And to the Republic for which it stands…

“With unrivaled eloquence, [Plato] sawed off the branch upon which he sat.”

These are the words of Will Durant in describing Plato’s quest for utopia, as outlined in his Republic. The word utopia, first coined by Sir Thomas More in a book by the same title, actually comes from a play on two Greek words: eutopos (‘good place’) and outopos (‘no place’). In other words, a utopia is a good place that doesn’t exist. It carries within it the hope of glory and the seeds of skepticism and, being thus self-contradicted, means nothing.

But Plato was an innovator. For even God did not outline all the specifics of how heaven was to be run, except to say that mankind would no longer lust for discord. Plato, taking natural discord for granted, sought to rearrange humanity into harmony.

Plato said that men naturally have one of three dominant natures: desire, emotion, and knowledge. Desire (impulse, instinct, etc.) has its seat in the loins, emotion (spirit, feelings) has its seat in the heart, and knowledge (reason, wisdom) has its seat in the mind. And all men are dominated by one of these and thus fell into one of three categories of service to the state based on which quality they exhibited.

In building this utopia, Plato put education at the forefront, dividing it up by major tests at the end of each period:

Ages 10-20 (physical education tempered by musical training) – if you fail the test at 20 you are to be the farmers, blacksmiths, clerks, etc. of the nation. Typically assumed to be the “Desires.”

Ages 21-30 (various character development and training) – if you fail at 30, you become military and security officers. All the “Emotions” would get this far.

Ages 31-50 (training in philosophy) – if you pass at this point, you are qualified to rule the nation. The “Wise” would go all the way through.

Only the smart, brave, and noble were permitted to have children. There were to be no marriages – and thus no jealousy or family allegiances. The rulers were to eat with the farmers. Everyone had everything in common and no one was permitted to own 4x more goods than anyone else. Seeing the incompetence of many a leader elected by a democracy, Plato ensured that his “philosopher-kings” would have to spend some time with the other branches of society to gain experience.

Everything sounds so…anticipated. Why then do you think Durant claimed that Plato was sawing off the branch upon which he sat?

~ by doclucio on September 11, 2007.