Term Paper on "Plato Republic Inner and Outer Mortality"

Term Paper 4 pages (1217 words) Sources: 1 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Republic

Inner and Outer Morality

According to Socrates in Plato's Republic, morality is one of the four elements of goodness in a community. Inner morality was the rule of reason over other parts of the mind whereby a person lets reason and rationality rule. Throughout Chapter 6, morality is described in terms of harmony. Socrates argues that when there is harmony between all elements of a community, morality will emerge. This is outer morality. Inner morality is the harmony that exists between all parts of mind. It must be understood that rule of reason over other parts doesn't suggest that rational mind must rule over every other desire, it only means that reason must be recognized in all parts of the mind and it should then be allowed to exist in harmony with reason on the whole. This is very interesting and is closely connected with tripartite psychology of Socrates. In Plato's book Republic, it is Socrates who argues with various important personalities of Greece and conducts a long dialogue with them. In Chapter 6, he is communicating with Adeimuntus and trying to explain to him what constitutes inner and outer morality. These, he explains, are required for community's goodness. When there is conflict between essential elements of a community, anarchy and discord would result and these would endanger the community on the whole.

Socrates argues for the existence of four essential elements in a society in order for it to function properly. In fact they are three essential elements which when they work in harmony, give birth to the fourth element. These are described as wisdom, courage and self-discipline. Socrates tells everyone on the onset of dialogue that when any three elements are found, whatever the fourth is would be morality. He states: "imagine any set of four things, and imagine we're exploring something for one of the four. Either we'd recognize it straight away and that would do the job, or we would recognize the one we're looking for by first recognizing the other three, in the sense that whatever is left is bound to be the one we're looking for.'" (p. 134) to this everyone agrees and the exploration begins.

From the discussion, they realize that wisdom must act as the guardian of a community. It was said that since a person with knowledge is wise only when he can think about the entire community and not just a few limited things. Thus a carpenter while he would have knowledge will not be considered wise because he is only good at making furniture but not necessarily wise. Wisdom thus entails a broader application of knowledge. When Socrates inquires, "...which of the citizens have it?'" Adeimuntus replies: "It is guardianship...and the people who have it are those rulers -- the ones we not long ago called guardians in the strict sense of the word.' (p. 135). Not all rulers would be wise but in an ideal community, rulers must be people with resourcefulness that comes from and leads to wisdom.

The second important element of courage was found in the militia or law enforcing agencies. In other words, Socrates first explained what he thought was courage. He said, courage was a sort of "retention" (136) where the person demonstrating courage would be one who understands the law and fears it where it must be feared. "....this ability to retain under all circumstances a true and lawful notion about what is and is not to be feared is what I'm calling courage." (137) He said that when one fears the things, which must be feared, he is following the law. And the one who follows the law… READ MORE

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