Plato's Republic: Context, Influences, and Political Philosophy

Plato's The Republic: Historical and Philosophical Context

The Political Setting of 5th Century Athens

Plato's major work, The Republic, is situated in the second half of 5th century B.C. Athens, a period when the newly born democracy was on the rise, largely thanks to the management of Pericles. Following the victory in the Greco-Persian Wars (often called the Medic Wars), the population's feeling of participation in the administration of the city-state grew. This era eventually led to the defeat of Athens against Sparta in the Peloponnesian Wars and the subsequent Government of the Thirty Tyrants.

Plato was invited to participate in the government of the Thirty Tyrants but declined the offer due to his violent opposition to a regime that sought only the pleasure of the body. When democracy was restored in Athens in the late 5th century, Plato dismissed it as being underlain by a mob of ignorant people. He directly attacked the Sophists, thinkers who emerged with democracy and dedicated themselves to the education of humanities disciplines necessary to achieve political power.

The ideas presented in The Republic, which stood in contrast to the proliferating democracy, were later attempted in the tyrannical government in Syracuse. However, Plato's political philosophy did not work there, and the philosopher himself was briefly enslaved.

Socratic Influence and the Method of Dialogue

Within philosophy, Plato was profoundly influenced by Socrates' life and thought. The method used by Plato—the dialogue—is a clear reflection of the imprint left by his teacher. Socrates employed maieutics, the use of dialogue to "give birth" to knowledge.

The need Plato states in his work The Republic to form just rulers who have known the Idea of the Good matches the moral intellectualism of Socrates and the conception of a human being who knows the truth and acts according to it, thereby being good.

Plato's Critique of the Sophists

Plato framed his work against the backdrop of democracy and the predominance of Sophist schools, where subjects required to achieve political power were taught. For Plato, as for Socrates, the term "Sophist" was used in a pejorative sense against those thinkers who democratized knowledge and were characterized by three main philosophical positions:

• Skepticism: Which promulgated the impossibility of man knowing the absolute truth.
• Relativism: Which claimed the non-existence of absolute truths, asserting that truth depended on each individual subject.
• Conventionalism: Which proposed the possibility of man knowing his own truth, rather than an absolute truth.

Pre-Socratic Influences on The Republic

The philosophical problems preceding Plato also heavily influenced The Republic. The answers provided by Pre-Socratic philosophers to the question of finding the archē (origin) of the physis (nature) and the world around them shaped Plato's work:

Key influences include:

• The immortality of the soul and reincarnation reflect the Pythagorean moral doctrine.
• The characteristics of the sensible world—which for both Plato and Heraclitus is a continuously changing world, in a process of becoming.
• Plato attributes to his Ideas features that Parmenides grants to Being (eternal, unchanging, and perfect).