The Principles of The City-State in Plato’s View

Abstract

Plato’s thoughts, as great Greek philosopher, are still counted as one of the best references in terms of political philosophy and are in practice in the world of politics. Plato owns a utopian state based on the foundation of justice and virtue. Plato’s state, ruled by philosopher-kings, is characterized by having particular thoughts about the system of education. Politics is vitally important within Plato’s philosophy. It is regarded as means of planning his utopian city. Plato believes that political systems can be classified, in accordance to their ruling type, into aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, monarchy and dictatorship. Among them, Plato believes that aristocracy is the best since it’s practiced by a philosopher-king. Plato in his ideal state refers to metaphysics as an important basic of his utopian city. Plato’s view is that the ideal state can only be cherished in the life of hereafter, though those in power may be able to find some sort of the ideal life in this world. The philosopher-kings, on the other hand, are able to practice such an ideal life in this world. In Plato’s view, any sort of change happening in the world from the perfection towards the imperfection and weakness. This is due to the unstable feature of the world that never stays constantly. Only God is characterized by stableness and mortality. Plato thinks that ‘ethics’ is one of the practical fields of philosophy which shows the will of any human being that depends on performing the duty of individuals in the society to establish social justice. Plato states that education refers to the right preparation of human beings to suit the world of justice. He sees the education as the highest virtue. Plato repeats that all the social city-state classes have to get the proper education formed in certain phases based on the age of the citizens.