Soul and the City - Plato's Political Philosophy

-Plato's (c. 427-347 BC) "Republic".
   -The founding text of western political philosophy and considered to be Plato's greatest work.
   -Incorporated political philosophy, moral psychology, metaphysics, and aesthetics.
   -Socrates is the narrator. 
   -Socrates is on his way back home and is invited to a party by a dude named Polemarchus.  He's joined by Thrasymachus, a sophist, and others, like Plato's brothers Glaucon and Adeimantus. 
      -They get into a conversation about the nature of justice. 
         -Thrasymachus seems to share a similar view about how injustice is more natural than justice, a view that is also held by Callicles from Plato's Gorgias. 
            -Real "justice" is the strong doing what they can and the weak suffering what they must.  Our concept of justice is a corrupted version because it helps the weak rather than the strong.
               -Socrates of course argues  against this, but the others are not completely satisfied by his refutation.
   -Next, Glaucon argues that we all may agree that our concept of justice is what works best, but perhaps it is not what we truly desire deep down and is against human nature.
      -This is a precursor to Hobbes' "social contract" theory.
      -Glaucon says that if a poor farmer had a magic ring that could turn him invisible, he would use his power to become rich, depose the king, bang the queen, etc; this is something that everyone would do!
         -Socrates' job, then, is to show that justice is the better choice than injustice.
            -Socrates says that we can learn about justice by examining the soul of a citizen in a city. 
               -Before we get to that, though, we need to ask how a city should be run.  One strategy would be to model the city on an already existing prosperous city, or look at shitty cities and NOT do what they do, etc.- Theucydides' strategy.
                  -Socrates says that the best city would be small, comprised of a community of farmers, craftsmen, and traders.  The citizens would all be vegetarian, wear simple clothes, and be chill.
                     -Glaucon objects to this, saying that this doesn't sound like a city of real men, but pigs!!  Socrates replies by saying that if the city wants luxury, it will be required to expand, have a powerful military, occupy additional space, etc.  It would thus need to be divided between laborers and the military, with the military having 100% control and power. 
                         -Because of this, some have argued that Plato/Socrates is condoning totalitarianism, but it's likely that this is not true; Socrates is saying that a city with luxury is "fevered" and not truly healthy.  Thus, this situation is not ideal.
                         -Anyway, how would this military ("guardian") class function?  It would have to be divided into two parts:
                            -The "true guardians"- real rulers of the city (but must possess self-control)
                            -"Auxiliaries" - warriors
                         -It's also important that this city has the right people assigned to the correct roles.
                            -Sexual relations are highly-regulated. 
                            -People are assigned partners through a rigged lottery that designated who they mate with (i.e. eugenics).
                            -The guardians have no private property and share everything, even children, who are taken from their mothers and are raised by the guardian community. 
                            -Men and women have equal roles (surprisingly progressive!).
                            -If all of the stuff above is not implemented correctly, this could lead to the society falling apart.  Therefore, to control everyone is "the noble lie", that each social class has a different metal in the blood, so they can't mix.
                               -Thus, true justice in this city is everyone doing what they are supposed to do.  However, even Socrates (Plato?) argues that this is unsustainable. 
             -So what about justice and the individual?
                -Like the city, Socrates says that there are three aspects of the soul: reason, spirit, and appetite. 
                   -Reason- the pursuit of truth (i.e. guardians)
                   -Spirit- the pursuit of honor (i.e. auxiliaries)
                   -Appetite- the pursuit of food, drinking, and sex (i.e. laborers)
             -So what about corruption of the soul?
                -Socrates tells a couple stories as examples.
                -Socrates also says that the natural order of a city, if not following his ideal model, will experience a series of five regimes: a timocracy, then an oligarchy, then a democracy, then tyranny.
                   -This is also a series going from least bad to worst!
                   -This can perhaps also be seen as a political statement by Plato regarding the Athenian government.
                      -Democracy allows for the freedom of all different lifestyles and behaviors, and Plato/Socrates believes that this is ultimately corrupting.
                         -Also, tyranny from democracy? Where did this conclusion come from?
                            -Plato may have perhaps been influenced by the 30 Tyrants oligarchy which was controlling Athens after the Pelopponesian War.