Platos Republic
Socrates describes a perfect city in Plato’s The Republic. Many questions are asked in the book, such as “What is an ideal city?” Or, “What is justice?” And, “Is justice in the city possible?” Socrates tries to find the real meaning of the word justice. He starts with justice within a single person, and then he tries to take that concept and apply it to the city. Then, to figure out the perfect city, he goes back to the single person to find justice there. He shows that the perfect city needs the people in it to be assigned to their place. People who play their role in the city must be people of justice for the city to have justice.
For Socrates, his idea of a perfect city has all the needed requirements for the city to exist with harmony. In order to develop the idea for a perfect city, Socrates has to create two versions of his city. In his first version of a city, each person in the city fills a need for the city. They are like gears in a watch, and they must fit perfectly. But a city that runs well like a watch doesn’t make a just city. Socrates brother points out that people need luxuries and entertainment. So the second version of the city needs luxuries. Plato 's "ideal city" is really the search for the truth of justice, if Socrates were able to find the relationship between the soul and city in his "ideal city" then he would have the true meaning of justice. We saw from the reading how he broke down the city 's parts and also the soul.
According to Plato, Socrates broke down the perfect city into four parts; each part is tied to a specific virtue that he believes will help define justice. The first three virtues are wisdom, courage, and moderation. Wisdom is the whole knowledge, which describes the rulers of the city. The rulers should be the ones who incorporate philosophy and ruling together to rule the city wisely. Courage describes the guardians, whose job was to defend the city from invasion and take new lands for the city. The third virtue of the
For Socrates, his idea of a perfect city has all the needed requirements for the city to exist with harmony. In order to develop the idea for a perfect city, Socrates has to create two versions of his city. In his first version of a city, each person in the city fills a need for the city. They are like gears in a watch, and they must fit perfectly. But a city that runs well like a watch doesn’t make a just city. Socrates brother points out that people need luxuries and entertainment. So the second version of the city needs luxuries. Plato 's "ideal city" is really the search for the truth of justice, if Socrates were able to find the relationship between the soul and city in his "ideal city" then he would have the true meaning of justice. We saw from the reading how he broke down the city 's parts and also the soul.
According to Plato, Socrates broke down the perfect city into four parts; each part is tied to a specific virtue that he believes will help define justice. The first three virtues are wisdom, courage, and moderation. Wisdom is the whole knowledge, which describes the rulers of the city. The rulers should be the ones who incorporate philosophy and ruling together to rule the city wisely. Courage describes the guardians, whose job was to defend the city from invasion and take new lands for the city. The third virtue of the
References: ¹ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bVBpLjh13E ² http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2afuTvUzBQ