative knowledge, superficial and unreliable, linked to the senses and sensible appearances, which is also changing.

Then we wonder, how can the human soul know Ideas if they belong to a world different from ours? Plato explains this by the theory of reminiscence, which asserts that the soul, before it was incarnated in a body, pre-existed in the world of Ideas and contemplated them. Upon entering the world of sense, the soul forgets the Ideas and has only a confused trace of them. So, according to this theory, to know is to learn or remember.

That is, it claims an innate knowledge: in the soul of every man, there is, from birth, knowledge of the Ideas, but they are dark and are recovered through proper education that will guide the direct contemplation of the Ideas.

The Philosopher-Ruler and the Ideal State

From all the above, we see that for Plato, there is true knowledge accessible to humans. But how does this affect city government? Plato felt a very early interest in politics. He had the opportunity to participate in the politics of his city, but he would not cooperate with the government of the Thirty Tyrants due to its policy of terror and its crimes. After the death sentence of his teacher, Socrates, in the democratic regime, Plato was convinced that the government was unfair and would not lead to harmony in society.

This led him to resign from becoming involved in politics and to try to find in philosophy a perfect government. He then concluded that the only solution was either for rulers to become philosophers or for philosophers to become rulers. This is the idea that is advocated in the theory announced by the philosopher-ruler. Why are philosophers the only ones capable of running the city with justice? The solution to this question is given by Socrates’ moral intellectualism applied to politics, whereby individuals can only be just and good if they know what constitutes justice and good. Therefore, only philosophers can be leaders because they are the ones that, through philosophy, have attained the knowledge of the essence of justice and good, indispensable to drive oneself and society straight. But for Plato, for there to be an ideal state, which is possible only when every citizen is performing its function, the state must be structured into three classes, in imitation of the three parts of the soul. These three classes are:

• The class of producers: Their function was to produce everything that the community needs to survive and even live in some luxury. It was also said that people belonging to this class are dominated by the appetitive part of the soul, which was responsible for human beings having a need to preserve private property and family and access to wealth. However, for the existence of the ideal state, producers must possess temperance or moderation.
• The class of guardians: Their role is to defend the city, and therefore, their soul is dominated by the irascible, as this will make these men try to protect others. In an ideal state, individuals in this class must have courage.
• The class of rulers: They must deal with the city government. These people will be dominated by the rational part of the soul, and the virtue for the existence of an ideal state is wisdom. However, in order to reach a state governed with justice, the philosopher-ruler must be guided by the contemplation of the eternal world of Ideas, especially the Idea of the Supreme Good because when the philosopher-ruler really knows this idea, he will necessarily work justly.

Harmony and Justice in the Ideal State

Besides, a just state will only exist when there is harmony between social classes so that each plays to perfection the role that is proper to it and develops its share. In conclusion, we observe that only when the city government is composed of philosophers, who know how to govern the state justly, as well as possessing a nature dominated by the rational soul that has been educated through the knowledge of mathematics and dialectic, will the state be just. This will show you the Idea of the Supreme Good and the Idea of Justice, which will necessarily do good.