Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • Free Essays • My Term Papers • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Philosophy Plato8217s Happiest Way of Life A Summary of Arguments and Viewpoint Plato8217s Happiest Way of Life A Summary of Arguments and Viewpoint A just life in a just society would be the happiest possible way to live for Plato. Justice is defined as a balanced and well-integrated specialization of functions both within the scope of society and the individual. The just society classifies its members on the basis of individual differences in intellectual and physical abilities and is therefore warranted. The way to achieve a happy life is only half satisfied with the presence of a just society. Other than living in a just society, the harmony between the parts within an individual’s mind or soul is as important. The psyche contains three elements: wisdom, spirit, and appetite. The wisdom in a person, similarly to the role of the rulers in society, ought to be in command of the individual, and working in harmony with the spirit and the appetite, to achieve happiness. This is so because only the mind has the ability to reason and potentially achieve intelligence, which is the form of the Good – the ultimate source of happiness. The first argument provided is that an individual who achieves harmony among the three parts of his psyche – mind, spirit, and appetite – would naturally avoid disrupting the harmony by over-extending one of his appetites or desires. The same attitude would be conveyed when thinking of the reluctance a fisherman with abundant catch would have towards tipping over his boat to catch a water spider. The assertion that a just person is happy is based on the hypothesis that ‘justice‘ makes a state happy is not built on firm grounds, and Plato elaborates the notion further. The second argument offered is that the more real something is, the more pleasure it can give. According to the Divided Line, knowledge is more real than sensual gratifications and opinions. Applied to the three parts of psyche, the mind is capable of acquiring reasons and knowledge, which are truer than the sensual gratifications the appetite acquires and therefore would lead the individual to a more pleasurable state. The metaphor of the cave is employed at this point to facilitate understanding with powerful visual imagery. When the prisoners are seated with their backs to the fire, they are satisfying the desires of their appetite by looking at the mere shadows and treating those as genuine objects. When freed to turn around and face the actual bonfire, puppets, and their operators, the blessed prisoner has now been drawn closer to truth. Upon ascending from the cave, the individual experiences a painful process of adapting to the illumination of the sun (lower forms) and ultimately comes into direct visual contact with the sun, which is a metaphor of the ‘Good’. He gains knowledge of the ultimate truth – the form of the good – and experiences ultimate pleasure as a result. A most basic condition in this intriguing metaphor is that the prisoner puts his mind and reasoning in charge because it is the only method enabling him to perceive of the Good. Plato proceeds to explain that a person can attain the greatest happiness as long as his spirit and appetite follow the guidance of wisdom, which identifies proper and productive pleasure. It is only rational and obvious that letting the man (reason) be in control of the lion (spirit) and the many-headed monster (appetite) would lead to prosperity and fulfillment for the trio. Only wisdom (the man) can lead the way to happiness because it is equipped with innate capacity to reach such a state. If, contrarily, the many-headed monster (appetite) was to assume command, the potential of the mind to achieve reason and intelligence would be put in vain and the well being of the entity would inevitably corrupt and deteriorate due to its persistent pursuit of lusty desires. The possibilities of having the spirit and the appetite in control can be respectively derived from Plato’s descriptions of people in a timarchic and a tyrranic society. A timarchic individual is headed by his spirit and is arrogant and ambitious. He deviates from his innate rational capacities (which will lead him towards intelligence), but not so far as to immerse himself into perishable enjoyments. Such a person, apparently, can never attain the knowledge for the high forms of truth and the happiness attainable with this lifestyle is a dramatic deduction from the absolute maximum happiness. A man of less admirable quality is tyrranic and the appetite is his master; the only purpose he has in life is to fulfill desires, necessary and unnecessary ones. This causes internal turmoil for the individual because of the conflict between his appetite and his wisdom, which has now been deprived of its ideal role. Since only the wisdom in this tormented individual can lead him to a brighter prospect, the inadequateness and lack of happiness of living by the appetite is self-evident. It is hard to refute Plato’s ideal of the happiest way of living – a just person in a just society, precisely because all outcomes associated with this lifestyle is sheer good and happiness. All who contradicts is depicted by Plato as ignorant cavemen marvelling at shadows. Nonetheless, Plato did not take into consideration that truth acquired by the just person might be painful. An atheist might find the existence of a Creator incompatible with his life-long belief, and feel the clash between the truth and his philosophy in life unbearable. A devote priest would find the correctness of the evolution theory equally disrupting in his lifestyle and unacceptable. Another problem, though not extensively discussed in this report, is as relevant. Plato believed that less gifted people should not waste the society’s and their own resources on learning and advancing to the ‘Good’. Only the wisest would learn to become philosopher kings and receive education of the highest quality. This preposition rebels against everything discussed above and yields those less of a genius would inevitably lead less enjoyable lives. The happiest lifestyle would only be reserved to intelligent individuals. This introduces enormous contradiction and simply cannot stand. Bibliography: Word Count: 1002
Copyright © 1998-2008 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved. DMCA Notifications and Requests