Machiavelli's secularism

Every thinker is the child of his time, this statement suits most in the case of Machiavelli. Lasky called Machiavelli the child of a renaissance. During this time church was the most corrupt institution and also Italy was the seat of the Roman church. Machiavelli is the realist. He is considered the father of western secularism. He was the first person who could dare to suggest that politics and ethics are two different domains. He was the first person to establish the autonomy of politics from ethics or religion. He defines politics as statecraft which is the management of power. He considers religion as a matter of personal domain.

Machiavelli was neither immoral nor anti-religious. He considers that political actions cannot be guided from the yardstick of religion. The yardstick of politics is national interest. He was against the interference of the church in politics and not the use of religion by a prince.

Distributive Justice. Comment

 The entire Greek philosophy revolves around the importance of justice. It is an abstract idea, and it is difficult to define it in fixed terms. As it is seen differently by different thinkers. Aristotle regards justice as a virtue but it is more than a virtue. It is virtue in action. In Aristotle's classification of justice, a subcategory of particular justice is distributive justice.

According to Aristotle, this form of justice is the most powerful law to prevent any revolution. As this justice belief in the proper and proportionate distribution of resources like office, post, honour as per their requirement is a citizen of a state. The distribution of goods and wealth is merit-based. Aristotle does not believe in the democratic or oligarchic methods of justice only those citizens will receive who contribute to the highest level in support of the state. Because the virtuous people are few. Most of the offices will be given to those few only. 

Plato's communism is a supplement machinery to give effect to and reinforce that spirit which education is to create. Discuss

The purpose of Plato is to make an ideal state. The root cause of problems in his state Athens was corruption. Plato believes is that idea is the ultimate reality. The idea is the purest form of anything. And only a man of reason has an Idea of an ideal state. According to Socrates, knowledge is true knowledge if it teaches virtues of philosophy and not the knowledge of money and power. Plato was the greatest disciple of Socrates, inspired by him Plato give his theory of education. Plato believes that education is the only tool to find the aptitude of the person. A person in which reason dominates over courage and appetite will become a member of the ruling class. The wise man among the members of the ruling class will become his philosopher king. A man of reason, a man of just soul and a symbol of sacrifice. According to Plato, it would be foolish to question the authority or limit the power of philosopher king. His wisdom cannot be questioned by the common people. Knowledge of a man is more important than the knowledge of a book.

Plato also gives his theory of communism which is basically supplemented machinery to remove every possibility of distraction by Philosopher king from his duty/obligation toward the state. Plato believes that property and family have the essence of self which can bring nepotism and corruption in the ruling class. To tackle such desires of the ruling class Plato take away these affairs from the personal sphere to the state's responsibility only in the ruling class. Private property is evil for society, cause conflicts. Philosopher king with his wisdom and above additional safeguards will bring true happiness in the life of citizens and Athens will become an ideal state.

Plato's theory of education is the logical result of his conception of justice. Discuss

Plato's desire was to make an ideal state or just state. A state where citizen's life can enrich and grow virtuously. In the words of Plato, State is individual writ large. In a sense, Plato's conception of justice of citizens is related to the just state. In his theory of education, Plato believes education is a way to find the aptitude of a person. According to Plato, the goal is to go beyond senses (world of matter) to pure conceptual knowledge (world of idea). True knowledge guide to take the right decision. In the human soul, three spiritual qualities exist. Those are the reason, courage and appetite. And one thing dominates out of three which defines human character, Plato believes with his method of education which is capable in finding the true quality of soul, a man in which appetite dominates will become the part of producing class, a man of courage become part of a soldier class and a reasoned man become a member of the ruling class.

Plato gives a holistic view of education. Primary education(0-6 years) character building, Secondary education (6-18 years) basic knowledge of different subjects with a first screening test, those who pass will study further and failed will join the producing class, (18-20 years) compulsory military education with a second screening test, passed will study and rest join soldier class and finally higher education(20-50 years) they will be part of ruling class and only one in them will become philosopher king. 

According to Plato's theory of justice, a just society is in which people have virtues, follow their duty/obligation toward the state because these things will bring peace, harmony and excellence. Justice will come if we can find the just soul, a soul of reason because only the just soul of a just man can bring justice. According to Plato, with two conditions justice can be maintained. If there is a functional specialization means all three classes ruling, soldier and producing do their work with sincerity and the second is non-interference into each other work.

Plato is an enemy of the open society. Comment

Karl Popper was a critique of Plato, he mentioned his name in his book 'Enemies of the open society' with other thinkers like Hegel and Karl Marx. In his book's first volume 'Spells of Plato', he even mentioned him as Fascist. According to Karl Popper, Plato's concept of justice that is based on functional specialization restrict society into 3 classes this not only create boundaries in the movement of thoughts of each class but also indirectly creates a privileged system like guardian class have the power to rule but not the property and vice versa with producing class.

According to Popper, the institution of philosopher king is totalitarian in nature. Totalitarianism is considered bad, anti-democratic, anti-freedom in liberal thoughts. Totalitarianism exists between the two world wars (1919-1939) in European countries Germany, Itlay.

Popper criticizes Plato on three grounds. 1) Essentialism 2) Holism 3) Historicism

• Plato's hatred toward Democracy. Plato project democracy as the worst form of state. It is the rule of ignorants. Plato held that anyone can become a ruler just by chance.
• Plato proposes holistic change rather than piece meal social engineering.
• Plato believes in the essence or idea. Plato believes that he has an idea of Ideal state. An idea can be misleading.

Levinson does not consider Plato as the enemy of the open society. Because Fascism was a real concept and Fascists have established a very exploitative system. Plato's Republic was a utopia. We never know what form Plato's Republic could take place if this was ever implemented. It was seen that Plato's intention was not to exploit people. Plato's desire is to give a life of excellence and virtue to all the citizens of the state.

According to Karl Popper, if we do not see Plato as an enemy of the open society is because of the spell of Plato and the tradition of admiring Plato. 

The state is individual writ large.

This Statement is coming from Plato's theory of justice. Plato wanted to show that the principles of justice that applied to an individual level can also work the same at the level of the state. In a sense that the state is nothing but a magnified version of an individual.

Just like the 3 elements are organised in a specific manner in a soul, similarly, the state is organised into 3 classes. The basis of classes is in the spiritual quality of the soul. Three classes are ruling class, soldier class and producing class based on their soul dominated by reason, courage and appetite respectively. 

Man is not self-sufficient hence man form a state. Each class plays a vital role in it without this state cannot be sustained. Each class understand the importance of the other class. The essence of Plato's idea of justice is proper stationing. Justice is non-interference in each other work. The difference between state and individual by Plato is similar to the difference between a small letter and a big letter. In the words of Plato, state does not come from oak or rock, state is inherent in the mind of the people living in the state.

The hidden message in Plato's view is that a state is nothing but an idea. State is just the collection of people organically related to each other. Only if people are just, state can be just. Principles of justice are the same for individuals and state.  By this view of Plato, we consider a co-relation between ethics and politics.

Plato's communism and compare it with modern communism.

Plato's theory of communism was his conception of justice. He believes that his communism is to classify reason and appetite. Plato's communism is based on property, family instincts and personal life. He believes that family and property would distract man's attention from his duty/obligation toward the state. As family and property is the main source of disagreements in the society. To make an ideal state, the ruling class and guardian class should surrender their family and property. 

Plato's communism of property is in no way related to modern communism. Because there is nowhere mention of socialization of the mean of production. Plato is only concerned with the one mode of production, that is property that has to be socialized. The land and its production are in the hands of the farmers. So only the guardian class is deprived of property, not the producing class. According to Plato, Producing class is powerless and also dominated by appetite. So it may create chaos if they were too deprived of property and family, but the guardian class will maintain the strict supervision so that they do not become too rich or too poor. 

In terms of similarities between Plato's communism and modern communism. But the convergent is superficial like both consider that private property is evil, both belief in the concept of class. But in-depth there are wide gaps. In modern communism, the state is bad and the society is divided into two classes the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, classification based on wealth and their nature is always antagonistic. The purpose of communism is to make a stateless society with only one class in it. Whereas in Plato's communism, state is the most important institution and provide a good life. Society is divided into three classes their classification is based on their soul quality, Purpose is to make an ideal state by class specialization and non-interference into each others business to maintain peace and harmony.

Comment : 'Until philosophers are kings, or kings and prices of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, cities will never be rest from evil.'

Plato knew that the root cause of the problems in Athens was corruption. Plato wants to make Athens an ideal state. With the above statement, Plato was providing a solution to make an ideal state and proposed an institution of a philosopher king. 

To make an ideal state first method is to teach political king philosophy. Plato wants to combine politics with philosophy. Therefore he sends teachers to train political leaders the philosophical truths. The results were rarely what Plato could have desired, for the same irrational politics prevailed no matter what the philosopher thought and this disappointed him. He made two attempts in his life to teach political leaders the philosophy but he failed both times.

 According to Plato, the present institution of politics is guided by sophist's methods. Sophists believe that the ultimate source of happiness is money. In their just society model, might is right. In pursuit of happiness, men can disobey the state law to follow their own interests. According to Plato, the institute of philosopher king will bring justice and real happiness. Philosopher king is the man of reason and therefore his knowledge is mightier than any law or ordinance. He is a symbol of sacrifice. Plato justifies this with his theory of communism. Philosopher king has no desire for family and property.  According to Plato, family and property have an essence of self which can distract the king from his duty toward the state.

He has knowledge of philosophy. With this, he can provide real happiness to the people and make Athens an ideal state. According to Plato, a man of integrity is more important than a man of wealth or a man of property. Integrity is the quality of being honest and having high moral principles. The institute philosopher king holds such high standards.

Comment: 'Reality is the shadow of ideas'.

This statement tells Plato's conception of reality. According to Plato, reality is a shadow of an idea. According to Plato, idea is the ultimate reality. Ideas belong to the world of essence which is beyond the world of appearance. Idea is the perfect form of anything. Physical objects may change but idea is permanent. 

His theory of ideas comes from Socrates theory of knowledge. Plato wants to make an ideal state. To make an ideal state there must have an idea of it. Man of reason has idea. According to Plato, reality is important for a good life. It tells about 'what it is'. But ideas transform from 'what it is' to 'what ought to be'. It is the essence of everything. It is intangible. In order to establish his view, Plato gives the allegory of the cave. According to Plato when we are in a state of ignorance, we consider a world of appearance as real. Our situation is like the man inside the cave with his back toward the sunlight and hands tied. Only when this person is pushed out of the cave, he will realize that what he was considering real was just the illusion of reality or shadow of reality. Only when he has true knowledge he can understand the difference between reality and idea. True knowledge is permanent in nature and did not change like the physical world.

The message behind the above statement is that the ruling class should understand that the physical world is temporary in nature. They should understand that money is not the ultimate source of happiness. It is more important to be a man of integrity rather than a man of wealth or a man of property. Integrity is the utmost virtue or quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.

We can say that Plato has established the superiority of idea over matter, philosophy over physics and he should be rightly called as 'Father of Political Philosophy'.

Comment : 'For, no law or ordinance is mightier than knowledge. '

The justification of absolute power enjoyed by the philosopher king is the theme of the statement. Plato wants to make Athens an ideal state. And according to Plato, until a king become a philosopher or philosopher become king ideal state can not be established. 

According to Plato, Philosopher king is the symbol of knowledge and sacrifice. Plato has given absolute power to the philosopher king with only one exception of the constitution which he cannot change. Philosopher king has the ultimate knowledge which cannot be challenged or changed by the common people or the book of laws. If we limit the powers of philosopher king with ordinary wisdom of people that would be foolish to limit the expert of medicine by the book of medicine. He is a man of reason and has knowledge of philosophy and he knows the path of "good life". According to Plato, good life is the final justice to the people and path of a just state by the just king only.

Aristotle is the critique of the Institution of philosopher king. Aristotle prefers rule of law over the rule of men. Howsoever knowledgeable he is. It is impossible to find a philosopher king. Philosopher king was also a human being. If he has a reason, he also has an appetite. It may happen that appetite becomes dominant over reason. Until now law has served the purpose. Law represents collective wisdom and wisdom of ages.

According to Aristotle, Plato is sacrificing good for the sake of best. But best is unachievable. If the rule of philosopher is best then rule of law is best practicable. The ideas of Aristotle are more practical than Plato. It appeals to common sense as suggested by Lord Acton, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Hence, there should be checks and balances.