(H1) Plato’s “utopia” did not seem so
much as a utopia as it seems a dystopia. Mirroring what, if created in modern
times, would turn out more as Orwell’s 1984 rather than any modern idea of a utopia.
Plato stated that the entire point of the government would be to lie to the
public, and that the entire foundation of the society would be a lie. This seems
so counter intuitive to Plato’s image in modern day. While he is seen as the
father of Western Philosophy, and being the man who carved philosophy out in
the world, one would think that he would not set up his perfect society based
on a lie that would do nothing but inhibit philosophical progress.
We must
however take into account the relative formation of his ideas, as Plato’s
counterpart said, there is no quintessential good society or bad society, since
the good and bad is only in the eye of the observer. Plato did not have the
lens of philosophy that we now do today. He did not see the rise and fall of communism,
an idea that closely parallels The Republic. Plato seems to place a strong
faith in the government, and has no quarrel with that trust being betrayed. This
originally dumbfounded me, why have we, American’s, looked up to a man who so
directly opposes what we have so emphatically enacted in our government. In the
end I think Plato’s Republic if fully enacted, would have been unremarkable,
with little to no character, it would not have accomplished anything but lying
to its own citizens, and making them ignorant of the world around them.
I had many of these same thoughts while studying Plato. Living in a society of Plato's creation sound's miserable. Have we perhaps grown up in such an anti-communism culture that we can't fully appreciate The Republic? H3
ReplyDeletePersonally, I believe that Plato's "utopia" is actually a dystopia because it inhibits freedom for everyone. A true utopia is where everyone is free and lives alongside each other peacefully. In Plato's society, this would not be possible in any way shape or form.
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