? Justice is the theme that runs through Plato's Republic. His theory of justice rose from individual, empirical and concrete justice to national justice, and finally entered the field of conceptual justice. The following is the relevant information I have carefully sorted out, hoping to help you!

On Plato's Ideal Personality of "the King of Philosophy"

Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher, showed his great personality with his glorious life. He was very calm in the face of the death penalty trial. He used his own death to wake up those people who were still living in the "cave". Socrates is very lucky. His student Plato inherited and developed his teacher's philosophy and political ideal in his academic and political career. He devoted himself to pursuing an ideal personality and a country with an ideal society, trying to change the crisis of Greek city-state system and seek a happy lifestyle for just people. Plato wrote in the Republic that the ideal city-state has four virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance and justice, the ruler has wisdom, the warrior has the virtue of bravery, all citizens have the quality of temperance, and everyone "does his best". Such a city-state is just.

My polis and people

Leo strauss wrote in the introduction of the book polis and man: "The theme of political philosophy is polis and man, while classical political philosophy has a clear theme of polis and man." How to realize the unity of the polis and how to realize the balanced and harmonious polis order is the political theme of the whole ancient Greek polis period.

Since the birth of ancient Greek city-state system, this historic political topic has been puzzling many great theorists and practitioners. Plato's political philosophy, which grew up in the period of political turmoil in ancient Greece, is also inseparable from the theme of polis and people, because his philosophy has always been linked with politics. Plato in the Middle Ages witnessed the execution of his teacher Socrates, trying to change the crisis of Greek city-state system and establish a harmonious and perfect city-state. Under this new city-state order, a harmonious and unified city-state politics replaced the divided and opposing city-States, thus realizing the eternal perfect existence of the city-States. In this city-state, Plato set a series of standards for the city-state based on harmony, which made it possible for the whole city-state and the individuals in the city-state to form a harmonious order. People in the polis are divided into three levels: rulers, warriors and ruled people engaged in agriculture, industry and commerce. Like slavery in Greece at that time, in Plato's eyes, slaves were not treated as human beings. The three grades have different qualities and identities. God added gold, silver, iron and copper to different people when casting. They are rulers, helpers, farmers and other technicians. "But they belong to the same category. Although the father and son have the same talent, sometimes it is inevitable that the gold father gives birth to silver, and the silver father gives birth to gold, which is complicated and varied ... So the ruler should pay great attention to what kind of metal is mixed in the soul of future generations. If their children have some chop suey in their hearts, they must not be a little tolerant. They should be placed in an appropriate position among migrant workers. If the descendants of migrant workers find that they are gifted with gold and silver, they should pay attention to him and be promoted to guardian or helper. You know, Oracle Bone Inscriptions once said that' copper and iron are in power, and the country is ruined'. " Plato believes that because people have different endowments, there should be a social division of labor, so that everyone in the polis can "perform their duties and do their best."

Second, the justice of the polis.

Justice is the theme that runs through Plato's Republic. His theory of justice rose from individual, empirical and concrete justice to national justice, and finally entered the field of conceptual justice. Plato constructed an ideal city-state, or a just country in his mind.

In Plato's view, the only reason why people want to form a polis is that everyone can't achieve self-sufficiency on their own, so the polis can be regarded as a system that needs each other and ensures everyone to live a happy life. Justice is first of all "everyone must perform a duty that is most suitable for his nature in the country". Secondly, justice lies in the harmonious coexistence among all classes. All social strata engage in their own activities according to their natural status and responsibilities, so that all social strata can live in harmony and order. In an ideal city-state, the king of philosophy, soldiers and laborers, according to their wisdom, courage and restraint derived from their reason, will and lust, carry out a reasonable division of labor, perform their respective duties of managing, defending and engaging in production, cooperate with each other, perform their duties and maintain order. He believes that the natural talent of social division of labor is a harmonious and reasonable arrangement, because rulers are made of gold, soldiers are made of silver and civilians are made of copper and iron.

Justice is a virtue that all classes need, and it exists in individuals and countries. His opposition to justice is relative, and he believes that the foundation of justice is rationality. For an individual, the soul consists of three parts: reason, * * * and desire. To achieve justice, individuals must let reason rule the soul, so as to suppress desires with the help of * * *; For a country, the ideal country consists of rulers, soldiers and producers. The virtue of rulers is wisdom, the virtue of soldiers is courage, the virtue of all citizens is temperance, and the fourth virtue of polis is justice. If all levels have their own virtues, the polis is just. Plato strongly emphasized that every citizen should "be in his place and do his best" and strongly opposed mutual trespass, that is, people at different levels, especially those at low levels, tried to replace the status of high-level people. He believes that the order of the country will be destroyed and justice will cease to exist. He said: "If a person is born as a craftsman or businessman, but because he has wealth, or can control elections, or is strong, or has other such advantages, he is tempted to climb the ranks of soldiers, or a soldier tries to become a lawmaker and protector they don't deserve, or these people exchange tools and status with each other, or one person performs all these duties at the same time. I think this exchange and interference will mean the destruction of the country." "The existing three kinds of people interfere with each other and replace each other, which is the greatest harm to the country, so it can be correctly called the worst thing."

Third, moral education.

The ultimate ideal of an ideal country is to cultivate "the king of philosophy". Only when the king of philosophy is the ruler of the city-state, can the country be harmonious and the justice of the country be guaranteed. "Unless philosophers become kings of our country, or those we now call kings and rulers, they can seriously pursue wisdom and combine political power and intelligence; Those mediocre people who can't have both must be excluded. Otherwise, my dear Grau L will cause endless harm to the country and even all mankind, and there will never be peace. "

The way to cultivate the king of philosophy is education. Plato believes that the justice of the state and the individual is isomorphic. "We can also assume that the individual has the same composition in his soul as that found in the polis, and there is reason to hope that the individual will get the same name because of the' emotion' of the same composition in the country." A person's soul contains three elements: reason, * * * and desire. A moral person should let reason dominate, command and control desires, which is also the best state of human soul.

In his view, the individual is similar to the city-state. "What exists in the country also exists in everyone's soul, and the number is the same." Plato coordinated the relationship between rationality and * * * through music education and physical education. Physical exercise exercises the body and music exercises the spirit. It is very important to attach importance to music education at an early age. "A child has received a good education since childhood, and rhythm and harmony have been immersed in his heart, where he has firmly taken root, and it will become polite ... A properly educated child is also the most sensitive to the characteristics of artificial works or natural objects, so he will be very disgusted with ugly things, appreciate beautiful things, feel inspired, draw nutrition from them, and make his mind grow." The main function of music education is to cultivate people's spirit, stimulate people's rationality, regulate people's desires, and cultivate the virtue of temperance, so as to achieve the harmony of the soul. "Reason and * * * are bred, educated and trained to really play their roles. They will lead desire-it accounts for the largest part of everyone's soul, and nature is the most greedy-and they will monitor it to prevent it from becoming bigger and stronger, because it is full of so-called physical happiness and no longer abides by this part, trying to control and dominate those parts that it should not control and dominate, thus ruining people's lives.

Music education is followed by physical education, and the guardians of the country have to receive strict physical training all their lives. "Simple physical exercise contributes to good health." Music education and physical education complement each other and are indispensable. A guardian needs both qualities. "It seems that there are two technologies-music and sports. I would say that this is a love of wisdom and a * * * part given to us by a certain god-two parts are for serving people. This is not for the sake of body and mind, nor for the sake of body and mind, but for the sake of making love wisdom and * * * work together properly to achieve harmony. " After guardian education, citizens are all twenty years old. The time is ripe to start the education of philosophy king. Cultivating the king of philosophy is the most difficult and the longest.

The education of the king of philosophy includes philosophy study and political practice, each lasting 15 years. Philosophy learning is divided into two stages: in the first stage, four courses are prepared for philosophy learning, and the time is ten years; In the second stage, I spent five years studying dialectics and training in pure philosophy. Students who pass successfully should participate in the management of the city-state affairs in the next fifteen years, cultivate their political skills and become real philosophy kings. Philosophers love wise men and all wisdom. Philosophers pay attention to the truth, that is, the understanding of the thing itself, the grasp of the idea of the thing, and the grasp of justice, beauty and goodness.

Philosophers love truth, pursue truth and harmony of the soul, and don't care about the happiness of the body. Philosophers should naturally become the rulers of the city-state, because of their grasp of things and the concepts of justice, beauty and goodness. Plato's education achieves the unity of values and facts by changing human nature and internal facts, which is the political goal of The Republic.

Four. conclusion

Plato lived in an era, Athens was defeated in the Peloponnesian War, democracy was in crisis, the Greek city-state was in decline, and his teacher Socrates was sentenced to death in a trial. He witnessed all this and tried to change this chaotic state. He wanted to solve the contradiction between politics and philosophy, and the idea of the king of philosophy came into being.

The king of philosophy is the product of civic education in an ideal city-state, while other types of rulers are the product of improper education, which is also the fundamental reason for the transformation of political system. In addition, Plato's efforts to solve the conflict between politics and philosophy in the Republic fully reveal the complex relationship between politics and philosophy. In his view, the opposition between philosophy and politics is not good for both sides. If this opposition is not resolved, not only will the just city-state never be reached, but philosophy will also be defiled. Only with the support of the polis can philosophy develop; Without the guidance of philosophy, the polis cannot maintain long-term stability. Plato changed human nature through education, solved the conflict between philosophy and politics, and realized the perfect combination of them.

How should the "king of philosophy" govern the country and what kind of laws should be formulated to govern the country well? Through meditation and recollection, the "king of philosophy" formulates good policies and laws, governs the country and the army, and makes the society just and peaceful. Everyone does just things and shows his best virtues. The highest state of memory is to recall "the idea of goodness". In the world of ideas, the highest idea is the idea of goodness, which is the highest foundation of other idea worlds, so it is also called the idea of ideas, which governs everything with the highest existence of the idea world. The goal of the "king of philosophy" is to recall "good ideas" so as to govern the country with "good ideas"

Popper said: "The influence of Plato's works, whether good or bad, is immeasurable. It can be said that western thought is either Plato's philosophy or anti-Plato's philosophy, but it is rarely non-Plato's philosophy. " Plato's thought has exerted a great influence on the western ideological circles, and the construction of his ideal personality of "the king of philosophy" is also instructive to the construction of China society today. First of all, Plato's harmonious thought has guiding significance for China to build a harmonious society.

Since the reform and opening up, China has made great achievements in economic construction, but at the same time, there have been many problems, such as the low moral quality of officials, which have seriously plagued the country's development and progress. For an individual, harmony lies in the fact that the various parts of the soul's reason, * * and desire do not cross each other and are orderly within itself. If every citizen can abide by the law and be temperate, the whole society will have a harmonious foundation. Secondly, the cultivation of "the king of philosophy" is instructive to the cultivation of China officials. Children's music education cultivates temperance, harmony and superiority from childhood, while physical education cultivates healthy physique. The two complement each other and are indispensable, thus improving the overall national quality. Generally speaking, the idea of "the king of philosophy" in The Republic has its limitations, but the cultivation of its ideal personality can enlighten the development of children's education in China, and the cultivation of its rulers' ideal personality can enlighten the construction of democratic politics and the improvement of officials' moral level in China.

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