Christian Analysis of "The Republic of Plato"
8. Book VIII
Book VIII
Socrates returns to the discussion of the five regimes that is worthy to discover which are best and worst, and which man can find the most happiness or wretchedness. The first regime for the just city and just soul involves the Philosopher/King rule spoken in several chapters back. Now, he begins discussion on the unjust governments (544a).
Five Regimes (545c)
1. Kingship (one man)/Aristocracy (more than one) – Exceptional man rises among rulers (445d) (Just City and Just Soul)
2. Timocracy – Seeks honor, rather than wisdom and justice. The timocratic man uses his spirited part of his soul to find power. He will be more stubborn, love music less, a lover of hearing, and unskilled at oration. He would be a brutal slave order, but obedient to rulers. He love everything connected with war, gymnastics and the hunt (549a). His soul is between the soul’s reason and spirit.
3. Oligarchy comes from Timocracy with a focus upon wealth rather than honor that is founded upon property assessment (550c) Men will sell all they own, and others will buy it, splitting the city into two, the wealthy and the poor without trade skills or means (552a). Socrates asserts that men arrive at this place through a “want of education, bad rearing, and a bad arrangement of the regime”[1] (552e). The transfer from Timocracy to Oligarchy takes place in situations when the son witnesses his father lose his wealth and forces the family to be impoverished, stirring the son to give up honor in search of wealth with greedy money-making attempts (553c). The appetitive part of his soul is activated in seeking wealth, and lies between the spirited and appetitive parts (553d).
4. Democracy evolves when poor win the battle with the wealthy money-makers, kill and cast out some of them, and share the regime and the ruling offices on an equal basis by lot (557a). The regime appears to be the fairest of all regimes, though its rulers will be ill-equipped for the job and probably untrained. It is the regime that contains the greatest number of dispositions from many-colored men that are free(561d).The democratic man organizes his life as it pleases him and enjoys unnecessary desires of the body allowing the appetitive part of his soul to rule without shame or self-discipline (558d-559d).
5. Tyranny comes from democracy when the need for freedom exceeds natural laws (such as parent honor) when the freedom is limited by democracy (562b-c). Anything done to extreme provokes the opposite response; therefore, extreme freedom seeking produces savage slavery of the citizens (564a). The most courageous men lead, the less courageous follow. (364b). The three classes, the drones, those naturally organized and wealthy, and those craftsman with no interest in politics, fight against each other at the drones direction through deceit(564d-569b). The poor revolt, and the tyrant takes rule when the poor people triumph and kills all the good people in the city. Then the rest are enslaved to support his need for an extravagant life.
Three Simple Regimes[2]
1. Rule of the One (Monarchy) (Claim = Wisdom) (Corrupt = Tyranny) (Soul – Rational) (Church – Catholic, Episcopal) – We can choose a king-like person, and invest one of us with all power. Good form is one person Monarch who would rule for the benefit of everybody, with the common wealth in view.
2. Rule of the Few (Aristocracy) (Claim = Virtue) (Corrupt = Oligarchy) (Soul – Spirited) (Church - Presbyterianism) – We can decide to share power with a few that would direct government upon us. The Greek word Aristos means “the best” and “cracy” means “rule;” Aristocracy is the rule of the best, chosen out from the group that seem the most prudent, capable, skillful, etc. based upon those titles to rule that we talked about earlier.
3. Rule of Many (Polity) (Claim = Liberty) (Corrupt = Democracy) (Soul – Appetitive) (Church – Baptists, Congregationalists) – All of us would share in the decision-making of the body. We’re a small group and we would have positive expectations that votes can decide issues. If we all decided to maintain our personal sovereignty and surrender that to the community is called Polity (many). That is the good form of the rule of the many. It is the rule of all of us for all.
Christian Application
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