Plato Political Philosophy

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Rendell
Phil 305 Political Philosophy
February 17,2014
Paper 1 Plato seeks to form a society whose focus is that the job a person fills must cater to what that individual finds important. Plato believes that there are three major differences in human character those people who only want knowledge, those who are looking to make money, and those who are willing to physically fight for their city. Rather than discrimination based upon gender, race or class, Plato's focus is on what people are good at. By educating everyone and choosing ones career based upon the mind, you will not find that physical characteristics or family lineage has any part in one's future. Although his text may seem to use an anti-feministic tone, it can be shown to only act in persuading the readers in his time to consider the idea. Plato observes how society can improve the lives of each individual rather than grouping people together based upon their families or their gender. Plato describes his ideal society in The Republic. He found that grouping society in ways that one cannot control was not beneficial. Plato determined that many jobs were being filled by people who were not as good as they could be because they found little interest or skill in the field. To solve this, he wanted people to find jobs that suited their individual strength of character. He saw that general types of character traits that were useful to society were courage, knowledge and marketing. In Plato's ideal society, children would go through school to find out which career they would excel at. Those children who were courageous would be the security force for the city and act as soldiers. They would focus on training and fighting techniques so that the city would be safe within and secure from people outside of it. The children earmarked as marketing citizens would eventually be the producers and fill the town with the things it needed. They would sell their products to others and control their businesses with respect to the rulers opinion. The rulers, or one's who find themselves drawn to knowledge, would observe the city and regulate in a way that would be just. these children as the future leaders, would focus on the greater picture and become a philosopher who dedicates their life to knowledge. Plato wanted the ruling figure to be unbiased and have little that could distract them, such as money or family obligation. Some critics of Plato felt that while he supported women in the work place and in the key roles of society, he had an undertone of anti-feminism. He states that women are inferior to men whereever they stand in the work force. This does seem to undermine his respect of women, that they are intelligent and can work with men. Although he is says derogatory remarks about women's inferiority, we must take into account the time period he is living in. He lived in the time around 400
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