Theories of Society

Plato expresses his views on society at greatest length in The Republic in which Socrates speaks of the relationship between the individual human soul and the society of which the individual is a part. The dialogue in this instance is designed to make a moral statement about the nature of the state and its relationship to the individual. Socrates says at the outset:

. . .we are bound to admit that the elements and traits that belong to a state must also exist in the individuals that compose it. There is nowhere else for them to come from (Lee, 1987, 209).

Socrates has already noted that the state has three natural constituents, wisdom, courage, and self-discipline, and he wants to show that these same three forces are to be found in the human soul:

. . . we shall expect to find that the individual has the same three elements in his personality and to be justified in using the same language of him because he is affected by the s

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ate of grace and instead sees men as seeking their own advantage over others through coercion and force. For Rousseau, self-preservation is the first and the most important function of the human being, a function he calls the first law of human nature. Locke saw the social contract as having as its paramount purpose the protection of property, property which individuals made valuable through their effort: God gave the World to Men in common; but since he gave it to them for their benefit, and the greatest Conveniences of Life they were capable to draw from it, it cannot be supposed he meant it should always remain common and uncultivated (Laslett, 1988, 291) Rousseau adds the idea of the general will: the general will alone can direct the forces of the state in accordance with the purpose for which it was created, namely, the common good. For if the opposition of private interests made the establishment of societies necessary, it is the agreement of those same interests that made it possible (Rousseau, 1986, 25). Marx explained society in terms of economics, and he presented ideas about history as a struggle between economic forces, a struggle that was evolutionary in that it implied development over time. Marx explained the
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Approximate Word count = 1665
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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