Plato: The Kallipolis

Question 1

The Kallipolis

Answer 1

The perfectly good polis (a just city)

Question 2

What drives us to form states or societies?

Answer 2

We can’t meet all our needs alone

Question 3

The first city

Answer 3

A true and healthy city with only needs and not wants

Question 4

The luxurious city

Answer 4

Plato allows us to imagine a city with needs and wants as he believes it will be easier to spot justice in this city

Question 5

Once we let luxuries into our city we need

Answer 5

People to guard us and our space to make sure we stay intact

Question 6

We imagine the Kallipolis because

Answer 6

It will help identify which feature of its constitutes its justice

Question 7

The greatest threat to the Kallipolis and why

Answer 7

Internal conflict because a divided polis is not a polis at all

Question 8

Big question

Answer 8

Who does what?

Question 9

Big answer

Answer 9

Principle of specialisation

Question 10

POS

Answer 10

Each individual should fulfil only one role in the polis for which they are naturally best suited

Question 11

Claim concerning nature

Answer 11

Each individual naturally best suited to something

Question 12

Claim concerning interests

Answer 12

Our shared interests will be fulfilled when everyone takes their roles

Question 13

Producers

Answer 13

Make the stuff to satisfy needs and wants

Question 14

2 types of guardians

Answer 14

Auxiliaries - against external threats

Rulers - against internal threats

Question 15

Why is the POS important for the Kallipolis

Answer 15

It ensures that everyone’s needs are fulfilled and that the polis is guarded from external and internal threats to maintain justice

Question 16

POS big worry

Answer 16

Individuals choice: shouldn’t this matter morally and prudentially?

Question 17

3 responses from Plato

Answer 17

Force
Education
Art

Question 18

Force

Answer 18

Force may have to be used to make people perform their task or leave the polis
This can’t be done a lot though, need most people fulfilling their roles

Question 19

Education

Answer 19

Plato thinks it’s important

Training of mind, body, and spirit of a person to perform a task

Question 20

Art

Answer 20

Major role in Plato’s theory of education

He believes that the arts form our character

Question 21

To get people to accept their roles Plato thinks that we should

Answer 21

Get rid of morally or prudentially bad art, incl. all romanticised art
Allow and spread good art that furthers the collective interest of the polis

Question 22

Myth of the metals

Answer 22

False narrative that God made us with different kinds of metals in our souls and so has fitted us with a particular purpose accordingly

Question 23

What is it supposed to show

Answer 23

The moral of the story is that we should each fulfil our chosen role in the Kallipolis as God created us for this purpose

Question 24

Why does Plato think it is a morally and prudentially good myth

Answer 24

Because it ensures that each member of the Kallipolis fulfils their purpose, does not interbreed with other ‘metals’, and thus maintains justice in the polis