Plato’s Utopia

What is the main argument of Plato about society, social relationships, and the individuals relationship with his society? Plato, the Father of Philosophy, was known as a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, founder of the Academy in Athens, and lastly, as a writer. In fact, one of his books, The Republic, was one of the best-known work and has proven to be one of the most intellectually and historically influential works of philosophy and political theory. The central principle of this book is Plato’s argument about the ideal society.

Likewise, it was said that the main argument of The Republic is about being a good person, the struggle for justice. Plato ideally dreamt of a world grounded by genuine goodness. Moreover, Plato’s account doesn’t only talks about the ideal society and justice, he also focuses on the issues about goodness, censorship, education, etc. With concerns to censorship, in this book, he mentioned that “censorship“ (basically referring to videos and music), plays an important role in one society because basically, it could give license to everyone in a republic, and thus can lead people to of course, do whatever they want.

Another concept or argument in Plato’s account is his belief of goodness. He emphasizes that being good is actually good, and to add on to that, he also stated that virtue is what makes a person internal and thus gives harmony to one’s soul. Education was also one of the theme of the text. In his writing, this great philosopher pointed out that education was the whole course of the state, of our lives. It is all about our ethics, jobs, life, career, destiny and faith.

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In relation to this, he mentioned about the concept of “pragmatism” which talks about how a person deals with the world and not transcend on judging culture. Likewise, Plato’s republic also deal with the solutions to overcome sexual discrimination. According to him, men and women can be completely “equalized” on the premise that women must never be again mothers. Plato believed that this is what it would take to overcome sexual differentiation in hierarchy. Lastly, he made the “Theory of Forms” –what is rue in an absolute sense, what is possible to know. To sum it up, basically, Plato’s republic is about life, how you live and leave it. It’s not just about his wishes on having an “ideal society”, but also, is about REALITY.

Regardless of your position with regard to Plato's views about society and the citizen, what are the three most important lessons about citizenship and life within a political community or society that you can derive from the discussions in the documentary film?

Justice, Education and Equality. These three were the most important and valuable lessons which Plato’s Republic emphasized. First is Justice. In the first part of the documentary film, the scene was already depicting the struggle of the republic for justice. Plato ‘s vision of an ideal society is linked to the idea of justice, the prevalence of truth, for it is a contributing factor on how to obtain a peaceful and orderly kind of community. Second is the importance of education.

Plato believed that a well-education person has all the skills needed in order to come up with wise decision especially in the political realm. Thus, can incorporate justice in the society, in the government which also can resist vices like corruption. And third, is the vital sense of equality, especially between the rights of men and women. As we all know, women were treated differently as to men, they were deprived of having the rights which men have like having the right to education. So, sexual discrimination, as we call it, was one of the issues which Plato wishes to resolve.

He maintained that prospective male and female, should receive the same education and be assigned to the same vital functions within the society.

How does social capital fit into the underlying view of citizenship? Social capital refers to connections among individuals –social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness. It is a resource should be used for public good or for the benefit of individuals; thus facilitate co-operation and mutually supportive relations in communities and therefore solve modern issues.

With those definitions, it can be seen that social capital fit into the underlying view of citizenship for it entails the duties and responsibilities that a citizen must have. What I mean is that, as a citizen, the idea of social capital can be of big help for it lets the people to be aware of certain issue which actually leads them to be active enough to collaborate in order to find innovative solutions and remedies. The idea of social capital also helps the citizens to utilize and maximize their resources for the betterment of their society.

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