Plato & Machaivelli

Both Plato and Maciavelli, venture to strike a balance between stability and freedom, and in the process admit that neither can be totally had.

Plato in the “Republic” views the state as a grand version of the individual. He states that the soul of the individual is comprised of three parts: the appetite, the spirit, and the reason, and these three parts have distinct objectives and aspirations. For instance, the appetite is associated with the quest for physical pleasure. This aspect of the soul is contented by amenities such as food, sex and drink. The spirit is in connection with emotional conditions such as anger, joy, and sadness. Similarly reason finds fulfillment in the study of the Forms, or absolute beauty, which in order to be understood, requires intellect. All three are found in the individual but vary in their degree of existence and are specific in each case. Plato evidently patronizes the reason in his three part soul, since it is with reason that one can comprehend the Forms, which themselves are the ultimate in beauty and truth. Accordingly the city, like the individual, has three parts that conform to the parts of the individual soul. The common people make up the appetite, which is the bottommost part. These would be craftsmen, laborers, and farmers who carry out the menial tasks necessary to the functioning of the City. This sect of the community is left to their own inclination, to enjoy and pursue physical and material pleasures, as they are not capable of grasping the Forms. The soldiers are to make up the second tier, which is the spirit. This class of the community has a limited knowledge of the Forms, but not enough to allow rationalization for them to direct their actions. Soldier’s fight to defend the State because of their emotional ties to it. In fact, Plato proposes that the government raise children, thereby making the State a common “mother” to all. Finally, reason encompasses the supreme part of the City, and it is from here that philosophers and rulers appear. These are beings that are not drawn into physical pleasures or emotional ties. Rulers and philosophers are engaged with the investigation of the Forms because they can most readily grasp them. This awareness of the utmost good permits for the existence of philosopher-kings and philosopher-queens, who can rule over the spirit and the appetite and ensure that, the City continues to function in its proper working order.

Plato’s view of just government consists of divisions within society, similar to caste systems used in eastern societies today. Everyone is born into a specific part, or class, within the State, and it is in that part that he or she will remain for life. He stresses on this point by putting forth the story that humans are born with iron, bronze, silver, or gold within their souls. Gold is mixed into the souls of philosophers and rulers, silver in the souls of soldiers, and iron and bronze in the souls of farmers and craftsmen. To ensure that the rulers are not lured into the material pleasures of the appetite or that the lower class does not desire to rule, Plato states in his story that the “most important command from the gods to the rulers is that there is nothing that they must guard better or watch more carefully than the mixture of metals in the souls of the next generation”. If each person recognizes what their function is according to the metal in their soul, then there will be no revolution by the masses or takeover by the soldiers

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