Platos Three Waves Essays - Socratic Dialogues, Dialogues Of Plato

Plato's Three Waves The Three Waves In the Republic, Plato, through his character of Socrates, is searching for the definition of justice. During his search he creates a theoretical city of the kallipolis. This city is to be the ideal, good city. After he establishes this city in his mind he realizes that this city goes against some of the major common thought of his time, and for the city to work it must get passed these obstacles. These obstacles, or waves as Socrates calls them, are vital to the city's success. The city of the kallipolis that Socrates discusses is an ideal city and everything must work according to his plan. Socrates feels that the best way to establish a just city would be to create a city that has three classes of people. The three classes are the guardians (rulers), guardians (auxiliaries), and producers (everybody else). Socrates feels that in order for this city to work the best people, or golden people, would be on top as rulers. Then the auxiliary guardians/soldiers, or silver people, would be educated to believe that this is this best city so they will not revolt against the city. These silver people would also be censored in the things they learned, so they would act in accordance to what they learned, i.e. the rulers would not allow the soldiers to read stories of revolution. Finally, the producers, or bronze and iron people, would follow and listen to the guardians above them because of the noble falsehoods that have been told to them. They will believe that the land is mother and that they should be the producers, because that is the way this society is run, they are born into different classes and metals, and they cannot change that. The second noble falsehood Socrates explains is that the people will think that they all have equal opportunity to mate and produce offspring, when in actuality they do not. Instead the strongest males and females, or the most intelligent, moral and most beautiful are chosen to mate in an attempt to breed the best offspring. This will be accomplished through a fixed lottery. Because of the lottery and the myth of the land, the people will agree and continue to live in this fashion and the city will get stronger. Even though Socrates puts this city together well, there are still three waves that the city must get passed. The first wave is common tasks for both men and women, or equality of the sexes. This wave goes against the common thought of Socrates' time because the majority of people felt men should do more than women should. Even Socrates acknowledges that women are weaker than men are, but in this city it is not the strength of the people that count. This city needs intelligent and moral people. If a woman has the qualities to be a guardian she must then be educated the same as the men in the city. Socrates proves this through the following quote ?So one woman may have a guardian nature and another not? Therefore, men and women are by nature the same with respect to guarding the city? Then women of this sort must be chosen along with men of the same sort to live with them and share their guardianship? it isn't against nature to assign an education in music, poetry, and physical traini ng to the wives of the guardians? It's rather the way things are at present that seems to be against nature.? This equality allows for the most intelligent, and moral people to be in the higher classes in this city, and for these people to breed strong offspring in this sense through the fixed lottery. It is to the benefit of the state to allow this, and to its disadvantage to hold women inferior to men. The second wave, although one of the hardest to embrace, is probably one of the most important for Socrates' city to have success. The second wave is women and children are to be held in common. This means that there cannot be marriage and what we see as family. Instead there will be mating of the best men and women so that