Assess Platos justification of inequality in the Polis?
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Assess Plato’s justification of inequality in the Polis?
The term polis refers to a self-governing city state, and Plato uses the term for the best form of social organisation. At the heart of Plato’s Republic is the belief that philosophers should rule. These philosophers are at the top of a hierarchal order (Roberts and Sutch. 2004: 32). Plato’s claim is that people have different aptitudes for different jobs; and therefore people should be divided into different classes in terms of what they can best contribute to the society (Plato. 1987: 370a-b). Plato explains how there should be philosopher rulers at the top, then the auxiliaries, which are the soldiers and who along with the philosophers make up the guardian class. Below the auxiliaries are the artisans, who are the producers to the society, and are by far the biggest class but have no political power. This is the fundamental cause for inequality in the polis. In this essay it will be argued that there are many good reasons in Plato’s argument for inequality, but by looking at each cause for inequality in turn, it will be shown that there are many problems with Plato’s ideal polis which make justification for the inequality impossible.
The claim that we have different natural aptitudes, which fit us for different jobs’ (Plato. 1987: 370a-b) is crucial because it allows Plato to justify why there should be segregated classes of people where everyone does a job that they do best. Plato believes appropriately that there is a single job that men are best suited (Plato 1987: 370a-c). Plato argues that there will always be trouble until either real philosophers gain political power or politicians become true philosophers (Plato. 1987: 499b). This is far too perfect in reality as people are rarely obviously best at one thing. What would happen if there was an excess of one aptitude, and some of those excess citizens had a second skill that was better at a certain job than another persons’ best aptitude for a particular job, which would get the job? It is offensive to suggest that it is only an elite few that are capable of knowing how to rule, and have the attributes to do so. However, jobs that need expertise should be left to experts. Therefore potential rulers should be given a specialist education, but experts should be consulted on matters where specialist knowledge would help to make the best possible decision. David Lloyd-George famously employed this style of government.
