RP3: What Makes Kallipolis, with its Philosopher-King, a Utopian Society?

Plato set out to design what he believes to be the best society possible, one able to not only sustain itself, but to flourish. In order to do so, he states that it cannot be governed by anyone but a philosopher, because philosophers are those best able to discern what is just and what is not. They are able to separate an idea from something that contains the idea. Under the rule of a philosopher, Kallipolis would have to be a utopian society because, according to Plato, a philosopher is the best ruler possible, and therefore would govern the best city possible, a utopia. “There is not one city today with a constitution worthy of the philosophic nature…The philosophic species does not maintain its own power at present, but declines into a different character. But if it were to find the best constitution, as it is itself the best, it would be clear that it is really divine and that other natures and pursuits are merely human” (Plato 191). Here Plato states that philosophers are not rulers by nature, but given the opportunity, would become the epitome of the word. The current style of politician in Athens is one that competes for their seat, and Plato declares the best kind of ruler would not do this, because the best kind of ruler doesn’t govern for self gain, but rather for the betterment of society. If anything, this ruler would only rule because he was the best fit to do so. It only takes the crafting of a constitution that demands a philosopher-king to push the most righteous leader into power.

Plato believes that a philosopher would not fall victim to the corruption that plagues not only the politicians in Athens, but even the ones today. Through Socrates’ and Glaucon’s dialogue, Plato concludes that a person can only wholly love one thing, and therefore direct almost their full attention toward it. “When a person’s desires flow toward learning and everything of that sort, they will be concerned, I imagine, with the pleasures that the soul experiences just by itself, and will be indifferent to those that come through the body—if indeed the person in not a counterfeit, but rather a true, philosopher” (Plato 178). If a utopia is to exist, and be sustainable, only a ruler who is more for the people than for themselves would be fit to command it. The structure for which Plato’s Kallipolis is founded on, weighs heavily upon the leaders being solid figures, especially since the Guardians are keeping some truth from the citizens of the republic. It is on the basis that the philosophers are the best able to rule, that Plato creates a society in which it is best to live. “The philosopher, by associating with what is orderly and divine, becomes as divine and orderly as a human being can” (Plato 194). A utopia too, in simplest terms, is the most orderly and divine society.

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Works Cited

Plato, Republic. C. D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1992.