GREEK PHILOSOPHY

3. The Philosophy of Plato.
   4. Plato's Psychology.
      The human soul is considered by Plato to be an immaterial agent, superior to the body and somewhat hindered by the body in performing the higher functions of human life. In the Republic and onwards the tripartite division of the soul becomes an essential teaching of Plato's psychology. The rational part is the highest and is pictured as the ruler of the psychological organism in the well-regulated man. It is the seat of the virtue of wisdom. Next in importance is the "spirited" part of the soul, which is the source of action and the seat of the virtue of courage. The lowest part is the concupiscent or acquisitive element, which may be brought under control by the virtue of temperance. The latter two parts are often combined and called the irrational in contrast to highest and rational part. This is pictured in the famous figure in the Phaedrus, where the career of the soul is likened to the passage of a chariot with a driver and two horses: one well-mannered white steed, and one intractable and plunging black steed. The driver is reason, the white steed the spirited part, which is the natural ally of reason, and the black steed represents the appetitive part of the soul - the element of desire with its passions. The task of reason is to control the actions and appetites and provide a unity of function among these parts of the soul. While the good horse is easily driven according to the directions of the driver, the bad horse is unruly and tends to obey the voice of sensual passion, so that it must be restrained by the whip. Sensation is an active function of the soul, by which the soul "feels" the object of sense through the instrumentality of the body. Particularly in the young, sensation is a necessary prelude to the knowledge of the Ideas, but the mature and developed soul must learn to rise above sense perception and must strive for a more direct intuition of intelligible essences. That the soul exists before the body (related to the Pythagorean and, possibly, Orphic doctrine of transmigration) and knows the world of Ideas immediately in this pre-existent condition, is the foundation of the Platonic theory of reminiscence (Meno, Phaedo, Republic, Phaedrus). Thus the soul is born with true knowledge in it, but the soul, due to the encrustation of bodily cares and interests, cannot easily recall the truths innately present in it. Sometimes sense perceptions aid the soul in the process of reminiscence, and again, as in the famous demonstration of the Pythagorean theorem by the slave boy of the Meno, the questions and suggestions of a teacher provide the necessary stimuli for recollection. The personal immortality of the soul is very clearly taught by Plato in the tale of Er (Republic X) and, with various attempts at logical demonstration, in the Phadeo. The soul is non-composite, hence simple. And as a simple entity it cannot be destroyed, and hence is immortal. Empirical and physiological psychology is not stressed by Plato's philosophy, but there is an approach to it in the descriptions of sense organs and their media in the Timaeus 42 ff.

   5. Plato's Moral Theory.
      The Ethics of Plato is intellectualistic. He accepts (Protagoras, 323 ff.) the Socratic teaching that "virtue is knowledge" and that virtue is teachable and also the idea that no one does evil knowingly and willing. When a man chooses that which is de facto evil, he chooses it sub specie boni: he desires something which he imagines to be good, but which is, as a matter of fact, evil. The doctrine that virtue is knowledge is really an expression of the fact that goodness is not a merely relative term, but it refers to something that is absolute and unchanging: otherwise it could not be the object of knowledge and could not be taught. From this point of view, wisdom (Sophia) is the greatest virtue (Republic IV). Fortitude or courage (Andreia) and temperance or self-control (Sophosune) are necessary virtues of the lower parts of the soul and justice (Dikaiosune) in the individual, as in the state, is the harmonious cooperation of all parts, under the control of reason. Of pleasure, the best are those of the intellect (Philebus); man's greatest happiness is to be found in the contemplation of the highest Ideas.

   6. Plato's Political Theory.
      Plato's political theory was developed in close connection with his ethics. Greek life was essentially a communal life, lived out in the City-State and unthinkable apart from the City. Thus to any genuine Greek it would not occur that a man could be a perfectly good man if he stood entirely apart from the State, since it is only in and through Society that the good life becomes possible for man.
      1. The State.
         (1) For Plato Society meant the City-State. The rational analysis of this experimental fact results in the doctrine that organized Society is a "natural" institution and that man is essentially a social animal. This doctrine is common to both Plato and Aristotle: the theory that Society is a necessary evil and results in the stunting of man's free development and growth would be entirely foreign to the genuine Greek. This does not mean there was no place for individualism. On the contrary individualism was rife, showing itself both in the internecine wars between the City-States and in the factions within the Cities themselves; for example, in the attempt on the part of an individual to establish himself as Tyrant; but this individualism was not a rebellion against Society as such, but rather it presupposed Society as an accepted fact.
         (2) Plato did not accept the idea that there is one morality for the individual and another for the State. The State is composed of individual men and exists for the leading of the good life: there is an absolute moral standard for all men and all States: expediency must bow the knee to right. The determination of what was right for State involved finding the nature of justice: the principle of justice is the same for the individual and the State. The justice of the one as of the other is determined by ideal Justice.
         
      2. The Republic.
         Not every actual Constitution or every Government embodies the ideal Justice, but Plato was not concerned to determine what empirical States are so much as to determine what the State ought to be, and so, in the Republic, he sets out to discover the Ideal State, the pattern to which every actual State ought to conform itself, so far as it can. There, Plato describes a City in which Justice would be fully realized. He distinguishes between three classes of men:
         (1) The philosopher-kings, who constitute the first class, are apparently a small group whose education will be discussed below. They are the rulers because by nature and by training they were the best men for the job. They must excel particularly in their rational abilities: their special virtue is wisdom.
         (2) The soldiers, or guardians of the State, constitute the second class; their souls must be remarkable for the development of the spirited, warlike element, under the control of the virtue of courage.
         (3) The workers of every sort are the lowest class made up of the acquisitive group, whose characteristic virtue is temperance.
         For the two upper classes Plato suggested a form of communism which would entail the abolition of monogamous marriage, family life, and of private property. It is to be noted that this form of semi-communism was suggested for a minority of the citizens only (Republic III and IV) and it was held to be a practical impossibility in the Laws (V, 739-40), though Plato continued to think that some form of communism is theoretically best for man. In Book VIII of the Republic, Plato gives the famous classification of five types of political organization, ranging from aristocracy which is the rule of the best men in the interest of what is best for society, timocracy, in which the rulers are motivated by a love of honor, oligarchy, in which the rulers seek wealth, democracy, the rule of the masses who are unfit for the task, tyranny, which is the rule of one man who may have started as the champion of the people but who governs solely for power and the advancement of his own, selfish interests.

      3. The Statesman (Politicus).
         Plato was profoundly convinced that Statesmanship is, or should be, a science; the Statesman, if he is to be truly such, must know what the State is and what its life ought to be; otherwise he runs the risk of bringing the State and its citizens to shipwreck and proves himself to be not a Statesman but a bungling "politician." Experience had taught him that actual States were faulty, and he turned his back on practical political life, though not without hope of sowing the seeds of true statesmanship in those who entrusted themselves to his care. The training of the Statesman or philosopher-king, outlined in the Republic, is the main part of a general theory of education, which is based on drawing out (educatio) of what is already dimly known to the learner. The training of Statesmen requires the selection of the most promising children in their infancy and a rigorous disciplining of them in gymnastics, music, mathematics and dialectic (the study of the Ideas). This training was to continue until the students were about thirty-five years of age; then fifteen years of practical apprenticeship in the subordinate offices of the State were required. Finally, at the age of fifty, these wise men become philosopher-kings and rulers of society. It should be noted that this program is intended only for an intellectual elite; the military class was to undergo a shorter period of training suited to their function, and the masses of people, engaged in production, trading, and like pursuits, were not offered any special educational program. The educational system of the state provides the means of finding the role a man should play in society. He will fit into one of three main classes: rulers, soldiers, or artisans. Each of the groups goes farther in the educational system than the one following. The specific virtue of the philosopher-king is wisdom, of the soldier, courage, of the artisan, temperance; and of the whole State, when each one is doing that for which he is suited, justice. In this way Plato is able to relate society to the four Greek cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice.

      4. The Laws.
         Plato insisted that laws should be changed or modified as circumstances require, and that no superstitious regard for tradition should hamper an enlightened application to a changed condition of affairs and fresh needs. It would be just as absurd to stick to obsolete laws in the face of new circumstances, as to would be for a doctor to insist on his patient keeping to the same diet when a new one is required by the changed conditions of his health. But as this would require divine, rather than human, knowledge and competence, we must be content with the second-best, that is, the reign of Law. The ruler will administer the State in accordance with fixed Law. The Law must be absolute sovereign, and the public man who violates law should be put to death. Provision is made for judicial and legislative functions, including legislative assemblies, and a system of ministers, of the minister of education who has chief importance. In the State slavery is accepted, nationalism encouraged, and travel outside the state is restricted. Censorship by the State of art and religion is required for the good of the State and its citizens. Atheism and heresy are criminal offenses.

   7. Plato's Aesthetics
      
      1. Beauty.
         All beautiful things participate in the Idea of Beauty (Symposium and Phaedrus). Plato regarded beauty as objectively real. The obvious consequence of this theory is that there are degrees of beauty. For beautiful things will approximate more or less to this objective norm. Plato rejects the utilitarian concept of beauty (whatever is useful or efficient is beautiful) and the pleasure concept (whatever gives pleasure is beautiful). For supreme Beauty, as the absolute source of all participated beauty, cannot be a beautiful thing, and so cannot be material: it is supersensible and immaterial. Beauty therefore must consist of "measure and symmetry" (metriotes kai summetria).

      2. Theory of Art.
         Art is the reasonable imitation (mimesis) of the Ideal realities rather than the photographic imitation of sense things and individual experiences. The painting of a man, for example, is the copy or imitation of a natural, particular man; it is, therefore, an imitation of the imitation. Truth is to be sought properly in the eternal Form; the work of the artist accordingly stands twice removed from the truth. The artist is frequently described as a man carried away by his inspiration, akin to the fool; since art requires reason, the artist must learn to contemplate the world of the Ideas. Only the intellectual is capable of appreciating true beauty. Fine art is not radically distinguished from useful art. In both the Republic and the Laws, art, since it is inferior, is subordinated to the good of the state, and those forms of art which are effeminate, asocial, inimical to the morale of the citizens, are sternly excluded from the ideal State.

4. The Old Academy
   
   1. Speusippus (348-339 B.C.) [Athens, Syracuse]
      Plato's nephew and immediate successor as Scholarch (head of Academy), modified the Platonic dualism by abandoning the Platonic Number-Ideas, but the essential Separation (chorismos) remained.
      
   2. Xenocrates (339-315 B.C.) [Chalcedon, Athens]
      He succeeded Speusippus as Scholarch and identified the Ideas with mathematical numbers. He emphasized the Pythagorean doctrine of numbers in connection with the theory of ideas. He divided philosophy into three parts: dialectic, physic, and ethics. He distinguished three classes of essences: the sensible, the intelligible, and an intermediate composed of both; these are, respectively, below the heavens, beyond the heavens, and identical with the heavens. He reasoned that the Soul is immortal, a self-moving number; all things have souls.
      
   3. Heraclides [Ponticus] adopted from the Pythagorean Ecphantus, the theory that the world is composed of particles separated from one another by space.
      
   4. Euodoxus (408-355 B.C.) [Cnidus, Athens] was one of the most celebrated mathematicians and astronomers.