Nature of the City-State in Plato's Republic

Plato's Republic is a dialogue in which Socrates investigates the nature of the city-state and what the ideal city-state should be. The philosophical inquiry in this dialogue can be seen as addressing two primary conceptions, conceptions which are linked under the heading of idealism, with one detailing Plato's epistemology and the other his political philosophy. The first is a more metaphysical consideration of the nature of life and the world and how we can know what we know, while the second is the practical application of various concepts to the state to demonstrate the relationship between the individual and his or her society in a utopian city-state such as Plato would create but which does not exist. The fact that the city-state described here as an ideal relates to the underlying belief Plato has that there are Forms which serve as the ideal originals, the pure concepts, for every object and every person, while the reflections we see in this world are only that--reflections, and often pale reflections when compared to the original Forms.

In The Republic, Plato shows a theoretical perspective in terms of what preoccupies him in his analysis. His major concerns are stability, justice, divine right, and the caste system. The Republic is itself a theoretical perspective on the proper structure and operation of a city-state. In the very creation of the ideal city-state, Plato is referring to his theory of ideal forms, of which the construct in The Re

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p of perfect people. Plato tries create perfect people through education and other means, but it is not clear that this could ever be effective. Plato's ideal state is geared toward the benefit of the state itself as an entity and to the people as a whole rather than to the individual. This is clearly seen in many of the social institutions and rules he proposes through his spokesperson, Socrates. The individual does not select his profession, for instance--that is chosen on the basis of an assessment of ability and the needs of society. The individual does not choose his or her marriage partner, either, since that decision is made by the leaders of society. The Guardians are the rulers and protectors, and they exist to prevent strife in the Republic. Minimizing the threat of or possibility of strife is an important component in the state envisioned by Plato, and he sees the avoidance of strife as deriving from unity in the community. This is to be a community in which sharing is the order of the day, including the sharing of wives and children by the Guardian class. The question can be raised whether Plato intended his Republic to be more than an ideal. His Theory of Forms shows an awareness of the existence of qualit

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