The Republicof Plato is the first systematic work of
political theory in the Western world. It strives to give
a definition of JUSTICEin the ideal state and society.
Plato relates the order and goodness of the individual
to that of the nation, claiming that society is just “the
individual writ large.” Plato’s ideas have influenced
much of subsequent political philosophy, especially
the CHRISTIANpolitical thought of St. AUGUSTINE, the
NEO-PLATOIST philosophers, and U.S. thinkers Leo
STRAUSS, Allan Bloom, and Thomas PANGLE.
Plato begins by dividing human nature into three
categories, or dispositions: (1) the philosophic (or
intellectual); (2) the spirited (or military); and (3) the
appetitive (or economic). Every individual has all
three elements in him or her, but one disposition dom-
inates the personality. The philosophic soul is charac-
terized by learning and knowledge—a natural
curiosity, a desire for truth, and a capacity to under-
stand and communicate. A spirited person is interested
in adventure and combat and has physical abilities to
be a good athlete and warrior. The appetitive personal-
ity cares most about physical consumption (food,
clothes, PROPERTY) and likes economic matters. For
Plato, these natural predispositions in people render
individuals inevitably unequal and form a natural class
structure. The philosophic or wise should rule as
PHILOSOPHER-KINGS; the aggressive, spirited people form
a natural army or military class; and appetitive types
belong in the economy (workers, managers, etc.). This
sets up a HIERARCHYof citizens in society, which consti-
tutes justice, for Plato. His classic definition of social
justiceas “giving each his or her due” follows from this
theory. If everyone is in their proper place, utilizing
their natural gifts and talents and cooperating with the
others, a perfectly harmonious and just society exists.
Such a just order requires strict STATEeducation—to
identify the natural abilities of children on an individ-
ual basis and to train them for the common good (and
for the individual’s fulfillment and happiness). This
means that each person is incapable of determining his
or her abilities or desires; the public realm must do
that. If a society neglects this categorizing of individu-
als and leaves it up to them, injustice and disorder will
result. The state must cultivate these natural character-
istics to develop the VIRTUEof each citizen and class.
The Platonic notion of virtue comes from the Greek
term arête, which means functional excellence or a
thing working well according to its purpose. So the
virtue of a knife is to cut well because that is its job;
the virtue of the ruling class is wisdom and goodness
because those are necessary qualities to effective gov-
ernance. The virtue of the military, for Plato, is
courage and honor because those are qualities neces-
sary to effective military defense. The economic class’s
virtue is “moderation” because it controls the greed
that is the besetting sin of business and that destabi-
lizes the economy. Society must teach these virtues so
that each member of the nation can function well and
promote harmony and prosperity. A unique feature of
the ruler’s virtue is to be able to identify the virtue of
others and to “put them in their place.” The other
classes of society (soldiers and workers) at best know
their own virtues but cannot understand others’
virtues, so military types want everyone in society to
act like them, and business people want to run every-
thing in society (schools, army, hospitals) along busi-
ness lines.
To help people understand and accept this natural
class order, Plato devises the “myth of the metals,”
which explains in a physiological way why people are
different. According to this myth (taught to school
children), the reason some people are born to rule is
that they have gold in their bodies. The spirited
military people are born with silver in their tissues,
and the economic citizens have bronze inside them.
This teaching reinforces the class system of Plato’s
ideal republic. For him, this “noble lie” is justified in
making the hierarchy palatable to everyone. Plato
sees injustice as any society that (1) does not identify
and recognize the innate nature and talent of each
citizen, (2) does not train and cultivate that nature
through public education for the individual’s fulfill-
ment and common good, and (3) does not provide
employment in that area for each qualified person
(the philosophic in government, the spirited in mili-
tary service, the appetitive in the economy). Most
societies, in Plato’s view, are practicing injustice by
their haphazard educational, occupational, and eco-
nomic systems. Crime and mental illness follow from
such injustice.
Plato identifies various unjust regimes in his
discussion of political change and revolution. He
details in Book VIII of The Republica certain logic of
governmental change in a “degeneration of regimes.”
According to this theory of change, each kind of gov-
ernment is marked by a strength (virtue) and a weak-
ness (vice), and each successive state satisfies the
weakness of its predecessor. In the beginning, the
ARISTOCRACY, whose virtue is wisdom, lacks honor and
so is replaced by a timocracy, or military government232 Plato