Education, freedom, and happiness, are, among
lesser issues, the preeminent themes of Plato’s Republic. I suppose no one ever accused the philosopher of thinking
small. As is the case (though the contrast is less stark) with Shakespeare, or
The Beatles, a modern reader (or viewer, or listener, respectively) might be
struck by the seemingly pedestrian nature of Plato’s work. What, perhaps, strikes
the modern reader the most, is the philosophical dialogue Plato, through
Socrates, seems to be responding to. Here we find one clue to the riddle of
Plato’s novelty. What makes Republic so
seminal – along with other Platonic dialogues – is its very novelty, or, more
precisely, the widespread impact this type of novel thinking would have on the
Western world.
While
the works of Homer, Sophocles’ Aias, perhaps even The Symposium (my history may be confused here) represent a certain
type of relationship between the good and ourselves, between society and the
individual, Republic conceives of a
person’s relation to the world differently. While those works judge action and right
as concerns measured relative to social context, Republic judges our actions as internal affairs. That which is best
is that which assures the greatest happiness, to be recognized by the proper
balance felt within the individual. Though Plato is ostensibly speaking of how
to ensure the proper stability of society he is, so he says, primarily concerned
with understanding and fostering the best persons. Perhaps his seeming focus
upon the best state was Plato’s subtle transition towards a more individualized
ethics.
Unquestionably
Republic casts a long shadow, perhaps
the longest in Western literature. By turning our focus inwards, by
transforming glory into the pursuit of knowledge and the pre-eminence of
individual consciousness, Plato helped to inaugurate the modern world.
