PLATO
Plato learned a lot about Socrates' method. The main difference from the two of them is that Socrates
didn't write anything, while Plato wrote different dialogues and letter and in most of them Socrates
appears as a character. Everything starts from the definition of philosophy as “knowledge of
ignorance”. The real philosopher is who spends the whole life looking for answers, trying to know
things, even if he already knows that he can't.
The Republic is one of the most interesting works written by Plato. The name “republic” comes from
the latin res – publica which literally means “public affairs”, but the real greek name was
“ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ”, which means “things about the city”. In this dialogue Plato writes about a lot of
different subjects, but the most important one is justice. Socrates, the main character, can't find the idea
of justice in people, so he looks for it in the society. The class division that he makes is really
interesting: in the lower part of the society there are the artisans, in the middle part there are the
guardians and in the upper part there are the philosophers. Each class has is own role: artisans have to
work, guardians have to protect the city and philosophers have to govern the city. People understand
which is their class during their education.
Plato's conception of “communism” is also interesting. Of course his communism is a ethic
communism and not a social one (as Marx's conception of communism will be). Plato imagines a
closed society and he assumes that in this society somebody (the philosophers) could arrive to know
the truth and that's why they feel like governing on other people. Also, it's necessary to extinguish
wealth and poverty because who is rich doesn't work and who is poor will always tend to do what it
makes him gain. The reason why we can consider Plato as a precursor of the real communism is his
anti-individualistic vision of society, but the truth is that Plato makes a mistake: he wonders who
should govern and not how we should peacefully replace who governs. Really interesting is also the
role of women in society: they're almost considered as men and, even if they're obviously weaker, they
allowed to fight.
