Aindriahhn's Guide to the Republic - a work in progress

[Aindriahhn]


Plato's Republic: The Politics


Five Main Economic Classes

1) Producers (agriculture, industry)

2) Merchants - External Trade

3) Sailors and Shipowners

4) Retail Traders - Internal Trade

5) Wage Earners, Manual Labourers

Also
Guardians - Trained since birth as warriors and leaders (Greek word phulakes)

State Originates from need.

Primary Need - Food

Secondary - Shelter

Third - Clothing of Various Kinds

People have different natural aptitude to each need, and should therefore work only at that skill.

there is a market and trade concept with currency, though each is expected to give what others require to work and live. The job of the least physically fit, and most unsuitable for other jobs, is to trade at market.

Qualities of the Guardians

Physical: Strength, Speed, Perception

Mental: Courage, High-Spirited, Gentle towards fellow citizens, the disposition of a
philosopher (annoyed when it sees a stranger, even one who means no harm, but welcomes a friend)

Drunkenness, softness and idleness discouraged

Education
Guardians:

First Stage:

Literary Education:
Censorship of stories that make horrible crimes seem normal, or of wars between gods.
They must be persuaded that no citizen has ever quarreled with another. God must always be shown as good. Other forces are the cause of evil. God does not change, for any change would be a move from perfection. There is no falsehood in the realm of the spiritual and divine.
Any poetry and fiction must adhere to this.
Drama is not to be used in education, Guardians must be nothing other than themselves. Poetry must be done apart from the narrator. The characters must be distinct and apart from a non-character narrator. Nor may there be representations of occupations other than those of the Guardian. And though a character may be a coward, a Guardian must not represent him. Madness, however, and imitation of madmen is forbidden.

Music:
Words follow the same requirements as literary education. Mode and rhythm should follow the words. No drinking songs. They should instead represent the positive roles of a Guardian. Military service and bravery, or in peacetime, advising neighbors, praying, convincing someone to help another. Therefore, many strings and a wide harmonic range are unnecessary. Music is therefore limited to the lyre and cithara. And other instruments are unnecesary, and not made. Rhythm need not be complicated, they need only suit a life of courage and discipline. Beat and tune should be adapted to the words.

These qualities also apply to all other arts.


It also speaks of discouraging sex.

Second Stage:

Physical Education:
They must be healthy, strong, wakeful, keen sighted, and must hear well. They must be able to adapt to changes in routine, diet, and water. They would eat roast meat while campaigning. Diet should be simple and healthy.

Cures and medicines should be fast, least it take away from work, or such advice be ignored.

Division of Guardians

Guardians Proper (Rulers):
The elder, and most skilled govern. They are the most intelligent and capable, those who care most for the community. Therefore, the Guardians must always be watched for these qualities. Tested by setting them in tasks most likely to lead them astray (in the early years), choosing only those who don't forget and are not easily mislead. They must also have their integrity and principles of balance and harmony (things taught at childhood) tested throughout life. Any who pass these trials are given positions of power, anyone who fails is rejected.

Auxiliaries:
Assist the rulers in the execution of their decisions.

A myth is constructed to help this. They must be made to believe that there education was but a dream, and that they were made, with everything else, in the depths of the earth. And that the earth is their mother, and must be protected if attacked.

Citizens, you are brothers, yet God has framed you differently. Some of you have the power of command, and in the composition of these he has mingled gold, wherefore also they have the greatest honour; others he has made of silver, to be auxiliaries; others again who are to be husbandmen and craftsmen he has composed of brass and iron; and the species will generally be preserved in the children. But as all are of the same original stock, a golden parent will sometimes have a silver son, or a silver parent a golden son. And God proclaims as a first principle to the rulers, and above all else, that there is nothing which they should so anxiously guard, or of which they are to be such good guardians, as of the purity of the race. They should observe what elements mingle in their offspring; for if the son of a golden or silver parent has an admixture of brass and iron, then nature orders a transposition of ranks, and the eye of the ruler must not be pitiful toward the child because he has to descend in the scale and become a husbandman or artisan, just as there may be sons of artisans who having an admixture of gold or silver in them are raised to honour, and become guardians or auxiliaries. For an oracle says that when a man of brass or iron guards the State, it will be destroyed.

Rulers and Auxiliaries:
Way of Life

They are without possessions and family. And are raised to not believe themselves superior, only as leaders. All food is provided. They eat together in messes, live together in camps. Since they have in them heavenly gold and silver, they need no material gold or silver, for it would pollute the heavenly. They must not touch, or even be under the same roof, as gold and silver of the material kind. They have no money or holiday abroad.

Other:

Wealth and poverty are prevented by the Guardians. The state should be allowed to grow only large enough that unity can be insured.

Justice in the State and Individual
The Rulers are the judges.

Justice in the State:
All must do only what is best for the state. Self-discipline and control is key. One must mind there own business. Minor exchanges, like a shoemaker trying to become a bricklayer are alright, but a businessman cannot become an auxiliary, or an auxiliary a ruler. Interference between the classes of another's job does the greatest harm to the state.

Justice in the Individual:
Spirit and appetite must subjected to reason, this leads to a just individual. It is generally the same rules that govern society.

Women and the Family

The Status of Women:
There is no difference when assigning occupations between men and women.

Marriage and the Family:
There is no family, eugenics is dominant. This will be disguised by a lot drawing system, sex can also be for distinguished service in war and other activities. Inferior children will be quietly and secretly disposed of (or distributed among the lower class). Those considered acceptable will be brought up separately in nurseries. No family or marriages. Sex must be sanctioned, or it will be considered a crime and sin, and the child will be outside society. After the adults pass their prime age for breeding, the may have sex as the please but must bare no children, or have sex with any born in such a time that they could be their children (for in this society they will be considered as such).

Rules of War:

Young Guardian trainees will go to war as an apprenticeship when they are old enough. Acting almost as squires. Measures, of course, will be taken to insure there safety, and they will only go on relatively safe campaigns, under the charge of skilled and trustworthy officers. Children will be trained on horseback at an early age, so they might follow the officers to safety if it is needed.

If any Guardian throws down their arms, deserts or shows other signs of cowardice, they should be demoted to an artisan or farmer. And if they are captured, left to deal with the captors themselves. And those who act bravely should be distinguished while the army is in field. Those who die bravely should be buried with special ceremony. And henceforth treat their tombs with reverence and worship them as Guardian Spirits.

Enemies will not be made slaves, only weapons and armour will be taken from the dead. There will be no refusal to allow enemies to bury their dead.

Fields and houses must not be burnt. Soldiers may only carry off a years harvest.

Inter-country war is civil strife, and will be temporary.
Out of country war is war.

The Philosopher Ruler.

Qualities Required in the Philosopher, as they are the same in a good leader:

They can grasp the eternal and immutable. The must know reality and truth, for if they know reality and truth, they can set down rules about what is admirable, good, right, and as Guardians, maintain them. They also love any branch of learning that reveals eternal reality, and are also truthful, honest.

The Education of the Philosopher

Preliminary:
All studies must provoke the philosophers mind to thought, and also be useful to soldiers. How to count and calculate.

The Five Mathimatical Studies:

1 Arithmetic
2 Plane Geometry
3 Solid Geometry
4 Astronomy
5 Harmonics
The last two being used only to force the mind to think abstractly.

Dialectic
An emphasis on pure thought.

[Aindriahhn]

FIVE HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That took me five bloody hours!!!

[Sperrit]

I bet! Very exhaustive! Good times.
Umm... what does it have to do with Advice?

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[Aindriahhn]

Well, that doesn't really apply to Plato's Republic but,

"That depends on if you have any questions"

[Sperrit]

Any questions about... The Republic? I'd say that you've answered them all quite nicely.

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