Plato In The Republic, Plato acts as a scribe and recounts a particular evening that his teach Socrates had spent with his fellow Greeks, discussing various political topics. In the book, Plato outlines what Socrates’ thought justice was, and what a perfectly just city (the “city of speech”) would be like. One of the foundational principles in Plato’s just city is specialization. Each person does what they are best at, and don’t meddle in another’s affairs. By specializing, society is divided into three different classes. The first class focuses on producing necessary goods and services (carpenters, farmers, doctors, etc.), but later unnecessary, luxury goods will be desired. To guard these goods and protect the city, a warrior class will
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Firstly, collectivism can in fact lead to egoism and selfishness, and indeed Popper asserts that a class will often times put its selfish needs above the other classes, a fact that even Plato was well aware of. Individualism need not be selfishly motivated; indeed, America places high emphasis on having a strong sense of individuality while demonstrating altruism. With the definition of justice proved wrong and the foundational pillar of Plato’s “city of speech” failing, the tripartite harmony breaks down and we are forced to start back at square one, trying to answer the original question of the book: “What is …show more content…
Friendship based on loving someone for who they are is the most enduring and fulfilling, while friendship based on mutual needs or pleasure is transitory and less fulfilling. In order to be a true friend to others, we have to first get along with ourselves, an interesting parallel to Eastern thought. Although a happy person doesn’t have an insecure need for friendship, they desire true friendship and it’s rewarding for them. The happy person does good for goodness sake, because they find it rewarding. To Aristotle, becoming virtuous is done on an individual basis, and requires practice and rationality. There is no one-size-fits-all formula for virtue, because different people will naturally be disposed to be more virtuous in some areas and less virtuous in others. The key then, is to find a balance between two extremes. A coward will behave shamefully, and an overly courageous person might get themselves needlessly killed, so the virtuous path will be somewhere in between the
Firstly, collectivism can in fact lead to egoism and selfishness, and indeed Popper asserts that a class will often times put its selfish needs above the other classes, a fact that even Plato was well aware of. Individualism need not be selfishly motivated; indeed, America places high emphasis on having a strong sense of individuality while demonstrating altruism. With the definition of justice proved wrong and the foundational pillar of Plato’s “city of speech” failing, the tripartite harmony breaks down and we are forced to start back at square one, trying to answer the original question of the book: “What is …show more content…
Friendship based on loving someone for who they are is the most enduring and fulfilling, while friendship based on mutual needs or pleasure is transitory and less fulfilling. In order to be a true friend to others, we have to first get along with ourselves, an interesting parallel to Eastern thought. Although a happy person doesn’t have an insecure need for friendship, they desire true friendship and it’s rewarding for them. The happy person does good for goodness sake, because they find it rewarding. To Aristotle, becoming virtuous is done on an individual basis, and requires practice and rationality. There is no one-size-fits-all formula for virtue, because different people will naturally be disposed to be more virtuous in some areas and less virtuous in others. The key then, is to find a balance between two extremes. A coward will behave shamefully, and an overly courageous person might get themselves needlessly killed, so the virtuous path will be somewhere in between the