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The Three Characteristics Of A Just State In Plato's Republic

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Plato’s republic aims to describe a just state, and in turn a just individual consistently throughout the text. By analogising the justice of the state and the justice of the individual, Plato attempts to demonstrate that a just society will breed just individuals. However, there are certain loop holes within his thought process that can lead one to wonder whether or not his ideas are pragmatic, and could function within a real societal structure- and if human beings given their inherently selfish nature, can adopt the traits necessary in order to achieve justice and the ideal state described in the Republic.

Plato described the human soul as a “tripartite soul” where three main qualities seen in the human being, will also be reflected in the three classes of the ideal state. Reason is the highest of the three main qualities, and it forms the class of rulers and guardians. Reason is supposed to control the two other qualities, achieving the virtue of temperance. Spirit follows reason and is seen in the second highest class known as the Auxiliaries who are deemed to protect the state. The final and lowest class is ruled mostly by appetite, the workers. The superior rulers who govern the state with wisdom should supposedly rule over the appetites of the lower classes, in order for the state to function in a just way. Similarly, analogised to the individual one must allow the better part of his tripartite soul to rule over the inferior parts in order to achieve individual

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