Plato

Question 1

Circumstances of Birth (Context)

Answer 1

• During the Peloponnesian War - 427BCE
• Son of a rich household
• Student of Socrates

Question 2

Socrates’ Death (Context)

Answer 2

• shock to Plato; especially because he was killed at the hand of Democracy
• Became disillusioned with politics and instead turned to philosophy

Question 3

Athenian Democracy (Context)

Answer 3

• Crisis: a majority of the wealth in the hands of a few brought the city’s economy to a standstill
• Representative democracy (of men)

Question 4

Different Types of Government

Answer 4

• Rule by One (King or Tyrant)
• Rule by Few (Aristocracy or Oligarchy)
• Rule by Many (Democracy or Ochlocracy)
• Rule of One is potentially most effective and most harmful
• Rule of Many is Potentially least effective and least harmful
  
  • it is with this fact that Plato makes his peace with democracy

Question 5

Cycle of Governments

Answer 5

Oligarchy > Democracy > Tyranny

• in oligarchy the objective is wealth; when wealth is excessive it leads to an uprising and democracy
• in democracy the objective is liberty; when liberty is sought at the expense of others you have tyranny

Question 6

Characteristics of the best (ideal) society

Answer 6

• division of labour; no one person should know all things, people should specialize
• 3 Virtues: Wisdom, Courage, Self-Discipline all of which feed into Justice
• 3 Classes each of which exemplify one of the Virtues: Rulers (Wisdom), Soldiers (Courage), Workers (Self-Discipline)
• 3 Qualities of people: Gold, Silver, Bronze
• Plato is not proposing a workable society, he is postulating about the ideal society

Question 7

Justice (according to Plato)

Answer 7

• Minding your own business
• people ought to stay where they are in society
• society is not a communal effort

Question 8

The ‘Problem’ of the People

Answer 8

• Plato was concerned with the ignorance and malleability of the people
• His solution was a system that would establish the capable philosopher-kings and exclude all other from politics

Question 9

Three Steps to the Ideal System

Answer 9

1) establish a noble lie to get people to buy in to the system

2) Rigid class structure in which people stay where they are and do not try to move in society
- Justice: do one’s own work and mind one’s own business

3) Select the Philosopher-Kings based on excellence in science, reason, and philosophy
- deny them traditional family life

Question 10

Plato on Corruption

Answer 10

• all government is imperfect and corrupt unless under a philosopher-king (idealism)
• democracy must be the best because it will do the least harm