Short Essay #2

Kennedy Blose

Short Essay #2

Throughout The Republic, Plato seems to be advocating for the benefits of philosophy in both the self and society. Plato’s Socrates uses many different images, allegories, and more in order to show how philosophy is both not harmful, and even beneficial, to the individual and society. In his arguments for why philosophers are beneficial for society, Plato also addresses why it is that philosophy has been shed in such an unfortunate light to the many. In doing so, Plato attempts to rid philosophy of its useless reputation all the while still showing how it is actually beneficial.

A powerful image that Plato’s Socrates uses in explaining the appearance of philosophers to the many is the ship of state. In this analogy, Socrates uses a ship instead of a traditional political regime in order to show the virtues of the soul, yet the parts remain the same: the three parts of the ship include a shipowner who signifies the spirited part of the soul, seamen who represent desire, and a stargazer who represents the calculating part of the soul (488). Since the shipowner cannot pilot the ship, the seamen are constantly “quarreling with one another about the piloting, each supposing he ought to pilot, although he has never learned the art… and they are always crowded around the shipowner himself, begging and doing everything so that he’ll turn the rudder over to them” (488b-c). The seamen are constantly being driven by desire to rule even though they don’t have the proper knowledge to do so; the seamen even have the potential to “either kill the others or throw them out of the ship” if they fail to take the piloting reigns for themselves (488c).

This is crucial because it is showcasing the disposition of desire, and how a lack of moderation can have consequences. Since the shipowner is preoccupied with the sailors, and the sailors are preoccupied with their want of rule, no one is piloting the ship; even more, all those who are fighting to sail the ship cannot even do so. Between the seamen and the shipowner, there is no one with the proper knowledge of how to sail; if it were left up to the shipowner and the seamen to sail the ship, it would be lost at sea unless someone or something assisted them.

There is a ‘someone’ that could help the shipowner and sailors, and that is a person already aboard the ship who does have the means to pilot the ship; this is the stargazer. The stargazer is able to pilot the ship due to the fact that “for the true pilot it is necessary to pay careful attention to year, seasons, heaven, stars, winds, and everything that’s proper to the art, if he is really going to be skilled at ruling a ship” (488d). In this way, the stargazer can be seen as philosophic in the nature of sailing, since he is gathering all of the information necessary for that art. Knowledge is not something inherent – it must be sought out – and it only comes from sources outside of the self. No lay person will wake up with the knowledge of how to sail a ship on their own, or chart directions; they have to go out, explore the ship and its pieces, explore the stars and figure out which can be used for guidance and which lead the ship in different directions.

There are many other things one must do in order to learn how to sail a ship, with the main point being that it takes time, studying, and practice before one can pilot. The sailors’ only desire to pilot as a means of ruling the ship, they have no interest in knowledge and even “claim it [the art of sailing the ship] isn’t eve teachable and are ready to cut to pieces the man who says it is teachable…and they don’t suppose it’s possible to acquire the art and practice of how one can get hold of the helm whether the others wish it or not, and at the same time acquire the pilot’s skill” (488b-d). The sailors’ desire for piloting is so strong that they would take the helm without knowledge of what they were doing, and they would overlook the one person who could navigate the ship – the stargazer.

Taking the sailors’ actions into consideration, “with such things happening on the ships, don’t you believe that the true pilot will really be called a stargazer, a prater and useless to them by those who sale on ships run like this?” (488e-489a). The sailors believe that gaining power is the most important thing to do, and since the stargazer only observes nature and gathers knowledge, the sailors disregard him as useless. It seems like Plato’s Socrates is implying that only with a philosophic nature ruling the soul – the want of acquiring knowledge for one’s art – could a person properly pilot the ship or navigate themselves. When left up to the desiring or spirited parts of the ship, neither part had the means to pilot and the ship couldn’t properly function. However, with the knowledge and leadership of the stargazer, the ship could have successfully charted a course anywhere it needed to go.

In the ship of state, it is easy to see how philosophy can be beneficial for the self and for society. The stargazer, with his knowledge, can navigate the ship; if the desiring (sailors) or spirited (shipowner) aspects of the soul piloted the ship, there would be little or no progress made in navigation and sailing. It is only with the proper guidance of the stargazer that the ship can be piloted. However, since the desire of the sailors to rule far outweighs their knowledge of piloting (and their want of knowledge), they disregard the stargazer as useless (due to his lack of want for ruling). Even though Socrates uses this analogy to demonstrate aspects of the soul, it can still be applied to a broader sense of how the many view philosophy. Since the many don’t have the same knowledge as philosophers, it can be easy for them to overlook philosophers, or view them as useless. If a pilot just sits looking at the stars all night, to people who don’t know he’s charting a path for navigation, he might look like he’s simply passing time, doing nothing of importance. The ship of state analogy shows how philosophy is both useful and regarded as useless.