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Born around 427 BC in Athens, Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher. His father (Ariston) and his mother (Perictione) were members of a noble society of Athens. Despite the fact that he travelled to Italy on several occasions, most of his life was spent in Athens. Being born of a noble family, although much literature does not exist about his early life, Plato acquired the finest education as reflected in his collection of philosophical works reflecting the tragedy and politics of his time.
While Socrates was his teacher, Aristotle was his student. Platos writings explore themes such as equality and beauty coupled with a discussion of aesthetics, cosmology, political philosophy, language philosophy, and political philosophy. He was the founder of one of the oldest philosophy academy in Athens in the western world.
Plato lived in the synthesis age. He had an acquaintance with Socrates (his teacher) between 469 and399 B.C.E. Socrates altered the life of Plato. In this perspective, Kahn reckons, the power that Socrates methods and arguments had over the minds of the youth of Athens gripped Plato as firmly as it did many others, and he became a close associate of Socrates (67). Following the death of his father, Platos mother married Pericles friend.
This move made him connected to both democracy and oligarchy systems of politics. After the Peloponnesian war came to a halt, his uncle and mother persuaded Plato to join the Athens oligarchic rules. However, he objected. He preferred becoming a student of Socrates. In the Socrates academy, he developed his principles of being an opponent to relativisms coupled with Sophists skepticisms.
He dwelled on values as opposed to physical science. While describing the works of Socrates, Aristotle paid immense credits to Socrates emphasis on moral questions coupled with his precise definitions of issues. A careful scrutiny of Platos works evidences that he absorbed these lessons from the Socrates class.
The philosophical positions held by Plato made him neither a friend to thirty tyrants (404-403 BC) nor to Athenian democracy upon its restoration. He deployed critical interrogation methodology to alienate them. As Kahn informs, in the 399 BC, Plato was brought to trial with capital crimes of religious impiety and corruption of youth where he was convicted and sentenced to death (22). One of his friends offered to have him freed through payment of a fine as opposed to the imposition of the death penalty.
Referring to this experience, Kahn writes, Plato tells us in the Seventh Letter after Socrates death that he became disenchanted with all existing political regimes and felt that the only salvation of politics would require that either true or genuine philosophers attain political powers or the rulers of states by some dispensation of providence become genuine philosophers (39).
He founded his school around 387 BC in Athens. In effect, the school served as a higher education institute specializing in philosophy, astronomy, physical science, and mathematics. In this school, Plato delivered lectures. Unfortunately, the lectures were never published.
Dion, Dionysious IIs uncle, invited Plato to Dionysius school thus securing him a voyage to Sicily. He was trapped in the Syracuse until 360 BC. After several misunderstandings between Dion and Dionysius II, Dion entered Syracuse in 357 B.C.E. The move culminated to the overthrow of Dionysius.
In the seventh letter of Plato, he recounts his roles in the death of Dion although, the deepest truths may not be communicated (Kahn 34). When Plato traveled back to Athens, he continued being the president of his academy until his demise in 347 BC. He died at the age of 80 years.
Platos Theory
Plato postulated that people live in an imperfect state. This position was opposed to the position held by Athenians who held that their polis was perfect with regard to cultural and military achievements. His skepticism can perhaps be traced from his role model, Socrates, who taught him to be skeptical about a society, which pays no attention to inclusion of people with political expertise in the running of states.
In the Republic, Plato proposes an ideal state having the capacity to deal with the imperfection in the real state such as corruption. Plato theorizes the realization of the ideal state as encompassing three waves aimed at eroding corruption coupled with bringing about new principles and ideals.
The first wave consists of the ruling class, which, rather than being composed of the perceived most intelligent people, it constituted only philosophers-kings (Jackson 93). Plato defined philosophers as people who have a great love of knowledge believing that knowledge was the key to a successful ruler (Jackson 93). Kings ought to be philosophers while philosophers ought to become kings.
The second wave in the Plato theory for ideal states entangles the guardians who are principally a mix of women and men. Unfortunately, at his time, women were not permitted to engage in political processes. This argument meant that Plato was not only knowledgeable on political issues surrounding the ancient Greek history but also on modernization standards.
Opposed to the prescription of roles for engaging in battles among people belonging to the guardian class, Plato saw such roles as irrelevant in his theory of ideal states since the manner of operation of the third wave gave no room for conflicts.
In the third wave, guardians would have no wealth, would share all they had, had no private property, lived together communally, envy would disappear in theory, and issues of class rankings disappeared. This argument means that disagreements would not arise on issues such as who should have what since all people would have the same things. A perfect society would thus be created.
Allegory of the cave and reasons to mistrust majority
The allegory of the cave can serve in revealing some of the key reasons to mistrust the views of the majority. The allegory of the cave presents a description of a complex philosophical world. Plato described symbolically the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation (Kreis 1). The salvation advocated by Plato is influenced by the theory of freedom of mind that was advanced by his teacher, Socrates. According to Plato, the manner in which the world is revealed to us is not a real copy of it.
Unfortunately, majority of people live in the unreal copy, which is characterized by various class systems. Since the world presented to us is not real, it inappropriate to trust the majority of the people living in it with their minds trapped by unreasonable norms of various class systems.
This argument is evidenced by Platos theory that is advanced through the allegory of caves in which he held, the universe ultimately is good, his conviction that enlightened individuals have an obligation to the rest of society, and that a good society must be the one in which the truly wise are the rulers (Kreis 1).
Philosophically, the wise are the people who have freedom of thought and people who do not open their own minds to prejudice in search of what is real and accurate beyond any reasonable doubt. This argument drives at the first reason why people should not trust the majority.
Believing the majority implies contending on a universally acceptable way of thought, which is not acceptable since the world is not real. Hence, everything presented to us by it is open to doubt. The unrealistic nature of the world is perhaps evident by consideration of descriptions of it in the allegory of caves.
In the allegory of the caves, Plato provides an analogy of how people live in the unreal world by describing a situation in which people live around a cave situated underground. An opening is located at the top of the cave. A shadow is casted due to burning fires. The people living in the cave are chained thus making them only be able to see the wall.
Hence, they are not able to turn around. Since people in the cave cannot only see the wall, in case an object passes by the fire, a shadow is cast on the wall. People are not able to see the real object. Hence, the only thing that they comprehend to exist is the shadow of the object (Plato 747). Luckily, one the people in the caves gets off his chains and manages to wander around in the exterior of the cave (Plato 748).
What he sees flabbergasts him. When he reports to the rest of people still chained in the cave about what he saw outside the cave, they (majority) think that he is mad. They indeed plot to murder him (Plato 749). This evidences that the majority has a deeply ingrained fear to come into terms with reality. This primitiveness of the true nature of majority of the people serves to advance and promote ignorance. Thus, it is dogmatic for a rational thinking being to trust the majority.
Plato class system
In the Republic, tantamount to the allegory of caves, Socrates is the central character. However, Republic is less a dialogue than a long discussion by Socrates of justice and what it means to the individual and city state (independent states) (Kahn 51).
According to Plato, class systems comprised three elements. These are guardians, rulers, and workers. These state classes are analogous to the three elements of the soul: rational, impulsive irrational, and less rational. Each of the elements of the state classes has different roles in society. Rulers do not comprise rulers families.
Rather, the class is made up of people who stand out in the society as the most intellectual and gifted. Just as rational component of the soul is the chief decision maker based on reason, the rulers are charged with the roles of giving direction to the rest of the class states. Surprisingly, this class is composed of the fewest number of people in the population.
The class that compares with the less rational components of the soul is the guardians. In the Plato class systems, guardians are charged with the roles of maintaining order in the society and handling governments practical matters such as engagement in battles. While the guardians would make certain decisions in the execution of their roles in the class systems, their actions are in the better part dependent on the decisions made by the rational element of the state (rulers).
The main roles of the workers are engagement in labor to ensure that the whole runs in a smooth manner. This last class of people in class systems comprises the majority. Compared to the elements of the soul, the class is analogous to the impulsive irrational (Kahn 57). Hence, the larger the numbers of people in class systems, the more their roles are less driven by their own rationality.
Borrowing from the argument that people should choose to act in a manner that justifies ones rationality at arriving at a decision to act in particular ways, trusting majority is detrimental to ones capacity to think rationally. This assertion justifies the actions adopted by the majority of the people in the allegory of the cave to kill the person who had information about the reality of the world.
Motivation of Platos philosophy
Various issues including experience motivate the development of philosophies of various people. This section argues that Platos philosophy is relative to his culture and experience. This argument is evidenced by the vivid descriptions of people living in caves in confusion. In his era, people lived in a society where they never questioned the authority.
They did what was required of them without thinking through the appropriateness of what they did. Yet, those who objected to comply were treated as enemies, and were subjected to punishment. This experience is reflected in Platos allegory of caves when he informs that, when one of the people tied in chains in the caves got an opportunity to learn about what the real world was like, the other people planned to kill him.
Considering his personal experience in political systems, it is evident that his allegory of caves reflects the ignorance of ruling class state to incorporate the knowledgeable in the governance of the states. Indeed, philosophers who Plato perceives have incredible knowledge and are able to view issues from true and real dimensions were treated with dismay. In this context, Jackson reckons, Athenians saw Platos kind as rogues and useless individuals who thought themselves as better than the rest of the society (81).
This argument underlies the reason why Plato maintains that kings need to be philosophers and philosophers need to become kings in the Republic. This way, kings would have an understanding of how philosophy would aid in helping them to develop an ideal state: free from conflicts.
Platos philosophies reflect various arguments on the manner in which material distribution should be done to realize an ideal society. His theory on the political society is a depiction of historical materialistic conceptions evident in his society.
In this perspective, Jackson notes that, since Plato was born in a strict social class, his works reflect ideas of Karl Marx that the nature of individuals depends on the material conditions determining their production (99). The argument is evidenced by his argument in the Republic that ideal states would have to be docile as a matter of condition defining when they were born and how they were raised.
According to him, the nature of people in the ideal states would have to be defined by their surroundings- the society. Indeed, he wonders, How can any society that has such a strict social code and classes ever be successful? (Kahn 77). This interrogative is a depiction of well thought ideas about how societies are supposed to be constituted based on Platos cultural experience.
The advocating for people to think rationally and independent from the ill conception of people in the society reflects the contempt held by Plato for a society that delinked his departure of ways of thought based on rational judgment. Now, it is important to retaliate that this same society executed his teacher- Socrates- for his failure to submit his mind and power of reason to prejudice.
As argued before, Plato was born in an era when compliance was vital to fit in a society. This compliance impaired rationality of people. Hence, people could not perceive the reality. This experience is reflected abundantly in the allegory of caves. Readers of the allegory of caves know too well that puppeteers behind the prisoners used wooden and iron objects, which liked reality in the form of shadows.
In the context of Platos cultural experience, this development is critical since what is insinuated as reality from the time he was born was now exposed to doubt since it could be completely false based on our imperfect interpretations of reality and goodness (Kahn 78). The point of argument here is that people use names to describe physical representation of what can only be grasped by the mind since appearance may be deceptive. Hence, the things defined in Platos society and political systems as right may not be right or good.
Drawing from the above argument, in the development of an ideal society, the problem is to define what is good because what one may perceive as good may indeed be an imitation of the reality. Hence, rulers create their own meaning of what is good. With the flawed definition of good, a challenge of doing good emerges.
Deeply ingrained knowledge is required to come up with what is good for the society. Concerning Plato, only philosophers are able to think freely and evaluate various issues far from just in the context of face value. This argument explains perhaps why he says in the Republic that philosophers need to become kings.
Otherwise, good would just remain being a word but not a representation of what is appropriate for the whole society. This argument is congruent with the position held by Jackson, in a society like Athens where society came first, it would not matter if citizens thought they did well because, if they did not do well for the polis, then that good did not matter (101). Based on this assertion, the allegory of caves reflects a society (Athens) whose reality is constructed by other people beyond the reach of the majority.
Only few people who are able to escape from the chains can understand the reality. Unfortunately, the ignorant people who are not able to unveil their reality threaten the lives of those few witty people. Such people who have escaped the wrath of ignorance represent people like Plato and Socrates, his teacher.
Works Cited
Jackson, Roy. Plato: A Beginners Guide. London: Hoder and Stroughton, 2001. Print.
Kahn, Charles. Plato and the Socratic Dialogue: The Philosophical Use of a Literary Form. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print.
Kreis, Steven. Plato republic, Book VI: the allegory of the cave. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.
Plato. Republic VII. Collected Dialogues of Plato. Ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. Princeton: Princeton University Publishers, 1982. Print.
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