The Republic by Plato - Absolute, miraculous masterpiece

 The Republic by Plato

Absolute, miraculous masterpiece


This is one of the best known works, even if not many of us read it anymore.

It is so comprehensive, miraculous and overwhelming that I do not know where to begin and what the point is to attack such a monument of philosophy.

Perhaps one place would be the absurd and outrageous ideas that are embedded with so much worthwhile Love of Wisdom.

-          Woman and children would be “in common” in this society that Plato proposes, where men would father more children, especially if they are valiant and have proved their worth in battle
-          The system would be rigged in favor of the “worthy” ones who would be the ones encouraged to have as many children as possible
-          The “lesser „citizens would lose in this scheme, for they would not transmit good genes- albeit Plato had no idea about genetic inheritance, he may have anticipated something of the kind

Sparta seems to be the model for the Ideal State as designed by Plato, not least in dealing harshly with babies that do not meet these high standards and are born with disabilities or challenges as we call them today.

In order to control the people in this “perfect system” some tall tales and prefabricated explanations that amount to the first propaganda and manipulation of the masses.

-          Rigged lotteries would be organized whereby fighters that have been courageous in war would be declared winners and they would be given woman as prizes and the losers would just attribute their deprivation as being the result of misfortune

To my surprise, at the beginning of The Republic, minor issues seemed to prevail:
-          What do we do when we have borrowed something?
-          Do we give it back no matter what?
-          What if the lender has become crazy?

But this work is packed with acclaimed and so much used allegories and fabulous tales

-          The story of the cave and the inhabitants who can only see shadows of things but due to habit they consider them the real thing is poignant and so relevant today
-          In spite or because of so much knowledge we have accumulated over the centuries, we are often unable to distinguish between noise and important information
-          One example comes to find, that may refer also to the various models proposed and criticized in The Republic- in Putin’s Russia and Erdogan’s Turkey- as well as other countries with major political problems- people applaud their leader and they vote for fake democrats who are nearly as nasty as is possible.

The state models that are analyzed in Plato’s Republic offer some advantages, but have shortcomings as well:
-          Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy, and Tyranny.

Surprisingly, Plato thinks this is the order of their value as models, with Aristocracy the best and democracy second worst.
Today we can appreciate that, for all its flaws, democracy is the best paradigm available and oligarchy and the rest are not working.
 It is also true that a serious analysis may find that many democracies have elements from the other models.
Where I live and in many other places, it often feels like an oligarchy, where members of parliament do not act like representatives of the people, but pass laws that work for them and their clique of business and political allies.
As for democracy, the greatest one of all may produce Trump as the leader of the “civilized world „and anyway the most powerful man on earth- Clinton is the only reasonable choice, but alas, she comes with a lot of baggage herself.

The questions of virtue, justice, wisdom, love of money, education, philosopher kings and much more are discussed in a miraculous work

To end with, some of my favorite quotes:

“The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.”
“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
 “The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful.”
“There is in every one of us, even those who seem to be most moderate, a type of desire that is terrible, wild, and lawless.”
“χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά
Nothing beautiful without struggle.”
“The philosopher whose dealings are with divine order himself acquires the characteristics of order and divinity.”
 “Those who don't know must learn from those who do.”
 “Money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value.”

“He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age. But to him who is of an opposite disposition, youth and age are equally a burden.”

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