Plato's the Republic

​Books II-IV of The Republic can be largely classified as Plato's developing of a framework for creating an ideal and just society. The structure of Plato's ideal state, when attempting to compare with the Athenian democracy can be further broken down then into three sub-sections: the foundation of the state, the education of the guardians, and the constitution of the state. By dividing the three books into sub-sections, it becomes easier to break down Plato's proposal of the ideal state, and it's contrasting views with Athenian Democracy at the time.

​ For Plato the foundation from which his city was to be built on is that of the principle of specialization. Plato believed that a polis operated at the highest level of efficiency when each person performed the work they were naturally best suited for, without distractions or other civic duties. The farmer is to only grow crops and tend to livestock; the carpenter to only build things. This idea of specialized labor differed greatly from division of labor and the roles of citizens in Athens. In Athens citizens who chose not to participate in politics and public life were deemed useless. In the Republic, there would be a specialized class of rulers, highly educated and free from any other type of work, to handle the affairs of the polis. Plato strongly disagreed with the idea that ordinary, everyday citizens could partake in politics and be fair judges of men.

​From here Plato spends the rest of Book II delving into the nature and education of the warriors that were to protect the state. Nature alone, Plato argues, is not sufficient enough to create warriors; nature must be combined with education in order to form the greatest possible warrior. A guardian's education would consist of gymnastics for the body; music and poetry for the soul. Plato held the belief that some poetry would have to be censored from the curriculum given to young-guardians, for he firmly believed stories shaped a child's soul. Any stories that presented the gods as murdering and conniving characters, as well as stories representing gods as beings of sorcery and deception, Plato believed would mold the child into a person with the same qualities. This is another marked distinction from the Athenian democracy; the same government, it should be noted, that sentenced Socrates (Plato's teacher) to death for not recognizing the gods of the state.

Book III continues with Plato's description of a guardian education, moving on to the warrior aspect. The physical training should not resemble the sort that athletes partake in, Plato writes, but rather should imitate war. Plato concludes his bit on the education by stating a perfect balance must be met between the physical training of the guardians and the education, lest a guardian becomes to savage or even worse, too soft. Plato concludes his dialogue on the education of the guardian by briefly describing the