Colloquium 2 Plato on the Good of the City-state in the Republic

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerasimos Santas
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
City State ◽  
The City ◽  
The Ideal

This paper argues that in Plato’s utopia the good of the ideal city-state is not identical with the good of the citizens, but it is nevertheless not independent of the good of the citizens. And similarly with the happiness of the city-state and the happiness of the citizens in it, something that can be more clearly seen once the happiness of the city and the happiness of the individual are analyzed in terms of the goods appropriate to each. Plato’s principle of social justice distributes such goods proportionately so as to promote the good of the city as a whole. Popper and others have been mostly correct in criticizing Plato for his severe restrictions of various freedoms, but not correct in claiming that Plato’s ideal city-state is an organic super-entity with a good of its own separate and independent of the good of the citizens. 


Comedy in Callipolis: Animal Imagery in the Republic

1978 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 888-901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlene W. Saxonhouse
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Society ◽  
Animal Imagery ◽  
Animal Images ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The City ◽  
The Ideal

The political society founded by Socrates in the Republic has been seen by many as Plato's conception of the ideal political community, his Callipolis. However, a study of the language used by Socrates as he builds his perfect city reveals an unusually heavy concentration of animal images. This language seems to undercut the ostensible perfection of Socrates' city and illustrates rather its connections to the comic world of Aristophanes, whose comedy the Birds offers the model according to which the Republic is built. It is suggested that the city of the Republic is comic and ugly, indicating the limitations of politics rather than its potentialities. The Republic argues for the need to reorient the concept of justice away from social life and towards the individual. Ultimately, the Republic suggests that the notion of social justice is laughable and fit for the comic Stage.

Colloquium 2 Commentary on Santas

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Singpurwalla
Keyword(s):  
Great Good ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Rule Of Reason ◽  
Good For ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

How does Socrates conceive of the good of the city-state in the Republic? Does he conceive of the city as a kind of organic entity, with a good of its own that is independent of the good of the citizens? Or does he think the good of the city includes the good of the citizens. If so, how? Santas argues that the good of the city must include the good of the citizens. Specifically, he argues that the city is organized so that the citizens can attain a great good: the ability to do well the work for which they are best suited by nature and education. In these comments, I raise a challenge for Santas’s interpretation and I provide an alternative account of how the good of the city includes the good of the citizens. On my view, the city is organized so that all of the citizens can attain what is in fact the greatest good for the individual: virtue and the rule of reason. 


scholarly journals Platón, las pasiones y la crítica del populismo = Plato, passions and criticism of the populism

ΠΗΓΗ/FONS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Álvaro Pablo Vallejo Campos
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
First Time ◽  
The City ◽  
The Ideal

Resumen: La tesis principal de este artículo es que la trascendencia política de las pasiones determina en Platón sus planteamientos éticos y políticos. La primera vez que se ocupa de ellas más sistemáticamente, como ocurre en el Gorgias, aparecen directamente involucradas en la crítica del imperialismo y de los procedimientos retóricos propios de la democracia ateniense, y su tratamiento debe ser uno de los ingredientes esenciales de la política concebida como un arte. Pero en la República el estado ideal surge de una reflexión sobre la necesidad de realizar una purgación de las pasiones en la ciudad lujosa y afiebrada que se trata de reformar. La importancia de la cuestión se deriva del hecho de que una teoría de la justicia en el individuo y en el estado consiste, en definitiva, en formular un ideal normativo de las relaciones que deben establecerse entre la razón y las pasiones del alma. A consecuencia de ello, las formas degeneradas del estado ideal pueden interpretarse como una secuencia en sentido creciente de la ilegítima irrupción de las pasiones en la sociedad enferma que se opone a aquel.Palabras clave: Platón, pasiones, política, retórica, estado ideal, justicia, populismo.Abstract: The main thesis of this paper is that the political transcendence of passions determines Plato’s ethical and political points of view. The first time that he deals systematically with passions, as occurs in the Gorgias, they are directly implicated in the critic of imperialism and the rhetorical procedures of Athenian democracy. They are also an essential part of politics conceived as an art. In the Republic , the ideal city emerges as the necessity of practicing a purge of passions in the luxuriant or feverish city that has to be purged. The importance of this issue derives from the fact that the theory of justice in the individual and the city consists of a normative ideal on the relations that have to be established between passions and reason. As a consequence, the sequence of the degenerated forms of the ideal state can be interpreted as an increasing model of the illegitimate irruption of passions in the ill society opposed to it.Keywords: Plato, passions, politics, rhetoric, ideal state, justice, populism.

scholarly journals Reinvestigating the Political Position of the Citizen in Plato’s „Republic”

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-43
Author(s):  
Stephen Oppong Peprah
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Cooperative Interaction ◽  
The Political ◽  
Orthodox Interpretation ◽  
Political Position ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Ideal

In this paper, I argue that in the Republic Plato justifies the political authority of the guardians in light of the principle of partnership — a principle which fits coherently with other Platonic principles which undergird his political theory, including optimum functionality, social justice and power. Therefore, I argue that, by their respective professions, there is a cooperative interaction between the guardians and the producers as partners within the political structure of the ideal polis towards attaining the eudaemonistic goals of both the individual and the polis. I contrast this with the orthodox interpretation that Plato justifies political authority using the idea of the Good — an interpretation which holds that since the citizens cannot grasp the Good, they assume an insignificant political position, including the allegations that they are cogs, slaves, morally obtuse, and politically inept.

The Republic

2019 ◽  
pp. 205-229
Author(s):  
Dominic Scott
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Individual Justice ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Political Right ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Ideal

This chapter presents a reading of Plato’s Republic. The Republic is among Plato’s most complex works. From its title, the first-time reader will expect a dialogue about political theory, yet the work starts from the perspective of the individual, coming to focus on the question of how, if at all, justice contributes to an agent’s happiness. Only after this question has been fully set out does the work evolve into an investigation of politics—of the ideal state and of the institutions that sustain it, especially those having to do with education. But the interest in individual justice and happiness is never left behind. Rather, the work weaves in and out of the two perspectives, individual and political, right through to its conclusion. All this may leave one wondering about the unity of the work. The chapter shows that, despite the enormous range of topics discussed, the Republic fits together as a coherent whole.

scholarly journals The Most Serene Republic of Venice. The Republican Venetian court in the 15th and 16th century

2015 ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Hannes Chronst ◽  
Lisa-Marie Gabriel
Keyword(s):  
16Th Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Courtly Culture ◽  
The Republic ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

The following proseminar-paper works on the question whether there was a monarchic court and an equivalent courtly culture in Renaissance Venice despite its Republican constitution. The seafaring nation disposed of several aristocratic institutions which dealt with the political everyday business of the Republic, but strikingly the doge still appeared as an official leader. In this context, the following analysis focuses on the geostrategic and historical conditions, the economics of the city state as well as the Venetian constitution and the representational function of the doge and his wife, the dogaressa, in a plurality of cultural ceremonial acts in order to depict the evolution of the Most Serene Republic of Venice of the 15th and 16th century.

scholarly journals Presentimiento de la ciudad fronteriza (sobre la Politeia de Platón)

2003 ◽  
pp. 17-37
Author(s):  
Eugenio Trías
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Conception ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
The World ◽  
The Senses ◽  
The Republic ◽  
To Come ◽  
The City ◽  
The Ideal

This essay tries to think with Plato (not against nor from him) the idea of justice, which structures the city and the human soul in the Republic, and the platonic self-critique displayed in several late dialogues, viewed as a basis for a philosophy that can make sense of human existence in the bordering city. The bordering city –itself a metaphor of Limit–, inhabited by intermediary characters (love and creation, reminiscence and reason, halfway between the Ideal city and the cave), is what makes possible the interchange between transcendent Being (the Good, Beauty, Truth) and Becoming (which characterizes human existence). The bordering city is Plato’s greatest discovery, through which we can think an alternative city and the corresponding human condition, and even the world (cosmos). Plato gave the necessary clues to come to this alternative conception, and his recourse to myth can be seen as a symbolic addition that allows access to truth. What is, what exists and happens, is an unceasing return of “archetypes” (ideas joined with symbols). This gives consistency to what is, what exists and what we ourselves are. Philosophical truth is the awareness of the fact that we live within these archetypes, relatively to which we determine and decide our existence. Still, Plato’s thought, as a philosophy of limit, remains distant from the sensible and changing individual, which can be recreated by Limit and the being of Limit. In fact, what is recreated in Limit is a being (perceptible by the senses, singular, and in change): a being of limit which, through ideas and symbols can become accessible to understanding.

Thomas Nashe’s Anatomy of Venice in The Unfortunate Traveller or the Life of Jack Wilton (1594): Utopia Revisited

Moreana ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (Number 181- (3-4) ◽  
pp. 186-204
Author(s):  
Anne Geoffroy
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Prose Fiction ◽  
Negative Aspect ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
City State ◽  
The City ◽  
The Ideal

Although most critics have focused on the overall negative aspect of Jack Wilton’s Italian tour in The Unfortunate Traveller (1594), as suggested in the title of Thomas Nashe’s prose fiction, the specificity of the narrator’s Venetian adventures should be examined more closely. This paper argues that Thomas Nashe’s representation of Venice needs to be reassessed in the context of Thomas More’s Utopia and the question of the ideal commonwealth. Notwithstanding Nashe’s reliance on pervasive irony, the author provides an image of the city-state which – thanks to a retrospective approach – puts the topic of alternative urban spaces in the early modern period into perspective.

Singapore's Changing Demography, the Eldercare Predicament and Transnational ‘Care’ Migration

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda S.A. Yeoh ◽  
Shirlena Huang
Keyword(s):  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
The Body ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Care Chain ◽  
Transnational Family ◽  
The Individual ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

AbstractScholars have recently argued that globalisation processes have significantly altered not just the productive but reproductive sphere. ‘Reproduction’ is formulated to include both biological and social reproduction, and which at the individual level requires ‘care’ throughout the life-cycle – that is, from cradle to grave – in sustaining the body in its corporeal and affective aspects. Concepts that have emerged in the literature in recent decades such as the ‘transnational family’, ‘global householding’ and ‘global care chain’ draw attention to the observation that the formation and sustenance of households is increasingly reliant on the international movement of people and transactions among household members residing in more than one national territory. Applying these notions to the context of the city-state of Singapore where the predicament around eldercare (resulting essentially from rapid fertility decline, shortages of Singapore women's reproductive labour and rigidities in the gender household division of labour) accompanies rapid globalisation, this paper examines strategies of care substitution which draw on the lowly paid labour of two groups of transnational subjects (mainly women) – transnational domestic workers working in the privatised sphere of the home, and transnational healthcare workers in institutionalised settings. The paper reflects upon the interdependencies between flows of transnational care migration and delves into the gender and class implications of these flows for an understanding of the links between transnational migration and social change.

scholarly journals Sophia – the Personification of Divine Wisdom in the Culture of Novgorod the Great from 13th to 15th Century

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Zofia Brzozowska
Keyword(s):  
Old Russian ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
State Construction ◽  
Hagia Sophia ◽  
Attributes Of God ◽  
The Republic ◽  
City State ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple

The idea of Sophia – the personified Wisdom of God served as a symbol of independence and identity of the republic in the political culture of Novgorod the Great. In Old Russian chronicles and other narrative sources which can be connected with Novgorod, one may find statements showing that – in the eyes of the Novgorodians themselves – Wisdom was not only one of the main attributes of God, but also a separate character, a kind of divine being, who could be interpreted as patronesses and supernatural protector of the city-state. Construction of the temple of Hagia Sophia in Novgorod is usually dated to 1045–1050. In the source material one can find information that Novgorodian Sophia church was undoubtedly the most significant and important monument in the city. The theme of Wisdom of God is also a very prominent topic in Novgorodian historiography and literature. Moreover, the feminine personification of God’s Wisdom can also be found on the coins, emitted by the city-state from 1420.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document