Plato's Social Political Philosophy
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Plato’s Social Political Philosophy
What makes a good society or a good individual? According to Plato, the virtues of justice, wisdom, courage, and moderation are necessary to make a good society. Since Plato’s perspective is exemplified in today’s society and in many other works of fiction, we can derive that there is convincing argument for Plato’s view. Before we explore examples of Plato’s perspective, we must first establish Plato’s views. Plato believes that there are virtues that are needed to create a good individual and society. The four virtues are justice, wisdom, courage, and moderation.
According to Plato, individual justice consists of maintaining the soul which itself is composed of three parts: the appetitive, the rational, and the spirited:
The appetitive part of the soul is the one that is responsible for the most basic desires people have; simple desires for the things that we need to survive such as food, sleep, and even for unnecessary cravings such as over-eating, and sexual excess. The desires for necessary things (such as food and drink) are restricted by the other parts of the soul, while unlawful desires are restricted completely by the other aspects of the soul. The rational part of the soul is the thinking portion within all of us. It tries to decipher what is real and what is not, decides what is true and false, and responsible for making intelligent, rational decisions that reflect human morality. The spirited, or Thumetic soul is the source of the desires of love, honor and victory. A just soul acts as an enforcer to the rational part of the soul ensuring that the actions are reasonable. To achieve justice within the individual, the person has to be able to effectively control the three parts of the soul (“Plato 's tripartite theory of soul”). Wisdom, according to Plato, is another virtue, along with justice, that creates a good individual. Wisdom can be understood as the
Plato’s Social Political Philosophy
What makes a good society or a good individual? According to Plato, the virtues of justice, wisdom, courage, and moderation are necessary to make a good society. Since Plato’s perspective is exemplified in today’s society and in many other works of fiction, we can derive that there is convincing argument for Plato’s view. Before we explore examples of Plato’s perspective, we must first establish Plato’s views. Plato believes that there are virtues that are needed to create a good individual and society. The four virtues are justice, wisdom, courage, and moderation.
According to Plato, individual justice consists of maintaining the soul which itself is composed of three parts: the appetitive, the rational, and the spirited:
The appetitive part of the soul is the one that is responsible for the most basic desires people have; simple desires for the things that we need to survive such as food, sleep, and even for unnecessary cravings such as over-eating, and sexual excess. The desires for necessary things (such as food and drink) are restricted by the other parts of the soul, while unlawful desires are restricted completely by the other aspects of the soul. The rational part of the soul is the thinking portion within all of us. It tries to decipher what is real and what is not, decides what is true and false, and responsible for making intelligent, rational decisions that reflect human morality. The spirited, or Thumetic soul is the source of the desires of love, honor and victory. A just soul acts as an enforcer to the rational part of the soul ensuring that the actions are reasonable. To achieve justice within the individual, the person has to be able to effectively control the three parts of the soul (“Plato 's tripartite theory of soul”). Wisdom, according to Plato, is another virtue, along with justice, that creates a good individual. Wisdom can be understood as the
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