StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Socrates' City - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "Socrates' City" tells us about the ideal city. There is a notable lacuna in Plato's scholarship concerning Socrates' first city, the City of Sows; scholars have long dismissed this city, calling it a "false start” or claiming that it "adds nothing” to the Republic…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER97% of users find it useful
Socrates City
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Socrates' City"

Socrates’ city is an imagination of a utopia that comprises three classes: the rulers (the golden), the auxiliaries (silver), and the commoners (bronze and iron). Education and selective breeding are to be used to keep every person in his/her category. However, this attempt still gives three waves. The first wave is equality between the sexes and the issuance of common tasks to both sexes. Herein, even Socrates himself agreed that women are weaker than men and thereby corroborating the primordial and dominant belief that men should work more than women. Socrates proposes the issuance of selective education to diffuse this wave.  The second wave is the perceived commonality between women and children, which repudiated the place of marriage and family. Socrates proposes selective breeding as the answer to the second wave. The third wave was the burden of making the kings philosophers. Socrates postulates that this problem could be solved by combining selective breeding and education (Simpson, 2006). However, it is clear that these postulations are wrought with a lot of setbacks that stem from the dynamics of real life, as shall be seen forthwith. 

Whether the City Is Plausible/ Realistic

By all reasonable means, the city that Socrates envisions is not realistic.  Even the genesis of the city Kallipolis is contrived in Socrates’ imagination. In his imagination, Socrates takes away all the unpleasant realities that characterize normal cities, in order to create a utopia.  It is because of being purely a utopia that Socrates’ Kallipolis meets several obstacles or waves (Dobbs, 2004).

 Secondly, the manner in which Socrates intends to settle the three obstacles (waves) is not tenable in any human society. Socrates creates three classes of people: the aristocrats or rulers, the auxiliaries (the soldiers), and the producers (the commoners). Human existence and society are too dynamic to be contained by/in these three classes. It is possible to have a commoner work hard to ascend into the auxiliary, or even into an aristocracy.  Likewise, a society that rigidly and structurally maintains these three classes is one that is based on a caste system and therefore can neither rid itself of social injustice nor last. Even with selective education which Socrates proposes as the way to stave off revolutionary spirits, it still remains impossible to imagine a system where the masses find satisfaction in being commoners for posterity.  This proves the difficulty of solving the second wave.

The idea of selecting the most intellectually and biologically refined in the society and imposing endogamy within it, and then later raising their progeny away from their parents’ care and identity as a way of creating philosopher kings is still largely impractical. It is, for instance, questionable if intelligence can (consistently) be biologically propagated, while the manner of individuals raised without parental care, guidance, and love remains largely uncertain.  

Solving the second wave through selective and restrictive breeding as a way of eradicating the family unit and marriage is impossible since human beings are and have always been gregarious by nature. Any critical philosopher or thinker will automatically question the point in which the society not based on the family structure will be introduced and how the move will be executed.   

Measures/ Elements Needed To Make It So in Socrates' Day or Ours

Despite Socrates’ city being a utopia, it is universally agreed that the need to make the society better, both in Socrates’ days (classical era) and in the present age abides. Although Socrates’ proposed method of reaching philosopher kings is untenable, in Socrates’ political and philosophical thought, there is one measure that can greatly help in attaining this goal. This element or measure is education or learning. 

 Education plays an indispensable role in fostering enlightenment and in improving problem-solving endeavors in both personal and formal arrangements such as government, entrepreneurship, medicine, and defense, both in the classical and modern eras. For instance, Saccarelli (2007) divulges that even Socrates himself learned under Diotima of Maninea, the Pythian Oracle (who taught him philosophy), and Asphasia of Miletus (who taught him rhetoric).

 One factor remains salient in both Socrates’ days and the present age. This factor is education since scholars were highly regarded in the classical era. In the same way, the field of academics and knowledge opens limitless paths to many values, both at the interpersonal and societal levels.      

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Socrates' City Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words”, n.d.)
Socrates' City Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/philosophy/1457534-socrates-city
(Socrates' City Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
Socrates' City Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words. https://studentshare.org/philosophy/1457534-socrates-city.
“Socrates' City Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/philosophy/1457534-socrates-city.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Socrates' City

Socrates and His Trial

This paper ''Socrates and His Trial'' tells that Socrates was a Greek philosopher who lived during the periods of 469 BC to 399 BC when he faced his death after facing a death sentence because of his actions.... Socrates holds a record of being among the wisest people of all time who existed in the universe....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

The Life and Times of Socrates

and was a Classical Greek philosopher.... He is regarded as a founder of Western philosophy and was the teacher of Plato, another Greek philosopher.... Most of what is known about his life is obtained from the works of Plato, Xenophon and… The fact that so little is known of him, and whatever little present is disputed, is termed the “Socratic Problem”....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

The Figure of Socrates

He was, in his lifetime, a true enigma—a puzzle for the entire span of the Athens city-state to solve.... And like most ancient figures, we should not… It seems, according to most sources, that Socrates' whole life consisted of philosophy and the search for truth; it is this overriding commitment to the love Socrates was truly one of the few philosophers in history to make a significant attempt to question and fundamentally change the methods and paradigms of philosophical examination....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

Noble Lie and Platos Republic

In this paper “Noble Lie and Plato's Republic” there will be discussion both in favor and against the noble lie.... The noble lie, though it is told for the sake of social harmony, it develops ignorance in common man and suppresses his opposition or nature of enquiry in his mind.... hellip; According to the author noble lie gives the opinion that myth or illusion is necessary to maintain harmony in the society as well as to obey the elite or the rulers....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Socrates Life

hellip; It was socrates's great dedication to seek and spread knowledge, which encouraged the Athenian youth to develop yearnings and taste for learning and wisdom.... The essay "Socrates Life" presents the overview of socrates's life and philosophic views and discusses why he was such a respectable person at his time....
6 Pages (1500 words) Admission/Application Essay

Socrates and His Submission to Law

Socrates adored his religion although the government did not want it.... In the Apology, Socrates explains to the July that his religion was very important, and it was mandatory act according to… His love for obedience to the gods made him continue practicing philosophy despite the great resistance from the government....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Socrates: Biography, Philosophy, and Objections

Although quite little is known about his earlier life.... Part of his biography was recorded by his students among whom included Plato, another Greek philosopher.... From these notes, Socrates was… Being from a rather poor family, Socrates must have received basic Greek education besides learning his father's art from an early age....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Political Philosophy in Ancient Greece: An Analysis of Plato and Aristotles Theories

The "Political Philosophy in Ancient Greece: An Analysis of Plato and Aristotle's Theories" paper examines Plato and Aristotle who shared the same opinion that the members of a state should be given with proper education in order for them to be productive citizens and to be personally moral and just....
9 Pages (2250 words) Term Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us