In reading Plato’s Republic, it is abundantly obvious that Plato found some value and balance in presenting complex concepts and explanations in tripartite formats. From the soul to states themselves, trinities[1] are everywhere in the Republic. The three strongest trinities within the Republic revolve around individuals (souls), societies (cultures/groups), and states (governments). Each serves as a metaphor for the other and together forms a grand trinity of the whole, serving to provide understanding about human nature and the nature and purpose of humans, societies and states.
Plato assumes the existence of a soul in each individual, and defines the soul as having three parts: calculating, spirited, and desiring (Book III). Each part must function well on its own as well as together with the others in order for the soul to be functioning correctly. The tripartite nature of the soul is easy to understand for the modern reader. We each have a calculating, spirited, and desiring part to ourselves. We feed our desires (lusts) with shopping, drugs, drink, sex; we feed our spirits with music, church, charity; and we feed our calculating natures with achievement, advancement, education, etc. This is no different today than it was in Plato’s time. When we overfeed one aspect of the soul to the detriment of another, we hurt, emotionally if not physically. Overfeed the desiring part and the body suffers through obesity, addiction, or worse. Overfeed the spirited part and we may neglect the desires, to the point of starvation or neglect of responsibilities. Overfeed the calculating side, such as a workaholic may do, and one finds oneself without the time to satisfy our desires or spiritual needs. In our modern-day heavy consumer society, the dangers of out-of-balance needs fulfillment is abundantly apparent from the obesity problem to environmental damage. Ultimately, the soul’s function – to “superintend and command and deliberate and the like” cannot be achieved unless the three needs of the soul are properly fed and fed in balance (Book I).
Plato defines class structures (caste system) within societies/cultures through the Myth of the Metals (the “Noble Lie”), where the soul as a whole is described as containing specific metals: gold, silver, and iron or bronze. Much as the material value of each metal descends from gold to iron, so does the social value of the souls descend based on their metallic content. The Myth of the Metals does not assign metallic values to the three parts of the soul, although correlating the metals to the parts of the soul is fairly straightforward. What is uncomfortable, even scary, to accept today is how well the Noble Lie serves to define and understand our modern-day society. We may be a “free” society, one that values advancement and achievement, but we are also a caste-system society. We have our iron/bronze (lower class), our silver (middle) and our gold (upper) souls (classes). Despite our cultural mythos of “Land of Opportunity,” moving from one class to another is not achieved nearly as often as we as a society would believe[2]. We are a far more stratified society than we would be comfortable admitting. Poor, single mothers give birth to children who more often than not become poor single mothers themselves. Rich families give birth to children who tend to go to the best schools and follow their fathers into law, medicine, and politics. Middle class families give birth to children who perhaps have the most movement…some become lower, some become upper, but statistically most stay middle class (Census). But it is far rarer for the lower class child to become an upper class citizen…in fact, they may face cultural obstacles[3] preventing them from even wanting to. Much as Plato acknowledges that a few rare individuals would be born of iron families with gold souls, a few rare individuals move from lower classes to upper classes.
Finally, Plato describes three cities, the Artisan/Natural city, Feverish city, and Purified city. Although not necessarily as obvious and straightforward, each of these cities serves as complementary metaphors to the parts of the soul and the Myth of the Metals. The Artisan/Natural city, which correlates to small, low-technology societies, similar not only to ancient small tribes and communities but to many modern third-world communities has the “benefit” of virtually no market competition (Book II). The basic needs of food, shelter and clothing are provided for in the structure of this city – restricted to one man, one craft – but it is limited in services and products available, there is also little ability to provide for desires (an essential element of the soul trinity) not to mention fast and/or large growth is virtually impossible (Book II). The Feverish City is “a luxurious State,” one where nearly every desire of the soul can not only be satisfied, but overfed, with a resulting lack of balance in the soul of the individual (Book II), and of course, a lack of balance within the state and social structure itself. Thirdly, Plato defines his Purified City, in which a certain balance of soul/society needs is achieved, but at a great expense to individual freedoms and desires. In order to achieve Plato’s grand Purified City, virtually all individual freedoms must be subsumed to the overarching needs of the state. In fact, Plato offers the Myth of the Metals as a convenient justification for those in power to create and enforce the individual limitations proposed.
It is too easy to take Plato’s city definitions at face value and cringe at the over-arching authoritarian nature of each of these cities, especially the Purified; the near-horrifying lack of value on individual, personal freedom and the strict caste-system nature of the social structure. The extreme (to us) nature of these states should be viewed not as a serious consideration of other ways of governing, but more as a warning how not to govern and what the end result of the desire for “utopia” could be. For despite all of Plato’s discussions on the types of cities, he ultimately seems to accept the way things are as the way they should be. He doesn’t truly question why, he explains why. If anything, Plato’s example cities should serve as a very serious warning to the modern-day, freedom-loving American. While it is easy to say that would never happen in America, it already is. Every year a greater portion of our personal freedoms and individual privacy desires are limited in the name of safety. From the Patriot Act to public smoking[4], credit reporting to seat belts, to increased limits on the Freedom of Information Act, a greater number of personal actions and private information is falling under one legal limitation or another.
The soul-societal-state trinity serves as a trinity together, with each of these elements (soul, society, state) serving as elements of the greater good – the “whole.” All three aspects of each element of each trinity must be needs-satisfied in order for each to function well. There must be balance within the satisfaction of these needs – one need cannot be over-fed to the detriment of another need, as then proper functioning would fail. For the state to function well, it’s needs must be satisfied, for the society to function well, it’s needs must be satisfied and the needs of the state met; and finally, for the soul to function well, its needs must be met and the needs of society and the needs of the state. This is a symbiotic relationship: the reverse order is as true as is any other ordering of soul-society-state. The soul is a metaphor of the society, the society a metaphor of the state, the state a metaphor of the soul, and all three a metaphor for the whole, the greater good of all. Any one element of any of the trinities and all may fail, even die.
Plato uses each of these trinities to explain why: why people, societies, and governments act the way they do. The soul functions as the “overseer” of the individual, much as states oversee societies which oversee individuals. What is eerily apparent is how little has changed: despite massive technological advances, people, societies and states have changed very little in the last 2000+ years. Plato’s Republic serves to both provide understanding of the nature of the whole and as a warning regarding the dangers of out-of-balance needs fulfillment and misguided attempts to achieve utopia.
Works Cited
Plato. The Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jewitt. Project Gutenberg, 1994. 2003 October 23. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext94/repub13.txt
U.S. Census Bureau. Poverty: 2002 Highlights. U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. 13 May 2005. 16 March 2006. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty02/pov02hi.html
U.S. Census Bureau. Historical Poverty Tables (1970-2004). U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. 14 December 2005. 16 March 2006. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/histpov/hstpov5.html
Written for Professor Tanner's Ancient Philosophy class at the University of Colorado - Colorado Springs, 19th March 2006.
[1] One need not assume that the usage of so many trinities serves a spiritual or mathematical function, nor does his usage necessarily provide foundational functions for much Christian mythology as some may argue, although they may have influenced future Christian thinkers. It could be as simple as this: break a complex concept down into three elements serves to ease understanding. Even a two-year-old can count to three J
[2] Examining Census Bureau statistics for the past twenty years shows that the percentage of lower, middle, and upper class segments of American society has varied by less than 3% from year to year from 1970 to 2004, and in fact, there has been an increase in the overall size of the lower class percentage over the last nine years. Census Bureau.
[3] I’m not going to bother citing any specific studies as specifics are not necessary at this point, suffice to say that there are many sociological and educational studies on attitudinal obstacles lower-class citizens, especially children, face when attempting to “improve” themselves. Young, poor children are often told by peers, parents, and even teachers not to “rock the boat,” not be too “big for their britches,” and especially in African-American communities, not to be too “white.” From personal experience as a former college admissions lecturer, I can attest to many moments where teenagers sneered at my “pushing” them to go to college. “My dad’s done just fine without a college degree, so will I.” My own lower-middle-class family encouraged me to go to work straight after high school, and 22 years later, is mystified as to why I am attending college now. “What’s the point, you’ve already had good jobs, why not just go back to what you used to do?”
[4] Individual property rights of business owners and the right of adults to use a legal product here in Colorado have now become secondary to the “greater good” of providing “smoke-free” public places to all, even in bars. Despite the fact that numerous businesses will close and tax revenue will fall…don’t get me on a soapbox….
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