Al doilea curs

’’The just city is the ideal form of the city, in order to solve the issues of an injustice city’’ according to Plato, the author who made Socrate popular through his writings. But...what tells us Socrates about the idea of a just city? What is justice and...what is injustice? Do these two concepts refer to the four virtues? Well, we will find out together through this article!

First and foremost, Socrate defines this kind of city as one populated by craftsmen, farmers, doctors etc. Basically, a city is a place where people gather and offer help. For Socrate, this gathering represents a city, but not any kind of city! If this settlement is governed only by necessary desires, well we are talking about an idea of a healthy city.

Society is varied, we aren't all born alike! It’s obvious that a farmer and a doctor don’t have a lot of things in common, but how about two farmers for example? Although they have the same education,  they differ a lot from each other due to human nature. Every single one of us is built differently, and this thing is absolutely fantastic.  It doesn’t matter if the population increases, there is no chance that two people will be exactly the same. Whether we are talking about just a group of people (farmers, for example) or all the people, variety helps the city to develop. Why? The more diversity there is, the more ways to satisfy the needs appear. But, although these things are wonderful, every human has to endure a ’’curse’’: one can’t satisfy oneself more than one single need, because one is capable of one single function, due to one’s talent. Thus, we must take count of our genetics, although we tend to ignore them at a first glance. If we don’t take advantage of them, we can’t even satisfy one single need of ours.

Talking about diversity...from this point the city develops, gains notoriety and the needs are raising. Thus, there are two options available: the citizens abstain and limit their needs, or they go to war in order to expand. But...why expand? you would probably ask yourself. Well, the production will increase significantly and, of course, they will need more land and human resources. And...isn’t it right that these two things will lead to war?

But, the point that I wanted to tackle is the new category of citizens: the guardians. They must be people genetically endowed with certain specific qualities that make them suitable for accomplishing this job: to protect the city and its citizens.

But, among the guardians, someone should rule and someone should be ruled, right? Thus, the ones who rule (the rulers) must be the best from the guardians, but Plato claims that the rulers must be philosophers or philosophers may be the rulers of an ideal city. Then there are the rest of them (the auxiliaries), who are the ones who will be ruled. So we have now defined three classes of citizens! The guardians (they can be either rulers or auxiliaries) and the producers (farmers, craftsmen, doctors, etc.). Now, considering these three categories, we can talk about, the four virtues. What is special about them? Well, there is a correspondence between the virtues and every class of citizens: wisdom for the rulers (they possess the knowledge and they don't judge any particular matter but matters regarding the city as a whole and the maintenance of good relations, both internally and externally), courage for the auxiliaries, moderation is spread through the whole (it assures harmony in a society where the rulers rule and the ruled are ruled) and last but not least, the just. Yes, the just: the concept with which we began this article. In fact, the just is the best thing that can happen to a city, it is the thing that tells every citizen, no matter their class, what they ought to do, but it doesn't meddle with what isn’t one’s business. Well, here comes injustice (clearly, the opposite of what the concept of justice refers to). Injustice is the worst and most harmful thing that someone can do to the city, according to Socrates. But if justice is good, why did he say automatically that injustice is something bad? Well, injustice produces internal disharmony which prevents effective actions, like expanding, growing and collaboration. Also, injustice involves Meddling and exchange between these three classes, and this is by far the worst thing someone could do to any city. Thus, these two concepts are clear and well-debated, so I propose to focus a little bit on what we said before: ’’the rulers must be the best people among the guardians’’. But how can we determine the ideal guardian? First of all, we must determine what ’’the ideal of something’’ means. Well, according to Plato, the concept of ideal refers to a guide that makes you give off the best of yourself. That’s such an ethical and developed manner of thinking, isn’t it? Therefore, dear reader and passionate about philosophy, we have just taken you on an introductory trip into Greek ancient philosophy and knowledge alongside Damian Caluori, university professor at the University of Edinburgh. He sustained the first course in English at Lazar Justice, and we can proudly affirm that we are eager to get to know better those old (but gold) Greek personalities!



Text: Bianca Constantin