My analysis of Plato's Ideal Society

So, for anyone reading this that isn’t in my philosophy class, I am going to sum up what my understanding of what Plato’s Ideal society is before I try and rip it apart.

From what I understand, Plato’s Ideal society breaks everyone into two classes. The workers and the guardians. The guardian class has two parts, the guardians and then the leaders. The worker class is comprised of most vocations, they are allowed to have families and work whichever jobs they would wish except for those that are given to the guardians. The guardians are not allowed to have their children although they do reproduce. To become a guardian you must be more advances physically as well as intellectually. What I understand as the guardians “job” would be most government jobs: police, army, legislature, etc. The leaders are only a select few from the guardian class that have reached “enlightenment”. No one in the guardian class is allowed to own property of any sort. This is not hereditary; everyone takes the physical test to see if they are eligible to become a guardian.

Im going to start with the guardian class because I feel like their situation is the most troubling, granted, I might not be placed into that class so my mindset might not be one that can even comprehend how satisfying being a guardian could be for some people. I am a communication studies minor so I study lots about the necessity of interpersonal relationship. So in relationship to my presentation over leadership, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, what some say is necessary for successful relationships and happiness, I will use the combination of these things to describe to you my philosophy on happiness to describe how, at least for me, the guardian class would be a very unhappy place.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs are as follows: physiological needs, safety needs, belonging and love needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. The physiological needs are met by the support of the working class, the purposed of the guardian class is for safety. But what about belonging and love needs?

From what I understand from discussion in class is that the guardians are not allowed particular relationships. They are a community, they do have relationships but they cannot place favoritism in one man or woman or even particular children whether they are their blood child or not. What I have learned about relationships in my communication classes is that three things are needed for happiness and success in relationships.

These are as follows: Inclusion, affection, and control. To a certain extent there is inclusion of everyone equally as one group, but the inclusion discussed in class is more of a particular inclusion, it’s a sense of feeling wanted. Think of your relationship with your best friend, when he/she does things you want to be included. People often, identify you as one, like my friends Kelsey and Zack. They are referred to in this way, because they always include each other. This special relationship is what creates happiness and fulfillment.

People also need affection. Physically, this isn’t something the guardian class members get on a normal basis. They are very job and task focused and they aren’t allowed to show specific affection to anyone, and when they can get it at all, its regulated.

As for control, the guardians have none. An example of this type of control is when you allow someone you love to have a say in the decisions that you make; however, most decisions are made for all guardians by the rulers so this isn’t even an option to give to someone in order to create that bond. When I think about a life without all that it is a very sad existence.

As for the self-esteem and self-actualization needs, I believe those are met to a certain extent for the guardians through their work. As discussed in my presentation, Satisfaction comes from Purpose, Mastery and Autonomy. It seems as if the guardians find their purpose in their jobs, there is no wealth to be gained so mastery and purpose are clearly what they are working for, but I am unsure how much autonomy they get in their jobs. Is everything they do, directed by the rulers? If they do have autonomy, I can see how maybe this job is satisfactory that members of this class are not concerned with the relational aspects missing from their life, but is definitely not for me. My sister, I can see this working for, so maybe it’s just not my class but whether it is acceptable for some, I will say that I don’t believe it is ideal. There are better ways.

My next issue with Plato’s Ideal society is the other part of the Guardian class, the rulers. As described earlier, the leaders are those who have reached enlightenment. My issues with this might come from the disconnect between the idea of enlightenment and its absence in today’s society. First of all, even in a different time, I feel like enlightenment it subjective. How can there be an objective, definitive way of deciding who has reached enlightenment and who has not. Could anyone (within the guardian class) just say “I have reached enlightenment.”? And become a leader? This is only my opinion but most of the people we have discussed in our class that think they have reached “enlightenment” are way out of touch with the everyday people of society. It is like they are a completely different species.

If we did become a society like the one Plato thinks is possible, who would be the rulers of our country? Do you know anyone who is enlightened and should be running our society? What are the characteristics of this person that give you the idea that they are enlightened?

I also have an issue with the separation of classes. Why? What is the purpose? And if this is an ideal society, why is there a need for “protectors”? In an Ideal society, I would choose peace. Why would Plato choose the need for an army group if he can create whatever he wants for this society? For that reason alone, I feel like it invalidates his society for me. I would never chose a society with war, if I could choose one without it.

I also don’t like that peoples identity is defined on their physical ability and intellect. Wouldn’t this create low self-esteem for those that done measure up? Why does your identity have to come from 2 measurable qualities? There are a lot of things that do not fall into these two categories. I also don’t think people should do one specific thing their entire life. At least for me, I need variety. Nothing should be so fixed and Permanente.

When the word Ideal passes through my head, I think of the best possible. I’m not saying that Plato’s Ideal society is the worst ever but it is definitely not the best possible situation for all people. For this reason I declare that Plato’s Ideal society is not my ideal society.