So what is the perfect kind of government/society?

1. So what is the perfect kind of government/society? 8/28/08

2. Who thought about it first? • Plato!!!!!!! • Plato outlined his idea of a perfect society/utopia in his book The Republic • Plato was a student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle and founded “the Academy”in Athens in 385 B.C. • The Academy was one of the earliest known schools in Western history. It lasted until the year 529 AD when Justinian I closed it.

3. Athena Aristotle Plato

4. Plato’s Republic • Plato decides first of all… • People have a natural inclination to government. • Imagining their likely origins in the prehistorical past, Plato argued that societies are invariably formed for a particular purpose. Individual human beings are not self-sufficient; no one working alone can acquire all of the genuine necessities of life. In order to resolve this difficulty, we gather together into communities for the mutual achievement of our common goals. • Sound familiar? Hobbes? Locke? How is it different?

5. The result of this main belief • The result of this original impulse is a society composed of many individuals, organized into distinct classes (soldiers, farmers, builders, etc.) according to the value of their role in providing some component part of the common good.

6. Who do you think he puts in charge? • Plato, a philosopher, believes philosophers should be given ultimate political authority • unless philosophers become rulers or rulers become true and thorough students of philosophy, there will be no end to the troubles of states and of humanity • Those who complete the entire educational process become philosopher-kings. They are the ones whose minds have been so developed that they are able to grasp the Forms and, therefore, to make the wisest decisions. Indeed, Plato's ideal educational system is primarily structured so as to produce philosopher-kings.

7. Quotes from Plato’s Republic • “unless philosophers become rulers or rulers become true and thorough students of philosophy, there will be no end to the troubles of states and of humanity” • “And are not those who are verily and indeed wanting in the knowledge of the true being of each thing (non-philosophers), and who have in their souls no clear pattern, and are unable as with a painter's eye to look at the absolute truth and to that original to repair, and having perfect vision of the other world to order the laws about beauty, goodness, justice in this, if not already ordered, and to guard and preserve the order of them--are not such persons, I ask, simply blind?”

8. Criticisms • Many have said Plato’s belief in having a class structure and all working for the common good of the state have given rise to totalitarianism. Hitler and Stalinistic control of society has been blamed on him. • The future leader of Iran Ayatollah Khomeini is believed to have been inspired by Plato’s description of a state.

9. Not so critical • Plato’s work to try and create a perfect society that was perfect economically, socially, and politically was attempted many times and in many ways. • Indiana example, New Harmony, IN • A Welschman named Robert Owen attempted to create the perfect community in New Harmony in the 19th century

10. The New Harmony Utopia • Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars: • First, no one was responsible for his will and his own actions, because his whole character is formed independently of himself; people are products of their environment, hence his support for education and labor reform, rendering him a pioneer in human capital investment. • Second, all religions are based on the same absurd imagination, that make man a weak, imbecile animal; a furious bigot and fanatic; or a miserable hypocrite; (in dotage, he embraced Spiritualism). • Third, support for the cottage system instead of the factory system

11. Failure • After a few years, Owen’s attempt failed. The community fell apart and members dispersed. • Owens sons did leave their mark as well. • Robert Owen Jr. served as a state Representative and Senator and was instrumental in passing a law granting greater freedom in divorce. Later he served as a congressman and helped to found the Smithsonian and was instrumental in securing to widows and married women control of their property and the adoption of a common free school system. • Richard Owen (his youngest) was a teacher and then geologist who surveyed the northern shore of Lake Superior for the first time. In the Civil war he guarded 4,000 prisoners at Camp Morton. After the war he became a professor of geology at IU and then became the first President of Purdue University.