How Would You Define Happiness In Plato´s Republic And More's Utopia?
Plato’s Republic and More’s Utopia
How would you define happiness? Would you say happiness is always a good thing? Or would you say the complete opposite and say it’s a bad thing. At that moment you might even ask yourself, could it even be bad? Whether or not you believe happiness is good or bad you know one thing for certain, and that is, happiness is defined by what you define it to be regardless of anyone else. But between Plato’s Republic, and More’s Utopia happiness is defined by one main idea in each of these perfect society's. Although both Plato's Republic and More's Utopia have this depiction of a perfect society, they both define happiness in different ways. Plato's Republic defines happiness to be a place where the only way to …show more content…
This means that if you are naturally good at something, then that's what you should be doing for the rest of your life. In a conversation between Adeimantus and Socrates, Adeimantus asks Socrates to defend himself if there ever came a point in which someone from the society tells him that he (Socrates) isn't making the people of that society happy, overall questioning whether Socrates would blame it on himself or the people of the society for the feeling of not being happy. Thereafter Socrates states, “in establishing our city, we aren’t aiming to make any one group outstandingly happy but to make the whole city so, as far as possible.” With that being said, he emphasises that to make a city happy they must focus on not individuals happiness but everyone as a whole. Continuing with this conversation, Socrates talks about the ways in which the people could accomplish such a thing, stating that everyone must “be the best possible craftsmen at their own work.”, and “In that way, with the whole city developing and being governed well, they must leave it to nature to provide each group with its share of happiness.” As said earlier, this idea that nature is what truly defines happiness in this society simply means that in order for this society to remain perfect and happy everyone must do their part, which is to be good at what they do. In that way, the society can be well functioned and if they aren't willing to do such a thing, then they wouldn't be able to achieve such
How would you define happiness? Would you say happiness is always a good thing? Or would you say the complete opposite and say it’s a bad thing. At that moment you might even ask yourself, could it even be bad? Whether or not you believe happiness is good or bad you know one thing for certain, and that is, happiness is defined by what you define it to be regardless of anyone else. But between Plato’s Republic, and More’s Utopia happiness is defined by one main idea in each of these perfect society's. Although both Plato's Republic and More's Utopia have this depiction of a perfect society, they both define happiness in different ways. Plato's Republic defines happiness to be a place where the only way to …show more content…
This means that if you are naturally good at something, then that's what you should be doing for the rest of your life. In a conversation between Adeimantus and Socrates, Adeimantus asks Socrates to defend himself if there ever came a point in which someone from the society tells him that he (Socrates) isn't making the people of that society happy, overall questioning whether Socrates would blame it on himself or the people of the society for the feeling of not being happy. Thereafter Socrates states, “in establishing our city, we aren’t aiming to make any one group outstandingly happy but to make the whole city so, as far as possible.” With that being said, he emphasises that to make a city happy they must focus on not individuals happiness but everyone as a whole. Continuing with this conversation, Socrates talks about the ways in which the people could accomplish such a thing, stating that everyone must “be the best possible craftsmen at their own work.”, and “In that way, with the whole city developing and being governed well, they must leave it to nature to provide each group with its share of happiness.” As said earlier, this idea that nature is what truly defines happiness in this society simply means that in order for this society to remain perfect and happy everyone must do their part, which is to be good at what they do. In that way, the society can be well functioned and if they aren't willing to do such a thing, then they wouldn't be able to achieve such