In Plato’s Republic, virtues like moderation and courage are key. They are examined through the construction of the ideal city-state to explain how the soul of a human should be composed. Courage is important in order to uphold what one believes and to fight for ideas that are just. It is also necessary to control the appetitive part of the soul that is concerned primarily with desires and feelings. Moderation is important in every part of the city-state, as well as the soul. When the appetite is controlled by the rational part of the soul it keeps all parts in harmony.
Throughout the bookSocrates’ ultimate goal is to determine the definition of justice and the reasons why it is better to be just than unjust. In doing so, he constructs a kallipolis, or an ideal city, that he uses to build upon the idea of justice by comparing the city to the soul of the individual. In Socrates’ view, the city is the soul written large, therefore he uses the construction of the just city to explain the composition of a just soul. Socrates explains that there should be four cardinal virtues apparent in the city; wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. The most important of the virtues is justice, which as he finally defines, is basically doing one’s own work and not meddling in the work of others. Justice essentially unites all the other virtues and is universal in the polis. This means that each person in the city does the job that they were meant to do and everyone is left to their own devices. If everyone adheres to this idea of justice, the polis will be in harmony; the wise rulers will govern the auxiliaries and the auxiliaries will rule over the producers. Just as the just city is in harmony, the just soul will be as well when reason and will govern appetite. The second most important virtue in the city-soul analogy is wisdom. Socrates argues that Philosopher kings are wisdom-loving and rational and know how to secure the good of the polis as a whole; this is why they should rule. In the soul, when rationality and thought preside over the other parts of the soul, it is in harmony.
The other two virtues, courage and moderation, are explained at length in Plato’s Republic. Without courage or moderation, neither the polis nor the soul could be considered just and neither would function in accord. In reference to courage in the city, Socrates states that “courage is a kind of preservation” (Plato, 429c). By this he means that it is the preservation of the belief system instilled in the citizens of the polis about what should be feared and fighting the things that are. This courage in the polis is located within the auxiliaries. Within the human soul, courage is located within the spirited part, and allows a human to defend his or her beliefs and what is right and just. “And it is because of the spirited part, I suppose, that we call a single individual courageous, namely, when it preserves through pains and pleasures the declarations of reason about what is to be feared and what isn’t” (Plato, 442c). Moderation is described as a universal virtue in the city that forges an agreement among the classes about who should rule. It allows each individual in the polis to be content with his or her specific career and keeps them from attempting to do someone else’s work. It also allows the different classes of people to be content with their position in life and to agree that the wise Philosopher Kings should rule. Within the soul, moderation is a mastery of appetites, pleasures, and desires (Plato, 430e). It is the acknowledgement that the soul has different parts, better parts and worse parts and that when the better part controls the worse part, the person has moderation (Plato, 431e).
According to Socrates, the best way to instill these virtues into the citizens of the kallipolis is through education. Through the use of a specific curriculum of gymnastics and music, children are classified into castes based on their performance. This educational system used to train the guardians of the state emphasizes the virtues of courage and moderation. Since the guardians must behave in a particular manner, Socrates is very specific about how to educate them. To make the guardians “gentle to their own people and harsh to the enemy,” (Plato, 375c) he believes that music (poetry, literature, drama, etc.) must be censored thoroughly because children are very moldable. Stories like Homer’s must be kept from children because they depict the Gods in an unfavorable light. This is undesirable because if children see Gods doing things that are unjust, they may believe that it is acceptable to act similarly. Socrates states that they “mustn’t allow any stories about gods warring, fighting, or plotting against one another” (Plato, 378c). It is also important to Socrates how death is depicted in music, as guardians were to be noble warriors who had no fear of death or the afterlife. He also wanted to censor stories about just people suffering, stories about evil, and songs with the ability to shape moods negatively. Displays of sadness and laughter are also censored as they may cause guardians to lose focus on their tasks. Music must only serve the purpose of instilling virtues into the guardians. Stories of noble and courageous warriors and gods will influence the students to act accordingly. Stories of men and women who control their sexual appetites, do not overindulge in food and drink, and are evenly tempered serve the purpose of inculcating moderation. According to Socrates, “the person who achieves the finest blend of music and physical training and impresses it on his soul in the most measured way is the one we’d most correctly call completely harmonious and trained in music…”(Plato, 412a).
Although Plato’s kallipolis is the ideal city, its failure in inevitable as Socrates points out that “everything that comes into being must decay” (Plato, 546a). In the degeneration of this regime, the virtues that once made the polis so harmonious also begin to crumble. As the Aristocracy degenerates into a Timocracy and instead of focusing on virtue and knowledge, the rulers are more concerned with victory and honor. It is apparent that the previous definition of courage is already losing ground as the guardians are forgetting to fight for what they have been educated to believe. In any event, moderation is still somewhat intact as the Timocrats deny (as much as possible) their attraction to wealth in order to maintain honor. When the Timocracy degenerates into an Oligarchy, both moderation and courage nearly disappear. The son of the former Timocrat grows up seeking wealth as his father did not; he is ruled by the desires for money which is more important to him than honor. As wealth takes precedence over virtue, almost all sense of moderation is lost, and the oligarchic man is ruled by his necessary appetites of food, drink, companionship, and sex. Virtue is soon put completely on the backburner and is no longer a focus of the educational system. The wealth of the Oligarchs means that their children have never had to work and soon freedom becomes what they want more than wealth or honor. This leads to a democracy where the leaders are chosen by lot, the qualified are no longer compelled to rule, and the new leaders impoverish themselves with wasteful spending. This new Democratic man is ruled by his unnecessary appetites and desires all the things that he does not need. There is a total degeneration of moderation and courage is no longer necessary. Along with the degeneration of moderation and courage, there is a degeneration of all virtue. This leads to the final regime: Tyranny. The tyrannical man does not want to work for the things he acquires so he begins taking what he wants and killing those who stand in his way. He is ruled by his unnecessary and unlawful appetites and the best part of his soul is controlled by his worst. The tyrant is completely lacking in moderation or courage and he becomes a slave to his position. He has no friends, only “yes men” and he always desires more and more in terms of his appetite. He is constantly afraid of death and of someone taking his position so he becomes paranoid and obsessive about it, but also incapable of leaving the powerful position for fear of being killed.
The cardinal virtues in Plato’s Republic are essential to defining the ideal just city as well as the ideal just soul. Moderation and courage are weaved throughout the text, emphasizing the importance of virtue in the polis and those who reside there. Moderation is vital to an Aristocracy so that there is an agreement on who should rule and civil war will not erupt. Courage is essential in order to preserve the basic rules and beliefs of the polis. Within the soul, both moderation and courage are equally crucial. Moderation keeps a person from overindulging in food, drink, sex, etc. Courage preserves and maintains the health of the soul and fights off any threats that may harm its health. Without these virtues, Plato could not have made such a compelling case regarding the structure of the soul.
