Plato: Unattainable State Of Perfection

Lopez, Marc
PHL – 101
3/25/13
Paper #2
Unattainable state of Perfection “Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.” Plato, as we all know, was an apprentice of Socrates, and the pedagogue of Aristotle. He has many works of literature on subjects like justice, beauty, equality, political philosophy, and theology. Plato had similar views to his teacher and students, but also argued against them in subjects like theology and truth. Plato had many arguments against ancient philosophers in various subjects of intellectual thought, but he even argued against himself on the ideal state of society in one of his greatest works: the Republic. He made a clear
He explained how man is naturally social and political in nature, and this is a result of our rational thought process. The creation of any society starts to develop because of our natural way of wanting to obtain a good life, and that the good life should be equal for all. Furthermore, Plato did not believe freedom to be a goal that a productive society should want to reach; nor did he believe it is a strategy for a good or strong economy. He ultimately described Justice to be what every society should surround its structure upon. In addition, he even went as far to say that the society is not the one to decide what is just; justice should be dictated from the form of knowledge. He describes this Form as a thought sensation that can give the most genuine knowledge {Theory of Forms; (N.D.)}. To obtain this knowledge it must come from a philosophical mind. A philosophical mind would be able to determine what is actually deeded and who should play the hardest roles when it comes to decision making as a whole. Otherwise this there will be no way to assure
The basics, Plato thought, was the natural needs of the people. Plato suggests that those needs should be the focus on where to start, and the capability of meeting those needs leads individuals to play a part in a well functioning society. Getting the things we need should be done by individuals who know what is needed. The role of teachers would not just be to teach, but to raise the future contributors of society (the children). Through the training of their life they will be examined and selected to perform duties that they have shown talent in. This would be a part of what Plato described as benefits of specialization, and the division of labor equally spread to eliminate particular bias (2008, Ancient Philosophy). Just as the few roles previously mentioned, Plato believed that every role should be carefully selected for the best possible suitor, and selected by those who know best; the critical thinkers like philosophical