A common ingredient in murder mysteries is the search for a motive. Sometimes, where a motive appears strong enough, assumptions are made as to the guilt of a particular suspect. In the case of the Platonic dialogues, the motive for Plato’s discussion of whether virtue can be taught, especially political virtue, is sometimes treated as though it were simply a natural outcome of his search for truth – any and all truth – not necessarily guided by a particular strategy. But if a plausible motive could be supplied for his interest, it might help to arouse greater interest in the puzzle of the dialogues and supply Plato’s readers with a stronger rationale for working along with him on his search.
It is my contention, a hypothesis to be worked out, that Plato’s interest in whether political virtue (arete, a set of skills that help to ensure success) can be taught, can be explained by noticing that it is an essential link between the theory and practice of politics for any ideal political order. That is, supposing one has the ambition to imagine an ideal political order such as the Republic, the capacity to teach the art of politics is an essential link between an initial attempt to structure a society and its successful ongoing operation. The art of politics itself inhabits both theory and practice; it involves the implementation of one’s understanding of theory and can be done well or poorly regardless of how clearly one’s vision of the good may be. At times, less than honorable intentions may accidentally lead to beneficial results simply because the consequences of a particular political action may be difficult to predict in a complex society.
If such skills cannot be taught in the way geometry can be taught, but must be a mixture of experience, skill, and knack, there is nothing to ensure that the Republic will not begin to fall soon after its foundation. This raises the question of how ideal the Republic truly is. Has Plato found the best solution to this problem? The answer to this question will impact the further issue of the extent to which the republic as a political system amounts to an advance in political theory. Ultimately, the measure of the efficacy of such theories must lie in their success, the way they take us further or else closer to an understanding of how societies can be made more stable and accomplish a vision of the political good.
The Guardians and their Role
As has been discussed earlier (see the prior discussion of the education of the guardians), the role of the guardians is essentially a corrective one. The guardians are meant to function as physicians to the states of feverish excess the Republic might fall into by embodying the virtues of an ideal state and acting upon them. Their own moderate, soldierly way of life represents the kind of conservative approach to life that acts as a check the state as a whole requires if it is to avoid running into the kind of excess that would inevitably lead to conflict. But what happens when political conflict does erupt within the Republic itself? Is there any guarantee that the guardians will have the political skills required to deal with all sorts of competing, sometimes nefarious interests that may emerge from those who are less virtuous than they are themselves? If so, then there a danger the state may become corrupted, despite the virtue of the guardians. Is there any guarantee that the outcome Plato himself believes will result in the downfall of the city, that if those who are not naturally best suited to rule should enter the guardian class, its downfall would be immanent?
Here is Plato voicing this concern and what he expects as the result in 434a-b in the Shorey translation:
“But when I fancy one who is by nature an artisan or some kind of money-maker tempted and incited by wealth or command of votes or bodily strength or some similar advantage tries to enter into the class of the soldiers or one of the soldiers into the class of counsellors and guardians, for which he is not fitted, and these interchange their tools and their honors or when the same man undertakes all these functions at once, then, I take it, you too believe that this kind of substitution and meddlesomeness is the ruin of a state.” “By all means.”
The question is whether there is any mechanism to prevent a supersession of rulers who manage to win the day before the public or perhaps even the Guardians themselves and, in effect, overthrow the guardian’s regime of virtue. Can this be managed without turning the Republic into an authoritarian state with a tightly controlled caste system? The indication the Republic leaves us with is that Plato views the importance of each kind of actor with a particular kind of virtuous character doing what is best suited to his character as vital to the existence of the Republic itself in much the same way that the human body works harmoniously by the optimal functioning of each part that is best suited to its particular role. Indeed, this is Plato’s concept of “justice .” But in searching for a way to establish his form of justice as a regime of virtue crowned by the virtue of the guardians, how well has he ensured that those who lack the virtues the guardians possess will not prevail over them by some other means such as wealth or the ability to work behind the scenes and in the details of contracts in the way unelected figures such as Robert Moses have done?
Social Mobility
An argument might be made on behalf of the social system of the Republic in the following form: it may not be as difficult to promote persons of outstanding virtue as might be expected. Consider the fact that Xenophon was able to function conspicuously as a kind of quasi-statesman in combining the roles of general and executive in the Anabasis and later contributed ideas on political philosophy in the Cyropaedia. It would seem natural that as such figures rise to the top of their particular social class, the quality of their virtue would become more apparent. By the same token, someone with exceptional physical talents might be easy to recognize and taken in among the military class. Given sufficient time to assess their merits in the next higher class, the promotion might be assessed and either confirmed or found wanting. Plato does after all allow room for both promotion and demotion from a social class, creating the basis for a meritocratic approach to social advancement. The more strictly meritocratic such a society becomes, the less likely it would be to approach a caste system.
There is, nevertheless, the fact that Plato uses a Myth that correlates the classes to gold, silver, and bronze or iron natures. His reasoning is that the myth will contribute to justice since it will help to prevent the kind of “injustice” he associates with attending to occupations that aren’t properly one’s business:
“The interference with one another’s business, then, of three existent classes and the substitution of the one for the other is the greatest injury to a state and would most rightly be designated as the thing which chiefly works it harm.” “Precisely so.” “And the thing that works the greatest harm to one’s own state, will you not pronounce to be injustice?” “Of course.” “This, then, is injustice.”
“Again, let us put it in this way. The proper functioning of the money-making class, the helpers and the guardians, each doing its own work in the state, being the reverse of that just described, would be justice and would render the city just.”
Republic IV, 434b-434c (Shorey translation)
Here Plato’s concern with the good of the collective appears to be such that it outweighs any attempt to move into doing any sort of work that does not properly belong to one’s social class. This might indeed pose a barrier to advancement that would leave many talents undiscovered or never developed. Consider that in contemporary American society it is possible to study Political Science or Economics regardless of one’s social origin. It doesn’t appear that the Republic recognizes the need for such mechanisms, to the detriment of society as a whole. If Joe and Jane are expected to march off to do their chores on a farm or work in a factory with no opportunity to explore the elements of the Guardian’s education, the barriers to their advancement, both social and psychological might be significant indeed. Such a society might be able to promote only a small number of talented individuals out of many, creating the basis for social instability. As farmers, merchants, and soldiers become more wealthy and more aware of how to work the levers of power, it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine social advancement become more politicized and contingent upon factors other than one’s personal merit.
