The ideal state according to Plato. Plato on management
1. Introduction 2
2. Plato's worldviews 3
3. Four forms of negative state. 4
4. Plato's ideal state. 5
5. Four “valor” of an ideal state. 7
6. Conclusion. 9
7. List of references 11
1. Introduction.
Plato (427-347 BC) came from a family of Athenian landowning nobility, received a good education, traveled a lot, then created his own philosophical school in Athens, with which the last 20 years of his life were associated. Plato is considered the “father” of political science. His views changed significantly throughout his long life. If his early works “Apology of Socrates”, “Protagoras”, “Crito” are dominated by the views and method of Socrates - rationalism, then in his later works - “State”, “Politics”, “Parmenides”, Laws” religious and mythological motives can be traced. The main thing in Plato's teaching is his view of two worlds - the world of ideas and the world of phenomena. The world of ideas is true being, the eternally unchanging divine project of the changeable human world, the world of phenomena is something imaginary, moving, a distorted copy of the world of ideas.
Plato did not live only 9 years before the Battle of Chaeronea and the Panhellenic Congress in Corinth, which meant the end of the political independence of Greece.
The new era was Hellenism, a period of large-scale slavery with its huge military-monarchical empires that absorbed the old classical polis. Plato knew nothing about the coming huge era. But, like all principled people of his time, he frantically sought a way out of the socio-political relations that surrounded him. The solution for him was utopia.
In political science, Plato's utopia is one of the most famous. It simultaneously reflects a number of real features of states contemporary to Plato, for example, Egypt, and criticizes a number of shortcomings of Greek city policies, and recommends an ideal type of community life instead of those rejected.
2. Plato's worldviews.
In Plato's worldviews, a very important place belongs to his views on the state and society. It combines philosophical idealism and interest in social relations. The question of perfect community life and its preservation in the conditions of human society is one of the most important for Plato. Plato devoted two works to socio-political issues: the treatises “State” (“Polity”) and “Laws” (it should be noted that these works are not at all equivalent; if in the first the ideal is strictly opposed to imperfect reality, then the second work is more “compromise”, it makes a number of concessions to the demands of reality).
According to Plato, the existing imperfect forms of statehood were preceded by the ideal form of community life of ancient times. Then the gods ruled individual areas, and society had everything necessary for life, there were no wars, people were free. However, this period cannot be taken as a model - modern realities do not allow this. Plato's ideal type of state is contrasted with a negative one, in which everything is driven by material incentives. Plato attributes all existing states to this negative type: “Whatever the state, there are always two states in it, hostile to each other: one is the state of the rich, the other is the poor.” .
3. Four forms of negative state.
Plato identifies four forms of negative state: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. Timocracy (the domination of ambitious people) was the first of the negative forms. Initially, it retained the features of a perfect system, but over time, signs of decline appeared - people’s passion for enrichment and self-interest. “In his youth, such a (“timocratic”) person treats money with contempt, but the older he gets, the more he loves it - his natural inclination toward compassion is reflected.” The second stage of decomposition was oligarchy (the domination of a small group of the population over the majority). “The rich are in power there, and the poor do not participate in the government.” In an oligarchic state, the basic law of social life is not fulfilled. For Plato, this law is that each member of society “does his own thing” and, moreover, “only his own.” On the contrary, in an oligarchy, some members of society are engaged in many activities - agriculture, war, and crafts. Oligarchy is transforming into an even worse form of government - democracy (the domination of the majority in a society where the differences between rich and poor become even more acute). “Under such a political system, people will be very different.” “With it, there is a kind of equality - equalizing equals and unequals.” Plato considered tyranny (the domination of one over all) to be the worst form of state. Tyranny comes from democracy - slavery from freedom. “Anything in excess usually causes a sharp change in the opposite direction.” The tyrant constantly wages war to keep his subordinates in fear and to convince them of the need for a leader; constant war causes discontent and hatred against the tyrant, who is forced to destroy the dissatisfied.
4. Plato's ideal state.
Plato contrasts all of the above forms of statehood with the project of the best (ideal) state, the main principle of which is justice. Such a state is governed by a minority, but unlike an oligarchy, a capable minority. Each citizen here is assigned a special occupation and a special position. This state is strong, self-sufficient and capable of protecting itself from a hostile environment; it is also capable of providing its citizens with the necessary benefits and cherishes spiritual activity and creativity. In it, the necessary functions and work are divided between special categories of citizens; the division into categories occurs according to the moral inclinations and properties of individual groups of people. Plato founded the entire contemporary society and political system on the division of labor.
The structure of an ideal state should be built primarily on needs: “A state arises when each of us cannot satisfy himself, but still needs a lot. ... Feeling the need for many things, many people gather together to live together and help each other: such a joint settlement is what we call a state.” The enumeration of needs proves that in the state there are very different areas of social division of labor. To provide various types of workers, the state needs trade (import of necessary goods and export of surplus ones). Trade is necessary not only for foreign policy, but also for relations within the state in the current conditions of division of labor. From here Plato deduces the need for a market and units of exchange (coins). Speaking about social life, the philosopher also recognizes the need to have a class of hired service workers who sell their labor for a fee. Military specialists are also an important category for the state. Plato considers the highest class (after the classes of farm workers and warrior guards) to be the category of rulers of the state. Basically, the meaning of the social division of labor in Plato is that each category should do only one of its own things.
5. Four “valor” of an ideal state.
An ideal state according to Plato has four virtues:
1) wisdom,
2) courage,
3) prudence,
4) justice.
By “wisdom” Plato means the highest knowledge. “This is the art of always being on guard: it is possessed by those rulers whom we recently called perfect guards” 7. This knowledge belongs to only a few philosophers, who govern the state. “A state founded according to nature would be entirely wise thanks to the very small part of the population that stands at the head and governs, and its knowledge.” Only philosophers should rule the state and only under their rule the state will prosper.
“Courage” is also the privilege of a few (“A state is courageous only thanks to one of its parts”). “I consider courage to be a kind of safety ... that preserves a certain opinion about danger - what it is and what it is.” According to Plato, this opinion must necessarily comply with the law of the state.
The third virtue - prudence - unlike the previous two, belongs to all members of the state. "Something like order - that's what prudence is."
The presence of “justice” in the state is prepared and conditioned by “prudence.” Thanks to justice itself, each class of society and each individual person receives their own special task to perform. “This doing one’s own is probably justice.”
Plato considers his project feasible only for the Greeks; for all other peoples it is inapplicable due to their alleged inability to establish social order.
6. Conclusion.
In Plato's ideal state, not only the workers resemble slaves, but also the members of the two upper classes do not know complete and true freedom. For Plato, the subject of freedom and highest perfection is not an individual person or even a separate class, but only the entire society, the entire state as a whole. This state exists for its own sake, for the sake of its external splendor; as for the citizen, his purpose is only to contribute to the beauty of its construction in the role of a serving member. Everyone is recognized only as universal people. Plato himself speaks about this in the clearest way. “The legislator,” he explains, “does not care about making one particular family happy in the city, but tries to ensure the happiness of the whole city, bringing citizens into agreement with conviction and necessity... and he himself installs such people in the city , not allowing them to go wherever anyone wants, but disposing of them in relation to the connectivity of the city.”
I would not like to live in Plato’s ideal state, because a number of his statements and statements seem to me subjective and insufficiently substantiated. For example, the class division of society, it demonstrates the imperfection of the social structure. I believe that raising children by the state is not a very reasonable idea, each person should be different from the other, the difference in views, in my opinion, is the key to the development of society and every part of it. After all, upbringing includes not only education as such, but also a certain number of external factors on which the formation of a complete personality for society depends. As I already mentioned, the class division seems imperfect to me because the rules and conventions that are present in it reject the principles of self-development, I mean that the individual must have a goal, task or desire for something better. Plato, in his judgment, demonstrates the opposite; his ideal state determines a person to a certain class level, without the possibility of moving to a higher one, thereby destroying the incentive for development. Under the conditions that Plato described, the state can well be called conserved, not amenable to any changes, neither negative nor positive. Oligarchy, which appears to this philosopher as an ideal form of government, has a huge number of qualities that cannot be considered ideal. In my opinion, the main disadvantage of this form of government is that not all the “best” are capable of governing the state, they may have power, but such a phenomenon is talent and, of course, skill, which not even all the “best” possess. Existence is impossible without any difficulties, it would become completely uninteresting, and even meaningless, because the meaning of life is different for everyone, and for me, the difficulties that get in the way are an incentive to improve and continue my path, unknown, but incredibly interesting. Social structure must correspond to the socio-psychological structure of a person, and in Plato’s state this, from my point of view, legal statement has no place to be. Of course, I am speaking from an ordinary, generally accepted point of view, but it is more consistent with my beliefs.
Summary: “We have no power over time, but in some ways time also has no power over us: the passage of time in our consciousness either slows down - when waiting, then accelerates - when achieving, then stops altogether - when the stimulus to life fades.”
7. Literature
1. Losev A.F. “The life and creative path of Plato”, Plato, collected works, volume 1, M., 1990.
2. Plato, collected. cit., vol. 3, part 1, “State”, M., 1971.
3. Popper K. “The Open Society and Its Enemies”, vol. 1, “The Spells of Plato”, M., 1992.
4. Asmus V.F. "Plato", K., 1993.
The idea of fairness or ideal state Plato put forward after his teacher and mentor, the great ancient Greek philosopher and thinker, was unjustly executed. He developed the concept of such a structure of society where the self-arbitrariness of an individual should be absent.
The very logic of reasoning about the ideal state still delights contemporaries. Book ancient philosopher Plato "Republic" future lawyers, sociologists and philosophers study in universities.
The essence of Plato's ideal state
More V4th century BC people thought about what kind of social structure could serve as a standard. IN ancient Greece the most famous was Plato’s idea of an ideal state, which he nurtured for many years and tried to find a ruler who would accept his views and adopt the model of fair governance.
Types of government
Plato introduced a scale of government in society, which is presented below (from ideal to worst):
- Aristocracy. The most just state is one in which the minority rules - the best citizens.
- Timocracy. In a state of such a structure, rulers and warriors were free from agricultural and handicraft work. Much attention was paid to sports exercises, but the desire for enrichment is already noticeable, especially since “with the participation of wives” the Spartan lifestyle turns into a luxurious one, this determined the transition to oligarchy.
- Oligarchy. In such a state there is already a clear division between the rich, who are the rulers, and the poor, who make the completely carefree life of the former possible. The more this no longer ideal state develops, the more it becomes like a democracy.
- Democracy. This structure of society further strengthens the disunity of the still remaining poor and rich classes, uprisings, bloodshed, struggles for power, luxury and household goods previously owned by the oligarchs arise, which can lead to the emergence of the worst state system - tyranny. Democracy is far from justice, according to the philosopher, he did not recognize it.
- Tyranny. An excess of freedom under democracy in Plato’s reasoning leads to the emergence of a state that has no freedom at all, living at the unlimited whim of one person - a tyrant.
Another structure of society
Plato contrasted all the above-mentioned systems of statehood with his fair ideal state. According to him, society is divided for 3 layers:
Lower layer- farmers, artisans and traders. They produce everything that the other layers need, they are hardworking. Within each class there is a clear division of labor: a farmer cannot be a trader, a shoemaker cannot be engaged in agriculture, etc.
Plato believes that for the well-being of the state as a whole, each individual person should engage in the work for which he is best suited.
Middle layer- warriors and guards. Their main duty is to devote themselves completely to serving the state and its protection from external threats. The prototype of such a class is Sparta. Guardian warriors should not have private property. They live and eat together in military camps.
Upper layer- sages (philosophers) and rulers. These people must devote themselves entirely to managing and organizing processes in society that should support its structure - an ideal and fair structure.
Worst Crime
In Plato's ideal state, the worst crime is transition of a citizen from one class to another. For example, when a warrior wants to become a ruler. This does not fit into the framework of the foundation of the entire system, and can destroy it.
If within one layer of society people move from one occupation to another, this is not critical for the state as a whole. However, as we know, even one weak link can disrupt the integrity of the circuit.
Introduction 2
1. Biography of Plato 3
2. Plato's ideal state 7
2.1. Forms of an ideal state 16
3. The relevance of Plato’s teaching about the ideal state at the present time. 19
Conclusion 27
References 28
Introduction
Plato (428/7 BC - 347 BC)
Plato - ancient Greek philosopher, classicist philosophical tradition. Plato's teaching permeates not only world philosophy, but also world culture.
One of the main themes of Plato's teaching is a just (ideal) state. It underwent changes from the moment of Socrates' unjust condemnation in Athens until the end of Plato's life. The theory of the ideal state is most fully presented by Plato in his work “State” and developed in “Laws”.
Convinced that a decent life can only be led in a perfect state, Plato creates the conditions of an ideal state for his students in the Athens school.
“Justice protects the state as much as it protects the human soul, therefore, since it is impossible to always maintain the correct state structure, it is necessary to build it within yourself”
(Plato)
1. Biography of Plato
Plato was born in Athens in 428-427. BC. His real name is Aristocles, Plato is a pseudonym meaning “broad-shouldered”, which was given to him in his youth for his strong build by the wrestling teacher Ariston from Argos. He was the son of Ariston, a descendant of King Codrus, and Periktiona, who descended from the great legislator Solon. He learned to read and write from Dionysius, whom he mentions in his “Rivals.” It is also known that he was engaged in wrestling, painting, and also composed dithyrambs, songs and tragedies. Subsequently, a penchant for poetry manifested itself in the artistically processed form of his dialogues. Being gifted mentally and physically, he received an excellent education, the consequence of which was his close acquaintance with the philosophical theories of the time. Aristotle reports that Plato was initially a student of Cratylus, a follower of Heraclitus.
At the age of 20, Plato met Socrates and remained with him until the death of his teacher - only 8 years. According to Attic legend, on the night before his meeting with Plato, Socrates saw in a dream a swan on his chest, which flew high with ringing singing, and after meeting Plato, Socrates allegedly exclaimed: “Here is my swan!” It is interesting that in the mythology of antiquity the swan is the bird of Apollo, and contemporaries compared Plato with Apollo as the god of harmony.
As Plato himself recalls in the Seventh Letter, while still young he was preparing to actively participate in the political life of his city. The unjust condemnation of Socrates caused Plato to become disillusioned with the politics of Athens and became a turning point in his life. 1
At the age of 28, after the death of Socrates, Plato, along with other students of the great philosopher, left Athens and moved to Megara, where one of Socrates’ famous students, Euclid, lived. At the age of 40, he visited Italy, where he met the Pythagorean Archytas. He had previously visited Egypt and Cyrene, but he is silent about these travels in his autobiography.
He meets Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, and dreams of realizing his ideal of a philosopher ruler. However, very soon hostile relations arose with the tyrant Dionysius the Elder, but a friendship began with Dion, the tyrant’s nephew. In Dion, Plato hoped to find a worthy student and, in the future, a philosopher on the throne. Plato insulted the ruler with his reasoning about tyrannical power, saying that not everything is for the best, which only benefits the tyrant if he is not distinguished by virtue. For this, Plato was sold into slavery on Aegina, from which he was redeemed and freed by Annikerides, a philosopher of the Megarian school.
Subsequently, Plato wanted to return this money to Annikerides, and when he refused to take it, he bought a garden with it in the suburbs of Athens, named Academy in honor of the local hero Academus. In this garden Plato in 387 BC. founded his own school, the famous Platonic Academy, which existed in Athens for 1000 years, until 529, until it was closed by Emperor Justinian.
Twice more he traveled to Syracuse at the insistence of Dion, hoping to realize his dream of an ideal state on the lands that Dionysius the Younger promised to allocate to him. And although these attempts almost cost Plato his life, his persistence is an example of high service to the ideal.
In 360, Plato returned to Athens and remained with the Academy until his death in 347 BC.
Works
Plato's works take the form of dialogues or letters. Myth, or mythical story, occupies a large place in his dialogues. Mythology always had a symbolic meaning for him and was used primarily to express philosophical concepts.
Plato's works were ordered by the grammarian Thrasilus; they can be grouped into nine tetralogies.
1. Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, Crito, Phaedo.
2. Cratylus, Theaetetus, Sophist, Politician.
3. Parmenides, Philebus, Pyrus, Phaedrus
4. Alcibiades I, Alcibiades II, Hipparchus, Rivals
5. Theags, Charmides, Laches, Lysis.
6. Euthydemus, Protagoras, Gorgias, Meno.
7. Hippias the Lesser, Hippias the Greater, Ion, Minixenus.
8. Clitophon, Republic, Timaeus, Critias.
9. Minos, Laws, Epinomides, Letters.
Plato's philosophy
Philosophy for Plato is not only a cognitive process, but also the desire of the soul for the supersensible world of ideas, and therefore it is closely connected with Love. According to Plato, only the Gods or those who are completely ignorant and arrogantly believe that they know everything do not engage in philosophy. And, on the contrary, only those who feel the need for knowledge and are overwhelmed by the desire to know wisdom engage in philosophy. This tension, generated by a lack of knowledge and a huge desire for it, is defined by Plato as Eros, Love, the desire for Beauty, which he understood as order and harmony.
Plato's Doctrine of Ideas
The doctrine of ideas is a central element of Plato's philosophy. He interpreted ideas as some kind of divine essence. They are eternal, unchanging, independent of the conditions of space and time. They summarize all cosmic life: they control the Universe. These are archetypes, eternal patterns according to which the whole multitude of real things is organized from formless and fluid matter. Ideas have their own existence in a special world, and things exist only insofar as they reflect this or that idea, since this or that idea is present in them. In relation to sensory things, ideas are both their causes and the goal towards which beings of the sensory world strive. At the same time, there are relations of coordination and subordination between ideas. The highest idea is the idea of absolute Good, the source of truth, beauty and harmony.
Theory of knowledge
Plato's theory of knowledge is constructed as a theory of memory, with the guiding principle being the mind or the rational part of the soul. According to Plato, the soul is immortal, and before the birth of a person it resides in the transcendental world, where it observes the brilliant world of eternal ideas. Therefore, in the earthly life of the human soul, it becomes possible to comprehend ideas as a recollection of what was seen before.
“And since everything in nature is related to each other, and the soul has known everything, nothing prevents the one who remembers one thing - people call this knowledge - from finding everything else himself, if only he is courageous and tireless in his search: after all, to search and to know is precisely to remember” (Meno).
Man receives true knowledge when the soul remembers what it already knows. Knowledge as the recollection of what happened before the birth of a person is one of Plato’s proofs of the immortality of the soul.
About the soul
Accepting the idea of the immortality of the soul and realizing that in this case death takes away everything from a person except the soul, Plato leads us to the idea that a person’s main concern in life should be caring for the soul. This care means cleansing the soul, liberation from the sensory in the desire to unite with the spiritual - the intelligible world.
Explaining the nature of the soul, what the soul is now and what it was before its descent into the sensory world, Plato symbolically identifies it with the sea deity Glaucus, to whose body a lot of dirt was attached during his long stay in the depths of the sea. He is all covered with shells, algae and sand, and his body is broken and disfigured by the waves... The soul is in a similar state, and it must shake off everything unnecessary - everything that, making it heavy and shapeless, does not allow it to recognize itself. She needs to be cleansed of everything with which she has grown together over many reincarnations.
Outwardly, the soul seems to be one creature, but in fact it is a combination of three - a man, a lion and a chimera, which are firmly fused with each other. Each of the three parts of the soul has its own virtue: the rational principle is wisdom, the fierce one is courage, and the lustful one is moderation.
Plato's purification of the soul is associated with bodily and mental discipline, which internally transforms a person and likens him to a deity.
“Prudence, justice, courage and wisdom are the means of such purification” (Phaedo).
All these advantages are the goal of philosophical search.
2. Plato's ideal state
Plato's most important dialogue, The Republic, consists of three parts.
In the first part (until the end of book five) the issue of building an ideal state is discussed; this is the earliest of utopias.
One of the conclusions made in this part is that rulers must be philosophers. Books six and seven are devoted to the definition of the word “philosopher”. This discussion forms the second part. The third part consists of a discussion of the various kinds of existing government structures and their advantages and disadvantages.
The formal purpose of the "State" is to define "justice." But it was decided at an early stage that since it is easier to see any thing in the great than in the small, it would be better to examine what constitutes a just State. And since justice must have its place among the attributes of the best imaginable State, such a State must first be delineated, and then decide which of its perfections are to be called "justice." 2
Plato begins by deciding to divide citizens into three classes: ordinary people, warriors and guards. Only the latter should have political power. There should be significantly fewer guards than people belonging to the first two classes. Apparently, the first time they should be elected by the legislator; after that, their title is usually inherited; but in exceptional cases a promising child may be promoted from one of the lower classes, while among the children of the Guardians, a child or young person who does not meet the requirements may be excluded from the Guardian Class.
The main problem, according to Plato, is to ensure that the guardians carry out the intentions of the legislator. To this end, he makes various proposals regarding the education of economics, biology and religion. It's not always clear how much these proposals apply to classes other than guardians; it is clear that some of them refer to warriors, but Plato is mainly interested only in guards, who should be a separate class.
Education is divided into two parts - music and gymnastics. Both have more in Plato broad meaning than at present: "music" means everything that is included in the field of the muses, "gymnastics" means everything related to physical training and preparation. “Music” is almost as broad as what we call “culture,” and “gymnastics” is something broader than what we call “athletics.”
Culture should be designed to make people noble. Education should, apparently, first of all, develop in children such qualities as seriousness, observance of external decency and courage. There should be strict censorship over the literature that young people were allowed to read from a very early age, and over the music they were allowed to listen to. Mothers and nannies should tell their children only permitted stories. Reading Homer and Hesiod should not be allowed for a number of reasons.
1. They depict gods who behave badly from time to time, which is not pedagogical: the youth should be taught that evil never comes from the gods, since God is not the creator of all things, but only of good things.
2. In Homer and Hesiod, certain things are calculated to make their readers fear death, while education should at any cost make the youth desire to die in battle. Our young men should be taught to consider slavery worse than death, and therefore they should not be allowed to read stories of good people weeping even at the death of their friends.
3. Observance of external decency requires that there should never be loud laughter, and yet Homer speaks of “the inexhaustible laughter of the blessed gods.” How can a schoolmaster effectively rebuke merriment if young men can quote this passage?
4. Homer has passages praising rich feasts, as well as passages describing the desires of the gods; such passages discourage moderation. There should be no stories in which bad people are happy and good people are unhappy: the moral influence of such stories would be most disastrous to sensitive minds.
Because of all this, poets should be condemned.
Plato proceeds to an interesting argument regarding drama. He says that good man should not strive to imitate a bad person; but most plays produce villains, so the playwright and the actor who plays the role of the villain have to imitate people who are guilty of various crimes. Men who are superior should not imitate not only criminals, but also women, slaves and generally inferior ones (In Greece, the roles of women were played by men). Therefore, in plays, if they can be allowed at all, there should be no characters other than the impeccable male heroes of good birth. The impossibility of this is so obvious that Plato decides to expel all playwrights from his city:
“If a person who has the ability to transform and imitate anything comes to our state himself, wanting to show us his creations, we will bow before him as before something sacred, amazing and pleasant, but we will say that we have such a person in our country.” does not exist in the state, and that it is not allowed to become like that here, and we will send him to another state, anointing his head with incense and crowning him with a woolen bandage..."
Next comes the issue of music censorship. Lydian and Ionian harmonies should be prohibited, firstly, because they express sadness, and secondly, because they relax. Only Dorian (for courage) and Phrygian (for moderation) should be allowed. The rhythms allowed should be simple and express a courageous and harmonious life.
Training the body must be very rigorous. No one should eat fish or meat except fried, and there should be no sauces or confectionery. People brought up according to these rules of his, says Plato, will not need doctors.
Until a certain age, young people should not see unpleasant things or vice. But at the appropriate moment they should be subjected to “Seductions,” both in the form of horrors, which should not frighten, and in the form of evil pleasures, which should not tempt. When they pass these tests, they will be considered fit to become guardians.
Young men, before they become adults, must see war, although they themselves must not fight.
Regarding the economy, Plato proposes introducing radical communism for the guards, and also for the warriors, although this is not very clear. The guards should have small houses, and eat simple food; they must live as in a camp, dining in common dining rooms; they should not have private property except what is absolutely necessary. Gold and silver should be banned. Although they are not rich, nothing prevents them from being happy; the goal of the city is the happiness of the whole city, and not the happiness of one "class. Both wealth and poverty are harmful, and in the city of Plato there will be neither one nor the other. There is an interesting argument about war: it will be easy to acquire allies, since our city will not want take no share of the spoils of war.
With feigned reluctance, Plato's Socrates applies his communism to the family. Friends, he says, should have everything in common, including women and children. He admits that this presents difficulties, but does not consider them insurmountable. Firstly, girls should receive exactly the same education as boys, studying music, gymnastics and the art of war along with the boys. Women should enjoy complete equality with men in all respects. The same training that makes men good guards will make women good guards. “In relation to the protection of the state, the nature of women and men is the same...” Undoubtedly, there are differences between men and women, but they have nothing to do with politics. Some women are inclined to philosophy and are suitable as guards, some of the women are warlike and could be good warriors.
The legislator, having chosen certain men and women as guards, will cause them to live in shared houses and ate at a common table. Marriage, as we already know, will be radically transformed. At some festivals, brides and grooms will be united, as they are taught to believe, supposedly by lot in such numbers as are necessary to maintain a constant population; but in reality the rulers of the city will manipulate the lots based on eugenic principles. They will arrange it so that the best sires have the most children. All children will be taken from their parents at birth, and serious precautions will be taken to ensure that parents do not know which children are their children, and children do not know who their parents are. Children with physical disabilities and children of worse parents “will be hidden, properly, in a secret and unknown place.” Children born from unions not sanctioned by the state should be considered illegitimate. Mothers must be between twenty and forty years of age, fathers between twenty-five and fifty-five. Beyond this age, intercourse between the sexes should be free, but abortion or infanticide are forced. Interested parties have no right to object to “marriages” arranged by the State; they must be guided by the thought of their duty to the State, and not by any ordinary feelings that were usually glorified by exiled poets.
Since the child does not know who his parents are, he must call "father" every man who, by age, could be his father; this also applies to "mother", "brother", "sister". (This sort of thing occurs among some savages, and usually surprised the missionaries.) There can be no marriage between "father" and "daughter" or "mother" and "son." In general, marriages between “brother” and “sister” should not be allowed.
“All these women should be common to all these men, not one should live honestly with just one.”
It is assumed that the feelings now associated with the words "father", "mother", "son" and "daughter" will still be associated with them under the new order established by Plato; for example, a young man will not hit an old man because the old man might be his father.
The main idea is, of course, to reduce private sentiments to a minimum, and thus remove the obstacles standing in the way of the dominance of the public spirit, as well as to ensure a tacit acceptance of the absence of private property. These motives were largely of the same kind as the motives which led to the celibacy of the clergy.
Plato clearly says that lying should be the exclusive right of the government, just as the right to administer medicine is the exclusive right of the physician. The government, as we have already seen, must deceive the people by pretending that it arranges marriages by lot, but this is not the business of religion.
There must be "one royal lie", which, as Plato hopes, may deceive the rulers, but will deceive the rest of the city's inhabitants in any case. The most important part of it is the dogma that God created three kinds of people; the best are made of gold, the lesser ones are made of silver, and the common crowd are made of copper and iron. Those made of gold are suitable to be guards, those made of silver should be warriors, the rest should do manual labor. Usually, but by no means always, children will belong to the same class as their parents; when they do not belong to this class, they should be promoted or demoted accordingly. It is considered hardly possible to make the present generation believe in this myth, but the next and all subsequent generations can be brought up in such a way that they cannot doubt this myth.
Plato is right in believing that in two generations it is possible to create faith in this myth. Since 1868, the Japanese have been taught that the Mikado is descended from the sun goddess and that Japan was created before the rest of the world. Any university professor who, even in an academic work, expresses doubts about these tenets is fired for anti-Japanese activities. Plato does not seem to understand that the forced acceptance of such myths is incompatible with philosophy, and implies a kind of education that retards the development of the mind.
The definition of “justice,” which is the formal goal of the entire discussion, is achieved in the fourth book. Justice consists in each doing his own work and not interfering in the affairs of others: a city is just when the merchant, the mercenary, and the guard each do their own work without interfering with the work of the other classes.
That everyone should mind his own business is undoubtedly an excellent instruction, but it hardly corresponds to what modern world, naturally, would be called “justice.” The Greek word thus translated corresponded to a very important concept in Greek thought, for which, however, we have no exact equivalent. It is also appropriate to remember what Anaximander said:
"And from what all things arise, from the same they are resolved according to necessity. For they are punished for their wickedness and receive retribution from each other at the appointed time."
Before the emergence of philosophy, the Greeks had an idea or feeling about the Universe that could be called religious or ethical. According to this view, every person and every thing has its predetermined place and predetermined function. This does not depend on the order of Zeus, because Zeus himself is subject to the same law that governs others. This idea is associated with the idea of fate, or necessity. It is persistently applied to celestial bodies. But where there is power, there is also a tendency to go beyond the limits of what is just; then there is a struggle. A certain kind of impersonal, super-Olympic law punishes impudent disregard for the laws and restores the eternal order that the aggressor tried to violate. This point of view, initially, apparently, hardly conscious, completely passed into philosophy; it is also to be found in the cosmologies of struggle, such as that of Heraclitus and Empedocles, and in such monistic doctrines as that of Parmenides. This is the source of faith in both natural and human law, and it clearly underlies Plato's concept of justice.
The first definition of "justice" offered at the beginning of the Republic is that it consists in the payment of debts. This definition is soon abandoned as inappropriate, but something of it remains at the end.
Several considerations should be made regarding Plato's definition. First, it allows for the possibility of inequality of power and privilege without equity. The guardians should have all the power because they are the wisest members of the community; injustice, according to Plato's definition, would only occur if people belonging to other classes were wiser than some of the guards. This is why Plato provides for the promotion and demotion of citizens, although he believes that the double advantage of birth and education will lead in most cases to the superiority of the children of guards over the children of other classes. If there were more exact science management, and there would be more confidence that people would follow its instructions, then much would speak for Plato's system. No one considers it unfair to include the best football players in a football team, although they thus gain great advantage. If football were governed as democratically as Athens, students playing for their university would be chosen by lot. But in matters of government it is difficult to know who has the highest skill, and it is very far from certain that a politician will use his skill in the interests of the public, and not in his own or in the interests of his class, party or creed.
The next consideration is that Plato's definition of "justice" presupposes a state organized either according to tradition or according to his theory and realizing as a whole some ethical ideal. Justice, as Plato says, consists in each man doing his own work. But what is a person's job? In a state that, like ancient Egypt or the Inca kingdom, remains unchanged from generation to generation, a man's work is his father's work, and no question arises. But in Plato's state not a single person has any legal father. Therefore his work must be determined either by his own tastes or by the State's judgment of his abilities. Obviously, the latter would have been desirable for Plato. But some types of work, although requiring high skill, may be considered harmful. This is Plato's view of poetry, and I would hold the same view of Napoleon's work. Therefore, an important task of government is to determine what a person's job is. Despite the fact that all rulers must be philosophers, there should be no innovations; a philosopher must always be a person who understands Plato and agrees with him.
If we ask: what will Plato's state achieve? - the answer will be quite banal. It will succeed in wars against states of approximately equal population and will provide a means of subsistence for some small number of people. Due to its inertia, it will almost certainly not create either art or science. In this respect, as in others, it will be like Sparta. Despite all the wonderful words, all it will achieve is the ability to fight and enough food. Plato survived famine and military defeat in Athens; he probably subconsciously believed that the best that statecraft could achieve was to avoid these evils. 3
2.1. Forms of an ideal state
The negative type of state, according to Plato, appears in four forms:
1. timocracy (the power of ambitious people);
4. tyranny (the power of one over all).
The forms of an ideal state, according to Plato, can be different (monarchy, aristocracy and democracy), although he prefers monarchy. In order for the authorities to express not personal, but popular interest, the correct organization of the education of citizens is required. And here an important role belongs to the attitude of citizens towards property. It is private property, according to Plato, that destroys the integrity and unity of the state and sets people against each other. In this regard, the guards and the philosophers who emerge from their ranks do not have any private property. For the sake of the good of the whole, that is, the state, he also abolishes the family.
Describing justice in an ideal state, Plato writes: “for everyone to mind their own business, this, perhaps, will be justice”; “justice consists in everyone having their own and doing their own.” Justice, according to Plato, also consists in “that no one should seize someone else’s property or be deprived of his own.”
The rule of philosophers and the operation of just laws for Plato in the Republic are two interrelated aspects of one ideal project.
Plato's student, Aristotle, identified not four, but six forms of government; in his philosophy, much attention is also paid to the problem of man and his social life. Man is considered as a political animal, possessing reason and entering into various social relations with other people: economic, moral, political. According to Aristotle, he is characterized by an instinctive desire for “cohabitation,” conditioned by “consciousness of common benefit.” Man also strives for perfection, for a noble goal. The good of the individual coincides with the good of the state.
The state is considered by Aristotle as a natural phenomenon, as a higher type of communication in comparison with the village and family. “Every state,” he writes, “is a kind of communication, and every communication is organized for the sake of some good.” Through the concept of “communication”, definitions of family and village are also given, which are considered as parts of the whole that precedes them, that is, the state.
Aristotle identified six forms of government, of which, in his opinion, three, namely: 4
1. monarchy (power of one);
2.aristocracy (power of the few);
3. polity (majority rule)
Refer to the correct ones, and the other three, namely:
1. tyranny (the power of one over all);
2. oligarchy (dominance of a few);
3. democracy (majority rule);
Treated as incorrect.
Polity is declared to be the best form, since it combines the properties of moderate democracy and the personal dignity of oligarchy inherent in noble people. “So, it is clear,” writes Aristotle, “that only those forms of government that have in mind the general benefit are, according to the principle of absolute justice, correct; the same forms, in which only the personal good of the rulers are meant, are all erroneous and represent deviations from the correct ones; they are based on a despotic principle, and the state is the communication of free people.” I think that it is worth agreeing with Aristotle that the one or those standing at the head of the state should not pursue their own goals, but should take care of the well-being of the entire country.
For Aristotle, as for Plato, the polis (state) represents a certain whole and unity of its constituent elements, but he criticizes Plato's attempt to make the state “overly unified.” The state consists of many elements, and an excessive desire for their unity, for example, the community of property, wives and children proposed by Plato, leads to the destruction of the state. From these positions, Aristotle thoroughly criticizes the project of the Platonic state and acts as a staunch defender of individual rights, private property and family. his position is that property should be private, and the use of its fruits should be common.
Plato's community of property, wives and children leads, according to Aristotle, to impersonality, mismanagement and laziness, accompanied by all kinds of confusion, quarrels and discord, while friendly relations are the greatest benefit for the state. The confusion of “ours” and “theirs”, the transition from “this is mine” to “this is ours” is fraught with numerous troubles in private and political life, to some extent comparable to what happened in our country several decades ago.
3. The relevance of Plato’s teaching about the ideal state at the present time.
Currently, the world community is going through a period of crisis, characterized not only by economic decline, but also by serious political problems in various regions. To overcome the crisis situation and a decent way out of it, scientists and specialists are trying to find various ways and solutions, both in the economic sphere and in the legal sphere. Many take as the basis for their methods and doctrines the works of the luminaries of legal and political science, published in ancient times.
If in the last century, when our country embarked on the path of socialism, Plato’s ideas about the priority of common property were still relevant, then with the transition to a market economy, legal experts increasingly rarely mention the creations of this great thinker in their works. But, literally, after some ten years, part of Russian society doubted the correctness of the new path chosen by Russia. The arbitrariness of the authorities, the increase in the crime rate, the emergence of a narrow stratum of the super-rich and a huge number of citizens remaining below the poverty line - all this could not but leave a deep imprint on the legal consciousness of citizens. Today, the number of people who are nostalgic for Soviet times, the times of common property, has increased. And that is why today Plato’s teachings are gaining relevance and new meaning is being put into his ideas about the ideal state.
The attitude towards Plato's ideas about the ideal state in the West and in the USSR was different. At first glance, it may seem to the average person that Plato’s ideas about the ideal state, which is based on the doctrine of common property, are very similar to the ideology of communism. But this is far from true.
Plato was declared by bourgeois historians to be the forerunner of the theories of socialism and communism, which was denied by Soviet science. What was called Platonic communism in the West was called consumer communism in the USSR, in contrast to the theory of scientific communism, that is, production communism. Plato's communism was not recognized both historically and politically by Soviet historians as a result of research, and moreover, such a formula was considered a journalistic myth of modern anti-communism.
But there is also a positive feature in this utopia. With rare realism, Plato understood the connection between the individual and the whole, characteristic of the ancient polis, the dependence of the individual on the broader whole, the conditioning of the individual by the state. Having understood this connection, Plato turned it into the norm of his project of an ideal socio-political system.
In the history of political teachings, Plato's utopia is one of the most famous. It simultaneously reflects a number of real features of states contemporary to Plato, for example, Egypt, and criticizes a number of shortcomings of Greek city policies, and recommends an ideal type of community life instead of those rejected.
Plato's works have been exciting minds for three millennia: his teaching turned out to be modern and meaningful for any era.
The influence of Plato's ideas can be traced not only in Aristotelian teaching, but also in the doctrine of the Neoplatonists (Plotik, Proclus, etc.), in the philosophy of the “Church Fathers” (especially Augustine), in classical philosophy(especially in the philosophy of Kant and Hegel) and in various doctrines of absolute idealism in the philosophy of the early twentieth century. Platonism is the philosophical basis of logicism - a major trend in modern philosophy and the methodology of mathematics, to which thinkers such as Frege, Russell and Whitehead belonged.
In general terms, Plato’s doctrine of the state was first outlined by him in the famous dialogue “Politician”. This dialogue refers to early period Plato’s activity and represents an imperfect development of the same thoughts that later formed the basis of Plato’s famous dialogue – “The Republic”. The work “State” belongs to the more mature era of Plato and contains the doctrine of the state in its most perfect form.
In Plato's worldview, an important place belongs to his views on society and the state. He was extremely interested in the question of what a perfect community should be like and by what kind of education people should be prepared to establish and maintain such a community.
Many authors, such as P. Vasilyeva, V. Gutorov, read that “Plato considers the reason for the emergence of the state to be the presence of innate social needs in people, which each individual cannot satisfy through his own efforts and therefore needs help from other individuals.” Feeling the need for many things, many people gather together to live together and help each other: such a joint settlement receives the name of a state. In addition, the state is also created to ensure peace and security for all its members. The specialization of labor must correspond to the diversity of human needs in the state, because only on its basis can high quality and productivity be ensured.” K. Marx pointed out that “in Plato’s Republic, the division of labor is the basic principle of the structure of the state; it represents only the Athenian idealization of the Egyptian caste system.” Entire classes of people carry out functions vital for society in the state, “this is facilitated by craft skills, refined by professional training and experience, multiplied by hereditary transmission, assimilated from childhood in their own family and immediate environment.”
The main basis of an ideal state is justice. Justice is the correspondence of a real thing to its idea. The state is ideal only when each citizen acts in accordance with his own essence. The essence lies in the human soul. That is, at the heart of everything that exists in Plato is the soul. That is why Plato is considered the founder of objective idealism.
In his main work, “The State,” Plato examines the ideal state system by analogy with the human soul. Just as there are three principles in the human soul, so there should be three classes in the state:
Philosopher rulers correspond to the rational principle;
Fierce or defensive at the beginning - warriors;
Low, lustful or business-farmers and artisans.
Plato declares the class division of society to be a condition for the strength of the state. Unauthorized transition from a lower class to a higher one is the greatest crime, for every person must do the work for which he is destined by nature: “Mind your own business and not interfere with others’ - this is justice.”
Plato attached great importance to the dissemination among the population of the ideal state of the “noble fiction” that although they are all brothers, the god who sculpted them, in those of them who are capable of ruling, mixed gold at birth, in their assistants - silver, and for landowners and artisans - iron and copper. Only in those cases where silver offspring are born from gold, and gold offspring from silver, etc., is it possible for members of one class to transfer to another. The myth ends with a warning that the state will perish when it is guarded by an iron or copper guard. According to V.S. Nersesyants, the above myth aims to justify the obedience, unanimity and brotherhood of citizens and at the same time their inequality in the structure of an ideal state.
According to the teachings of Plato, the ideal state is based on four virtues:
wisdom;
courage;
prudence;
justice;
An ideal state, according to Plato, is wise by the wisdom of its rulers-philosophers, courageous by the courage of its guards-warriors, and judicious by the obedience of the worst part of the state to its best part. It is also fair, since everyone in such a state serves it as a kind of integrity, minds their own business, without interfering in the affairs of others.
In Plato's Republic, the third estate (landowners and artisans) is the lowest, barely worthy of the name of citizens; it is immersed in material work and is assigned to satisfy the lower needs of man. “The third estate must, through the products of its activities - agriculture, crafts and trade, provide funds for the maintenance of the other estates.”
Plato pays much more attention to the class of rulers than to the other two classes. At the head of the state, Plato argued, it is necessary to place philosophers involved in the eternal good and capable of embodying the heavenly world of ideas in earthly life. “Until philosophers reign in the state or the so-called current kings and rulers begin to philosophize nobly and thoroughly, until then the state will not get rid of evils.” But rulers must be true philosophers, who, according to Plato, are those who, looking at the eternal patterns of phenomena, recognize the truth itself, - contemplating the beauty of virtue, not only are surprised by it, but also follow it with all their might, and embody it in themselves by their deeds, which are rich both in the knowledge of eternal truth and in experience in the use of things. The philosopher had to have the following qualities: courage, rationality, prudence, generosity, memory, justice. Plato calls all these qualities in one word - virtue. In addition, “the ability to protect the laws and customs of the state” is also necessary.
“The guardians of the state - the irritable side of the human soul, appointed to protect the rights and carry out the orders of rational nature, should receive such an education and be educated to such a degree that, obeying the wise suggestions of the government, they can easily protect the welfare of society and courageously prevent in it both external, as well as internal dangers.
The military class should consist of the best citizens who have no other duties than the duty to protect the state from any danger that threatens it. Therefore, the people chosen for this must be armed and trained to fight not only against external enemies: they must also protect their homeland from internal strife, maintain order and obedience to the laws in it. Citizens about to enter the estate must be distinguished by physical and mental virtues. With all the qualities of a skilled warrior, they must combine an understanding of state goals and the internal relations of public life. “The only criterion for the selection and training of guards is the greatest suitability for protecting the state, which requires such moral qualities that only a few possess.”
Plato sees the main source of social evil in private property, which sets people against each other. “The destruction of all private life, all personal interests, of course, deprives a person of many pleasures; but well-educated warriors, says Plato, find their happiness not in material pleasures, but in fulfilling their purpose.” Having abolished private property, Plato abolishes the family in order to completely replace family interests with national ones.
For Plato, the subject of freedom and highest perfection is not an individual person or even a class, but the whole society, the whole state as a whole. Plato sacrifices man, his happiness, his freedom and moral perfection to his state. IN social utopia Plato reveals the ideological origins of totalitarianism, where the individual is a cog in the mechanism of the state.
Plato’s communist ideas in the Republic were criticized by Aristotle, arguing that “the communion of property can only lead to continuous quarrels, due to the unequal distribution of use and labor.
And Hegel was right when he pointed out that in Plato’s Republic “all aspects in which individuality as such asserts itself are dissolved in the universal - everyone is recognized only as universal people.”
Over time, Plato himself grew cold towards his model of the ideal state after an unsuccessful attempt to implement it in practice.
Plato describes a more realistic model of government in his new voluminous work “Laws”.
The Laws is a huge work in twelve books, larger in volume than any of Plato's dialogues.
Disappointed in the possibility of putting into practice the ideal depicted in the Republic, Plato in the Laws deviates in a number of significant provisions from the requirements put forward in the first work. This was an attempt by the philosopher to bring his ideal closer to reality through various kinds of concessions.
The realistic model of the state in terms of forms of government is mixed. The structure of a perfect state in Plato’s “State” is possible in the form of a monarchy or an aristocracy. Plato classifies timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny as a negative type of social structure, in the order of their deterioration and the order of transition from one to another.
In the dialogue “Laws,” Plato depicts the “second most important” state system, which has some similar features to that described in “The State” (equality of women and men, public education of children, etc.), however, it also has its own distinctive features :
Private property (except land) and individual family are allowed.
a “mixed” form of government is envisaged, combining elements of democracy (elections by majority vote) and monarchy (holding positions based on merit and merit).
Plato pays great attention to questions about laws. The law must be above the rulers. Plato's main focus is on detailed and harsh laws that regulate the public and private lives of people.
In the Laws, Plato formulates the reasons for the inevitability of punishment for a crime committed: “In general, no one should ever go unpunished for any act.”
The political rights of citizens are proportional to the size of their property.
Today, many of the listed features of an ideal state according to Plato are visible in the political regimes of a number of states, in particular the countries of Latin America and Africa, and some provisions, for example, on the inevitability of punishment, form the basis of the criminal codes of almost all modern states.
Plato was a pioneer in the field of philosophical illumination of a wide range of political and legal issues, and the development of many of them is marked by the stamp of his creative genius. Many provisions about state and law expressed by Plato in his teaching remain relevant and modern to this day.
Plato is a great phenomenon; as a figure - philosopher, scientist, writer - he belongs to all humanity. Plato is one of the teachers of humanity.
Conclusion
To summarize, I note that the Greeks, without a doubt, managed to outstrip their era, if not in the economic sphere, then certainly in the political sphere. The achievements of Greek civilization in the field of art and philosophy still amaze the imagination. And, nevertheless, from a certain stage the classical policy began to degrade uncontrollably. Despite the steep rise in the intellect of the Greeks, “devastation” began, and it began “not in the closets, but in the heads,” as M.A. noted. Bulgakov (the story “The Heart of a Dog”), however, in relation to a completely different historical era. It is appropriate to ask the question: could the basic ideas and aspirations of Greek philosophy contribute to the consolidation of people (polis) into a more powerful social community, reminiscent of the one that today is designated “society”, “society”? Maybe a democratic form of power within the framework of that era could only take place in a small polis? Aristotle wrote that the number of citizens of a polis should not exceed 10 thousand, if only because with a larger number it is practically impossible to make decisions democratically. It is no coincidence that over the next two millennia not a single truly democratic state emerged.
As already noted, Plato, in an ideal state, assumes the existence of three categories of citizens (philosophers, guards and artisans), clearly separated from each other by class partitions for eternity. And Plato’s judgment about justice could hardly help reduce social tension. The latter was all the more unhelpful by Aristotle’s thesis: “for a slave to be a slave is both beneficial and fair” or “... acquiring only those who by their very nature are slaves.” Indeed, let’s say, by nature we are not the same, but the ideas of both Plato and Aristotle (if we evaluate them from the height of today’s ideas) “ooze” with cynicism.
Bibliography
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Ideal statePlato someone has an allotment, someone... like being, but like a happy life. IN idealstatePlato There is no place for Homer, but in life...
The ideal state is interpreted by Plato as the realization of ideas and the maximum possible embodiment of the world of ideas in earthly socio-political life - in the polis.
Plato envisioned an ideal state led by philosophers, contemplatives of pure and eternal ideas, who were protected by warriors and to whom all vital resources were supplied by free farmers and artisans.
Plato considers justice to be the basic principle of an ideal government system. This concept is filled with Plato's economic, political and social content.
Justice requires an appropriate hierarchical subordination of these principles in the name of the whole: the ability to reason (that is, philosophers, the bearers of this ability) should dominate; to the fierce beginning (i.e., warriors) - to be armed with defense, obeying the first principle; both of these principles control the principle of the lustful (artisans, farmers and other producers), which “by its nature thirsts for wealth” 1 .
According to Plato, justice assigns a special occupation and position to each citizen. The reign of justice unites the diverse and even heterogeneous parts of the state into a harmonious whole.
The best state system must have a number of features of moral, economic and political organization, which in their connecting action provide the solution to the most important problems.
Such a state must have the strength of its own organization and the means of protecting it, sufficient to contain and repel a hostile environment; secondly, it must systematically and sufficiently supply all members of society with the material goods they need. Thirdly, it must guide spiritual activity and creativity. Fulfillment of all three of these tasks would mean the implementation of the “idea of good” as the highest idea ruling the world.
The state arises out of the desire to live together, together, since living together makes everyone’s existence easier. Plato solves the problem of the relationship between the individual and the state in favor of the state; for Plato, the individual is only a means of existence and strengthening of the state. Plato believed that the relationship between the individual and the state should be balanced. The state should not have absolute power in comparison with the citizen, but citizens should not have excessive freedom in relation to the state.
Two categories of citizens, according to Plato, are not suitable for governing the state: “Both unenlightened people versed in the truth, and those who are left to engage in self-improvement all their lives...” 1.
There are very few citizens capable of government, and their abilities depend on their natural abilities.
The key to successful government is that not those people who want it are attracted to government, but those who are not eager for the state trough. In his ideal model of government, Plato proposes an election procedure that is very democratic in modern times.
Plato's classification of types of power is interesting: the power of parents over offspring, the power of the noble over the ignoble, the power of elders over the younger; the power of masters over slaves; the power of the strong over the weak; the power of the intelligent over the ignorant (Plato considered this type of power to be the most important); power by lot.
Plato attaches great importance to unity, which, like cement, holds the state together into a monolithic whole. And the lack of unity leads to the destruction of the state and its disintegration 1 .
The division of society into poor and rich is also dangerous for the state. Such a state is extremely unstable and any reason can disrupt the calm flow of life in it. The desire of rulers to please the crowd is another serious obstacle to government that Plato warns about. It is difficult to resist the pressure of the crowd, not to succumb to its mood.
In Plato's utopian state, the types of work necessary for society are divided between special categories of citizens, but on the whole they form a harmonious combination.
As a basis for the distribution of citizens of the state into categories, Plato took the differences between individual groups of people according to their moral inclinations and properties. However, Plato viewed these differences by analogy with the division of productive labor. It is in the division of labor that Plato sees the foundation of the entire contemporary social and state system.
At the same time, Plato’s main idea is to assert that the needs of the citizens who make up society are diverse, but the ability of each person to satisfy these needs is limited.
“Each of us is insufficient for himself and needs many.” From here the need for the emergence of a community, or a city, is directly deduced: “When one of us accepts others, either for one or another need, when, having a need for many things, we invite many companions and helpers to cohabitate - then this cohabitation receives our name cities" 1.
It is characteristic of Plato that he considers the meaning of the division of labor not from the point of view of the worker producing the product, but exclusively from the point of view of consumers belonging to the slave-owning class. “The worker must adapt to the business, not the business to the worker” 2.
In the division of labor, Plato sees not only the basis for the division of society into classes, but also the basic principle of the structure of the state.
The main task of Plato's treatise on the state is the problem of the good and perfect life of society as a whole and its members.
An “ideal” state must have at least four qualities:
1. wisdom;
2. courage;
3. justice;
4. prudence.
By wisdom Plato understands the highest knowledge, or ability
give good advice when it comes to the state as a whole. Such knowledge is protective, and the rulers of the state possess this knowledge.
Wisdom is a valor characteristic of very few - philosophers - and this is not so much a specialty in leading the state as contemplation of the heavenly realm of eternal and perfect ideas - a valor that is fundamentally moral.
According to Plato, only under rulers-philosophers will the state not know the evil that currently reigns in it.
But to achieve prosperity, rulers must not be imaginary, but true philosophers: by them Plato means only “those who love to contemplate the truth.”
The second valor is courage. It is also characteristic only of a small circle of people, although in comparison with the wise there are more of these people. A large number of people have courage, these are not only rulers-philosophers, but also warriors-guardians.
In contrast to wisdom and courage, the third virtue of a perfect state, or restraining measure, is no longer a quality of a special class, but a virtue belonging to all members of the state.
Where it is present, all members of society recognize and observe the law adopted in a perfect state and the government existing in it, restraining and moderating bad impulses. A restraining measure brings about a harmonious agreement between the best and the worst.
Prudence “is like a kind of harmony”; it “adjusts absolutely everything in its own way” 1 .
The fourth virtue is justice. Its presence, its triumph in the state is due to the deterrent measure. It is precisely by virtue of justice that each class, each rank in the state and each individual person receives for execution and implementation his own special task, for which his nature is most capable.
Consequently, the division of people into classes is of great importance for Plato and determines the existence of an “ideal” state (after all, it cannot be unjust), and then it is not surprising that violation of the caste system is considered the highest crime.
Plato creates a totalitarian system of dividing people into categories, which is slightly mitigated by the possibility of moving from class to class (this is achieved through long-term education and self-improvement).
This transition is carried out under the leadership of the rulers.
It is characteristic that even if among the rulers a person appears who is more suitable for the lower class, then he must be “demoted” without regret.
Thus, Plato believes that for the well-being of the state, each person should engage in the work for which he is best suited. If a person does not mind his own business, but within his own class, then this is not yet disastrous for the “ideal” state.
When a person undeservedly goes from being a shoemaker (first class) to becoming a warrior (second class), or a warrior undeservedly becomes a ruler (third class), then this threatens the collapse of the entire state, therefore such a “leap” is considered the “highest crime” against the system, because for for the benefit of the entire state as a whole, a person should do only the work for which he is best suited.
Regarding a tyrannical person, Plato said that the transformation of such a protege occurs when he begins to do something like the following: they say that whoever has tasted human entrails, finely chopped along with the meat of sacrificial animals, cannot avoid becoming a wolf. He is the one who rebels against those who have property.
If he failed, was expelled, and then returned - to spite his enemies, then he returns as a complete tyrant.
If those who expelled him are not able to bring him down again and put him to death, denigrating him in the eyes of the citizens, then they are plotting his secret murder.
The tyrant, having an obedient crowd in his hands, will bring his fellow tribesmen to trial on unfair charges and impose the death penalty, and meanwhile he will promise the cancellation of debt and the redistribution of land.
After this, such a person has two options: either he will die at the hands of his enemies, or he will become a tyrant. Citizens usually plot murder, so when a tyrant gains power, he hires bodyguards.
If he suspects someone of free thoughts and of denying his rule, then he will destroy such people under the pretext that they have surrendered to the enemy. For all this, the tyrant needs to constantly agitate everyone through war.
To retain power, the tyrant will have to destroy them all, so that, in the end, there will be no friend or enemy left. He is involuntarily hostile to all these people and plots against them until he clears the state of them.
Plato considered the optimal number of citizens of an ideal state to be just over five thousand. In such a state, everyone inevitably knows about everyone. In addition, there is no bureaucracy.
Plato, who lived during the time of the universal slave system, does not pay special attention to slaves.
Only “barbarians”, not Hellenes, can be enslaved during war. However, he also says that war is an evil that arises in vicious states “for enrichment,” and in an “ideal” state war should be avoided, therefore, there will be no slaves 1.
The classical point of view of Plato, his social and political aristocracy, admiration for the Egyptian-type society with its caste layer, with its characteristic difficult transition from one caste to another, received extremely vivid expression in Plato’s understanding of justice. For Plato, there is nothing egalitarian, smoothing, or denying class differences in this concept.
The last thing Plato strives to do is to give citizens and classes of citizens the same rights. With all his might he wants to protect his ideal state from mixing classes, from citizens of one class performing the duties and functions of citizens of another class. He directly characterizes justice as valor, which does not allow the possibility of such confusion.
The least trouble, in his opinion, would be the mixing or combination of various specialties within the class of productive workers: if, for example, a carpenter begins to do the work of a shoemaker, and a shoemaker - the work of a carpenter, or if one of them wants to do both. But it would be worse, simply disastrous for the state, if some artisan or industrialist wanted to take up military affairs, and a warrior, incapable and unprepared, encroached on the function of management, or if someone wanted to do all these things at the same time.
Even with the first three types of valor, busy work and mutual exchange of activities cause the greatest harm to the state and therefore can be called an atrocity. And vice versa, doing your own will be justice and will make the city fair.
All three classes are equally necessary for an ideal state and, taken together, reveal great and beautiful things.
In accordance with all that has been said, the rational structure of a perfect state, according to Plato, should be based, first of all, on needs.
In a city-state (“polis”) there must be numerous, clearly differentiated branches of the social division of labor. It should contain not only workers who obtain food for citizens, builders of housing, manufacturers of clothing and footwear, but also workers who make tools and tools for all of them for their special work.
In addition to them, producers of all kinds of auxiliary work are also needed, for example, cattle breeders who deliver means of transporting people and goods, extracting wool and leather.
The need to import necessary products and goods from other countries requires the production in the state of a surplus of goods for foreign trade, as well as an increase in the number of workers producing the corresponding goods.
In turn, developed trade requires the activities of intermediaries for purchase and sale, import and export. Thus, to the already considered categories of division of labor is added the category of merchants, which is also necessary for the state. The complication of the division of labor is not limited to this: there is a need for different categories of persons involved in the transportation of goods.
Trade, exchange of goods and products is necessary for the state not only for external relations, but also within the state. From here Plato deduces the need for a market and the minting of coins as a unit of exchange. In turn, the emergence of a market gives rise to a category of specialists in market operations: small traders and intermediaries, buyers and resellers.
Plato also considers it necessary to have a special category of servicing hired workers who sell their services for a fee.
The indicated categories of specialized social labor are limited to workers who produce products for the state or who in one way or another contribute to production and consumption. All these categories taken together constitute the lowest class of citizens in the hierarchy of Plato's ideal state.
Above the class, divided into branches of specialized labor of workers, or artisans, in Plato there are upper classes- warriors (guardians) and rulers (philosophers).
Plato verbally gave a model of a perfect state, realizing that he was not able to prove the possibility of organizing such a state.
However, in his opinion, “it only takes one single change to happen, and then the entire state will be transformed.” This change: “until philosophers reign in the states, or the current kings and rulers begin to philosophize nobly and thoroughly, and this merges into one - state power and philosophy, and until those people are necessarily removed - and there are many of them, - who now strive separately either for power or for philosophy, until then the states will not get rid of evils, and that state structure will not become possible for the human race and will not see the light of the sun. It is difficult for people to admit that otherwise neither their personal nor public well-being is possible” 1 .
Who exactly does he call philosophers, arguing that they should rule?
Plato was sure that some people, by their very nature, should be philosophers and rulers of the state, and everyone else should not do this, but follow those who lead. Plato recognizes that there is no necessary connection between the origin of a person from one class or another and his moral and intellectual properties: people endowed with the highest moral and mental inclinations can be born in the lower social class, and, conversely, those born from citizens of both higher classes can end up with low souls.
Therefore, it is the responsibility and the right of rulers to examine the moral inclinations of children and distribute them among the three main classes of the state. “If there is “copper” or “iron” in the soul of a newly born person, he should be driven away to the farmers and artisans without any regret or condescension. But if a craftsman gives birth to a child with an admixture of “gold” or “silver,” then he should be classified either in the class of rulers or in the class of warriors.”1
For Plato it was important to strictly separate the upper classes from the lower. As for the question of how workers in specialized labor should prepare for the qualified performance of their functions, Plato does not go into detail about it. All his attention is focused on the education of warriors (guards) and on determining those conditions of their activity and existence that would consolidate the properties generated in them by upbringing.
The strengthening of an ideal state should be served by a strict system of upbringing and education, ensuring sufficient professional and physical training of all classes. Each class has its own level of education. The combination of gymnastics, music and mathematics is a compulsory education, sufficient for guards. The most capable can learn dialectics, after mastering which they move to another professional group - philosopher-rulers.
The need for military specialists is very important for the life and well-being of society. But this is no longer a category among other categories of workers. This is a special, higher part of society in comparison with artisans, a special class.
The allocation of soldiers to a special branch of the social division of labor is necessary not only because of the importance of their profession, but also because of its special difficulty, which requires special attention, technical skill, special knowledge, and special experience.
Plato postulates for his utopian state the complete supposed unanimity of its classes. This postulate is substantiated by reference to the origin of all people from a common mother earth. That is why, Plato believes, warriors should consider all other citizens of this state to be their brothers, but contrary to this postulate, economic workers are treated as people of a lower breed.
They should be protected solely so that they can perform their duties without interference, but not for their own sake. Philosophers get warriors to help them, just as dogs help shepherds tend a flock of farm workers.
The complete isolation of the classes of Plato's utopian state is reflected even in the external conditions of their existence 1 .
Thus, soldiers should not live in places where productive workers live. The permanent residence of the warriors is a camp located so that, observing and acting from it, it would be convenient for the warriors to return to obedience all those who rebelled against the established order, and also to easily repel the attack of the enemy, no matter where he came from.
People are weak creatures, subject to temptation, seduction and corruption of all kinds. To avoid this, an inviolably observed order of life is necessary - only philosopher rulers can define and prescribe it.
In Plato's utopia, the moral principle comes to the fore.
From a study of negative types of states, Plato concluded that the main reason for the deterioration of human societies and state systems is the dominance of material interests and their influence on people’s behavior.
Therefore, the organizers of the best state must not only take care of organizing the correct education of warrior-guards, but also establish such an order of life in which the arrangement of housing and rights to property benefits could not become an obstacle either to the high morality of the warriors or to the impeccable performance of their military duties. service, nor for their proper relationship to people of their class and other classes of society.
According to Plato, the main feature of this order is the deprivation of warriors' right to property. Everything they need must be obtained from productive workers, and in quantities not too small, not too large.
Soldiers eat in common canteens. The entire routine and framework of the life of guards is aimed at protecting them from the destructive influence of personal property and, first of all, from the corrupting influence of money.
For guards, only the union of men with a woman to give birth to children is possible; a family is, in essence, impossible for them.
As soon as a baby is born, he is taken from his mother and handed over to the discretion of the rulers, who send the best of the newborns to wet nurses, and the worst are doomed to die in a hidden place. Subsequently, mothers are allowed to feed their babies, but at this time they no longer know which children are born to them and which are born to other women. All male guards are considered the fathers of all children, and all women are considered the common wives of all guards.
For Plato, the implementation of this postulate means achieving the highest form of unity in the state.
The community of wives and children in the class of guardians of the state completes what was begun by the community of property and therefore is the reason for the highest good for the state.
The commonality of property and the absence of personal property make it impossible for property litigation and mutual accusations to arise.
The absence of property discord within the warrior class will make, according to Plato, impossible either discord within the lower class of workers, or their revolt against both higher classes.
At the end of his description of the state he was projecting, Plato depicts in the most rosy colors the blissful life of the members of such a society, especially the guardian warriors 1 .
Their life is more beautiful than the life of the winners of Olympic competitions. The maintenance they receive as payment for their activities in protecting society is given to both themselves and their children. They are revered during life, they are awarded an honorable burial after death.
Plato is almost not interested in questions of the structure of life and work of the producing class, questions of its life, its moral state. Plato leaves the property that belongs to the workers and only stipulates the use of this property.
He limits it to conditions that are dictated not at all by concern for the life and well-being of the workers, but only by considerations of what is required in order for them to produce well and in sufficient quantities everything necessary for the two highest classes - rulers and warriors.
Here are these conditions in general form.
· elimination from the lives of workers of the main source of moral
corruption - the opposite poles of wealth and poverty. Rich artisans stop caring about their work, the poor themselves are not able to work well due to the lack of necessary tools and cannot teach students their work well;
Limiting the worker’s functions to one single type
specialized social labor. This is the type of work for which the worker is most capable according to his natural inclinations, but which is not determined by himself, but is prescribed by the rulers of the state.
· strict obedience. It is conditioned by the entire system of beliefs
worker and directly follows from his main valor - a restraining measure.
Plato’s attitude towards work itself is not only indifferent, but rather even dismissive. The inevitability of productive labor for the existence and well-being of society as a whole does not make this work attractive or worthy of honor in Plato’s eyes. Work has a degrading effect on the soul.
After all, it is for those whose abilities are meager and for whom there are no better options.
In the third book of the Republic there is a place where Plato places blacksmiths, artisans, carriers on oared ships, and their bosses next to thin people - drunkards, mad and indecently behaving. All such people, according to Plato, not only should not be imitated, but one should not pay attention to them.
The leadership of Plato's rulers is limited to the requirement that each category of workers perform only one branch of work indicated to him from above. Plato has no talk of any planning of the production process. In the same way, there is no talk of any socialization of the means of production.
What is striking is that in Plato's theory of division of labor and specialization there is no class of slaves, not even a name. But this is not surprising. Plato's project considers the division of labor in a state only between its free citizens. Plato did not forget about slavery. Slavery is simply taken out of the equation.
Many Plato scholars have puzzled over the position of the class of farmers and artisans in the ideal state. Many believed that these were slaves, which meant Plato’s perpetuation of the slave state. However, his artisans are not slaves, they are free, to the extent of the freedom that is allowed in an ideal state.
For one reason they cannot be Plato’s slaves, because his two classes - philosophers and warriors - are deprived of all private property, that is, landowners and artisans cannot belong to them. Moreover, only this class was granted economic freedom by Plato. Its members produce consumer products, sell them independently, and enter into economic relations with foreigners. All this is strictly prohibited for philosophers and warriors.
Plato more than once refers to the socio-political system of Sparta with its state serfs. One could talk about state serfdom in Plato's ideal state.
In essence, all classes in Plato are enslaved to one thing - service to the eternal and absolute world of ideas.
The division of mental and physical labor in Plato is absolutized and immortalized for all times: some only think and fight, others only feed. The division of labor, presented by Plato as an absolute norm, was undoubtedly borrowed from the practice of the slave-owning formation and brought to the level of the Egyptian caste system.
Ascetically build your ideal state of Plato, but few people pay attention to Plato’s words that an adult or a child, a free or a slave, a man or a woman, in a word, all citizens must constantly sing enchanting songs to themselves.
Playing, singing, dancing, aesthetic pleasure - this, according to Plato, is the real embodiment of divine laws, so that the entire state, with all its peaceful customs and with all its wars, is only an endless artistic self-affirmation: “We must live by playing” 1, - says Plato.
The purpose of sacrifices, chants and dances is to repel and defeat enemies in battle. Here it is even difficult to distinguish where the divine, unyielding and ascetic law is, and where there is dancing and eternal play.
Plato's utopia not only expresses the philosopher's ideas about the ideal state order, but also reflects the most important features of the actual, real ancient polis, far from the intended ideal.
Without noticing it or wanting it, Plato reveals the class origin and class tendency of his utopia 1 . Through the idealizing outlines of the harmony depicted by Plato, the opposition between the upper slave-owning classes and the lower classes, sharply isolated from each other, clearly emerges.
Plato's contemplation of ideas, which is the profession of the class of philosophers, is not sufficiently substantiated. What do they contemplate other than the firmament with its eternally regular, mechanically and geometrically measured movements? Social relations arising according to the laws of geometry or astronomy are the relations of the draftsman to his drawing. If one class only draws, and the other is only a drawing, then this is close to what is usually called slavery. Consequently, regardless of its immediate content, Plato’s utopia ultimately reflects the slaveholding basis of the era of the decay of Greek city-states.
In Plato's ideal state, not only the workers resemble slaves, but also the members of the two upper classes do not know complete and true freedom. For Plato, the subject of freedom and highest perfection is not an individual person or even a separate class, but only the entire society, the entire state as a whole.
This state exists for its own sake, for the sake of its external splendor; as for the citizen, his purpose is only to contribute to the beauty of its construction in the role of a serving member.
Everyone is recognized only as universal people.
The barracks-totalitarian features of Plato’s ideal state are more fully outlined in the article Plato “State” - abstract with quotes.
According to Plato's teachings, true philosophical knowledge gives rise to virtue. For Plato, like Socrates, virtue is only practical use knowledge and, in conjunction with it, serves as the only true path to happiness. In the treatise “The Republic” (see its full text), Plato calls virtue the direction of activity of each part of the soul towards achieving the goal that this part has, such activity of this part as corresponds to its nature. The virtue of the rational part of the soul is wisdom, the virtue of the will is courage, the virtue of the sensual part of the soul is temperance (Sophrosyne); the general correct activity of all three parts of the soul produces justice arising from their harmony.
The great Greek philosopher Plato
Plato taught that these four “cardinal virtues” bring happiness to both the individual and the state. Both in an individual and in a state they must be harmoniously united. The connection between them should be that courage, which belongs mainly to the military class, and temperance, which belongs mainly to the working class (peasants and industrialists), should be subordinated to the leadership of philosophers, people of royal souls who have wisdom, and therefore alone are capable of good to rule the state, and that justice should rule over everything and excite every person to conscientiously fulfill his duty. Plato believed that the harmonious combination of these basic forces is the good of the state, whose goal is “to make citizens good people.”
According to the teachings of Plato, the ideal state (aristocratic in the true sense of the word) represents in its structure the likeness of a person whose moral forces are in the correct relationship with each other; bad forms of government correspond to states of the human soul under the dominion of vices: timocracy (rule of the rich) corresponds to greed, oligarchy to ambition, democracy to frivolity and wastefulness, tyranny to complete moral depravity. The main condition for the prosperity of the state is that the rulers have knowledge of truth and virtue. “If philosophers do not rule states, or the rulers of states do not zealously engage in philosophy,” Plato taught, “if power and philosophy do not unite in the same hands, then there is no end to suffering for states and for humanity.” Therefore, he considers it of the greatest importance that future rulers receive a philosophical education, and explains in detail how their education should be conducted. The state must educate them; it must see that they learn music, poetry, gymnastics, and mathematics. Plato does not speak about the education of the working class.
Poets and artists must be under constant state supervision; it must ensure that poets write and artists create only noble, useful works, which would strengthen the conviction among citizens that only the virtuous are happy, and the vicious are always unhappy. Lyric poetry should, in combination with simple, sublime music, glorify the gods and noble people; epic poetry should tell only such events and speeches as can serve as a good moral example; dramatic poetry and mythology convey bad fictions about the gods, and therefore should be expelled from the state. The main idea of Plato’s treatise “The Republic” is to show in what ways those eternal laws of truth, perfection and harmony that were implemented by the creator in the structure of the universe can be implemented in the field of moral freedom.
Plato's treatise “The Republic” is an image of the poetic ideal. But it may very well be that, in depicting this ideal, he had a practical goal, he wanted to show the Athenians what institutions they should establish in order to save their completely disordered state from destruction; for this, according to Plato, they had to introduce an organization of everyday life based on the suppression of personal freedom. The materials for building this organization were Dorian customs and institutions; He generally liked them very much; in addition to these, he took the traditions of the Pythagorean League. Plato processed and systematized these materials in accordance with his principles of his teaching, according to which everything individual is completely subordinated to the general, and a person should only be a citizen. The result of this mental work of Plato was a plan for a state in which people are divided into classes and professions, similar to castes, and a community of women and property is established; The younger generation is being brought up under the strictest supervision of the government.
With all this, Plato’s doctrine of the state completely eliminates all human independence, all personal freedom. The scientist Brandis says: “In order to create complete unity, complete harmony, Plato completely subordinates a person’s personal goals to the goals of society, personal will, personal happiness - to the will and good of society; puts property, labor, education, art, science, customs, religion at the unconditional disposal of the government, sacrifices even marriage and family life" Plato places the upbringing of children under the supervision of the state; it determines when people should have sex, determines the permissible number of children. In Plato's ideal state there is no family; Children immediately after birth are transferred to public educational homes, so that the parents do not even know their children, and the children do not even know their parents. Private property and private households are abolished. The upper classes (rulers and warriors) are maintained at the expense of the state, which takes for itself everything that the working class earns. Women, without having a household, take part in war, in government affairs, and receive public education like men. Plato's state is a Greek state; therefore, in wars with other Greeks, it should not make prisoners slaves; but in wars with barbarians he can convert prisoners into slavery, since barbarians are the natural enemies of the Greeks. Plato is so far from recognizing human dignity in all people that slavery remains in his state.
Plato borrowed some of the laws of his ideal state from Dorian institutions. Others must be considered as deductions from his principles of his teaching (community of women and property, scientific education of rulers). Plato, however, may have been inspired by certain features of Spartan life about the commonality of wives and property. “The strict subordination of man to society, political unity, sissity, the harsh lifestyle of people of the military class, their exclusion from agriculture and crafts, which in the Spartan state were provided exclusively to the perieki and helots, the participation of girls and women in gymnastic exercises, the military nature of these exercises, the severity and simplicity of poetry and music, the expulsion of poets, the throwing away of babies born weak, the exclusion of young people from participation in government, the aristocratic character of the state structure - all this sufficiently shows that the author of the treatise "The Republic", Plato, was an adherent of Dorisism. (Zeller).