Brandon WilsonProfessor Vasquez Humanities & Technology 1/19/2018Essay Plato Question V To me the ideal city Plato was talking about wasa city ruled by philosopher kings, Therefore, I think his ideal ruler was not aboutsomeone who was just chosen by a circumstance like so much as by a divinereason or inner calling but according to what Plato said the ideal city had to be anenlightened one.
With justice and wisdom, based on the highest universalprinciples. He said that only the individuals that were committed to thesetruths who could protect and preserve them for the sake of the common good,were the ones that were fit to rule the city. Plato’sview that every individual has a different, yet pertinent, role in the city, theguardians must be physically strong, lovers of wisdom and knowledge andimpervious to outside experience , the guardians also lived by a separate setof rules. Plato’s city functions like an organism, with each carrying out theirdaily routine to perfection. Drawn to its logical conclusion, this is why Platobelieves that a special class of “guardians” is best fit to rule the city In Plato’s ideaof the ideal city he had the guardians,they were the philosophers and they govern the city the auxiliaries are soldierswho defend it; and the lowest class comprises the producer. But if these philosophers are the only ones who can distinguish between true and falsebeliefs they who master practitioners who can heal the ills of their society,then they, and not democratically elected representatives, must be chosen asleaders and educators of the political community and guide it to proper ends.They are required to counteract the destabilizing effects of false beliefs on society,but are these philosophers so incorruptible?Plato without hesitation said that these philosophers are wise and thatphilosophy training would always cultivate only wise people.
What happens ifthe philosopher kings are not smarter and wiser than a soldier or a worker. Inmy opinion, the theory of Plato really relies on philosophy to educate and makewise men, kings. It relates byhow it shows how his ideals and reality can’t be farther from each other, oursociety is not a “perfect city”, we are too separated and too focused oncontrolling one another with fear or pain or even racism. With that in mind theaspect of perfect is subjective but in Plato’s ideals it would still not beperfect. Wisdom and intelligence is only looked at in circumstantial cases in today’ssociety. We hurt and attack each other verbally, physically for such trivialthings such as the color of skin or if one thinks a different way and they don’tnecessarily agree with what they think. Our society has so much more to improveon in those regards, All of those efforts we put into doing those things wecould put into actually encouraging wisdom and intelligence and work better together.Our society tries to be “just” but is ultimately not just.
The way Plato talksabout ideal city it does relate to how all of our societies are separate which changeshow we view each other.Our social structure today is pretty harsh since the way our societyworks it seems its better if everyone is divided. And it greatly influences howour everyday life is by basically defining who we are. Like our Upper, Middleand lower class they do not all have access to the same resources so thereforethey view each other differently causing interactions to be much different.
Plato’sideals seem to want it divided which is how our society is now basically on aless extreme manor in my opinion For years we have seen this theory for social orderand to be implemented and it has drawn examples that have been the foundationfor the construction of the ideal country. I feel it’s a type of extreme segregation.Overall I don’t think this is anything close to an “ideal city” that anyoneshould have, for its time it does accurately depict how our today society worksbut even that needs to be changed because it just more or less oppresses people.