Seminar Paper Book 4- Kennedy Blose

The City and The Soul

The entire city in speech was created as an analogy to the soul in order to find justice in an individual. Many argue that the city in speech, even though it’s used by Socrates as an analogy to the individual’s soul, has political implications. This argument has a logical basis, since the fact that Socrates used a city as the “bigger picture” of justice in a soul means Plato’s Socrates believed there are some intrinsic factors in the inner workings of cities that are paralleled to those found in the soul. In this respect, the interactions of the parts of both the city and a soul should also be analogous. I argue that the city in speech is indeed an ideal political structure that Plato proposes, but the city in speech is only possible if each individual within it is just. The city in speech, then, is a proposed method in which to educate and raise just individuals, who could in turn create just political regimes.

Socrates deems that the type of political regime of the city in speech “would be the one we’ve described, but it could be named in two ways…if one exceptional man arose among the rulers, it would be called a kingship, if more, an aristocracy” (445d). The king, or aristocratic leaders, of the city in speech are the guardians. According to Socrates, “there isn’t ever anyone who holds any position of rule, insofar as he is a ruler, who considers or commands his own advantage rather than that of what is ruled and of which he himself is the craftsman; and it is looking to this and what is advantageous and fitting for it that he says everything he says and does everything he does” (342e). A good ruler, therefore, is well educated in the art of ruling, and would rule in accordance with the advantage of the whole. This is crucial because the ruler will have to be someone disciplined enough not to abuse the power contained in the ruling of the city.

The guardians were chosen as the leaders of this regime because “from the smallest group and part of itself and the knowledge in it, from the supervising and ruling part…a city founded according to nature would be wise as a whole” (429a). The guardians, by nature and education, are the calculating, wise part of the soul. This implies that in order to be a good – real – leader, one must have the following qualities: be just, he must be most naturally inclined to be a ruler, be well educated in the art of ruling, and be wise. Socrates even clarifies that it is “proper for the calculating part to rule, since it is wise and has forethought about all of the soul” (441e). This further stresses the importance of education for the real-life ruler, because by analogy to that, the ruler must have forethought about all of the city and its functions. However, this type of person could only grow up in a regime where education is highly regarded and even warranted. In the city in speech, as can be seen in Book 3, the education of the calculating and spirited parts of the soul is highly regulated, and this can be seen as a suggestion from Plato’s Socrates that education of the youth must primarily focus on strengthening these virtues.

               The guardians, even though the ruling class, do not execute the laws and advice they have for the city; this duty lies with the auxiliaries. The auxiliaries, representing the spirited part of the soul, ensure the guardians’ rule by the “preserving of the opinion produced by law through education about what – and what sort of thing – is terrible” namely, by preserving the laws the guardians set forth (429c). The guardians provide wisdom and knowledge about ruling, and how the city should run, but it is the auxiliaries who carry out these legislations, and who conquer the desire part of the soul. The auxiliaries could be viewed as a mix between police and an army. On an individual level, in the soul, the auxiliaries conquer desire; they ensure that the individual follows the calculating part of their soul, making the wisest choices. This concept’s implications in analogy to a city would mean that the city’s defenders would have to have internal defenses ensuring that all the citizens abided by the laws set forth by the ruler/ruling class – a strong police force.

The auxiliaries also deal with guarding the city in speech against other cities, executing the art of war. This could be analogous to the individual, where the spirited part of their soul protects them from doing injustices because of the situation an individual finds themselves in, as can be seen when Socrates questions “And what about when a man believes he’s being done injustice? Doesn’t his spirit in this case boil and become harsh and form an alliance for battle with what seems just; and, even if it suffers in hunger, cold and everything of the sort, doesn’t it stand firm and conquer, and not cease from its noble efforts before it has succeeded, or death intervenes, or before it becomes gentle, having been called in by the speech within him like a dog by a herdsman?” (440c-d). Here, Socrates is merely clarifying that the auxiliaries not only carry out the orders of the guardians, but they would also defend the whole of the soul against injustices. The spirited part of the soul, then, must be strong in order to overpower injustices and maintain moderation and justice in the soul. In a real city, this would mean a strong internal and external defense system which would be completely loyal to the king or aristocratic leaders.

In the city soul analogy, Socrates claims that there is a third virtue – moderation. This virtue is defined by Socrates as “a certain kind of order and mastery of certain kinds of pleasures and desires, as men say when they use – I don’t know in what way – the phrase ‘stronger than himself’…this speech looks to me as if it wants to say that, concerning the soul, in the same human being there is something better and something worse… the phrase ‘stronger than himself’ is used when that which is better by nature is master over that which is worse” (431a-b). This means that according to Socrates, there is a hierarchy in the order of virtues in the soul, and that in order to be moderate, the virtue which is best must rule over the other virtues. This implies that Plato’s Socrates values wisdom the most out of all the virtues, because he handed over responsibility of the entire city, analogous to the entire soul, to the calculating part of the soul which embodies the virtue of wisdom.

Moderation in the city, however, seems to have a voluntary aspect of all the parts being ruled by the guardians. Socrates questions “Isn’t he moderate because of the friendship and accord of these parts – when the ruling part and the two ruled parts are of the single opinion that the calculating part ought to rule and don’t raise faction against it?” (442c-d). In the city in speech, Socrates implies that all the parts are of unified belief that a wise ruler is the best for the city. Taking this fuller idea of moderation as analogous to a real-life city, all the members of the city must recognize that whatever king or aristocratic leaders that rule the city are the best fit for the city, because they’re wise and naturally inclined to rule. The most plausible way of making a unified belief for the acceptance of a wide ruler would be either propaganda, or educating people of this need for a proper ruler and moderation from youth. The plausibility of either of these things happening, however, could still be called into question.

The last, and ultimately most important, parallel between the city and soul lies in the virtue of justice. Justice in the city “after all [is] a kind of phantom of justice…the fact that the shoemaker by nature rightly practices shoemaking and does nothing else, and the carpenter practices carpentry, and so on for the rest” (443c). Justice in a city, even though it is only a phantom of justice in the soul (whatever that means, thanks for the clarification Socrates), is each man doing the art they were meant to do by nature. Justice seems to be the most straightforward of the virtues when it comes to the city, each citizen must practice that which they’re naturally inclined to do – in other words, what they do best. This would keep common workers out of political life, while ensuring that only the best rulers in the city would rule.

While this seems like the most straightforward virtue to be found in a city, the practicality of this type of justice in a city can be called into question. How would such a city raise each child into an individual who does what they’re naturally inclined to do best? How would the education of such a city be structured so that it would properly educate the calculating and spirited aspects of the soul, while finding out which individual does what best by nature? Book 5 delves into deeper questions regarding education and the incorporation of women and children, however my focus remains on the final city in speech constructed in Book 4.

With the final city comes justice in the individual’s soul and the analogous city. Since justice was found within this analogous political regime, and the political regime mirrors that of a monarchy or aristocracy, it is logical to deduce that one can learn about justice in a political regime via Plato’s Socrates’ city in speech. In the city in speech, the ruling class consists of the guardians who embody virtue. The defensive class consists of the auxiliaries who embody courage. There is moderation, in which the ruling class is better by nature than those being ruled (i.e. wisdom rules over spirit and desire), and there is justice. Justice consists of each man doing what he’s naturally inclined to do.

In a real-life city, by analogy, there must be a ruling class who is wise, a defensive class who excels in courage, the ruling class must be by nature better fit to rule – and rule over all other classes in harmony – and each person must be just. In order for each person to be just, however, they must be raised with the proper education and rearing. Therefore, since Socrates’ city in speech could be (and should be to some extent) viewed as a just political regime, it must ultimately be used in order to help individuals find justice in the soul; for without justice in the soul, in all individuals, justice could not arise in a city.