The Causes of Decadence in Plato's Republic

PLATO'S PROPOSALS FOR THE GOOD LIFE OF A COMMUNITY and of an individual are combined in his Republic. It was subtitled ‘On Justice’ and its basic premise is that ‘justice is a better thing than injustice‘. Commentators from Aristotle onwards have tended to look at his specific proposals for a p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Government and opposition (London) 1982-01, Vol.17 (1), p.80-93
Main Author: Skemp, J. B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communities
Decadence
Democracy
Desire
Fathers
INDIVIDUAL AND INDIVIDUALITY
Justice
Motivation
Oligarchy
PLATO
Platonism
Political ideas : Antiquity
POLITY
Psyche
Tyranny
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Summary:PLATO'S PROPOSALS FOR THE GOOD LIFE OF A COMMUNITY and of an individual are combined in his Republic. It was subtitled ‘On Justice’ and its basic premise is that ‘justice is a better thing than injustice‘. Commentators from Aristotle onwards have tended to look at his specific proposals for a philosophic élite exercizing political sovereignty and they have criticized those proposals which contravene normal social practice, like community of property and community (under strict regulation) of sexual intercourse among the governing élite. But what Plato really sought to present through these proposals was a society in which each individual and each class ‘did its own thing’ in the sense that it contributed to the whole life of the community the particular services and personal qualities it was best able to contribute.
ISSN:0017-257X
1477-7053
DOI:10.1111/j.1477-7053.1982.tb00680.x