rning the three classes Plato further explains the Four Cardinal Virtues that are found within the classes that creates the ideal state. Self-discipline is the unique virtue of all the classes, it sustains "…a unanimity, a harmony between the naturally worse and the naturally better elements of society as to which of them should rule both in a community and in every individual." P139 Courage is the virtue peculiar to the guardian class which gives them the "…ability to retain under all circumstances a true and lawful notion about what is and is not to be feared." P139 Wisdom then characterizes the rulers who have the ability to "…think resourcefully about the whole community, not just some element of it, and about enhancing the whole community’s domestic and foreign policies." P13 Justice, the fourth virtue characterizes society as a whole, and Socrates explains "…it is the principle which makes it possible for all those other qualities to arise in the community, and its continued presence allows them to flourish in safety once they have arisen." P141 Therefore Plato suggests that justice/morality is the virtue that makes the existence of the other virtues possible.Plato has now defined and formulated his ideal state. It is "…said that morality is keeping one’s own property and keeping to one’s own occupation." P142 One in which each class performs its own function well without infringing on the activities of the other classes "…for there’s nothing more disastrous for the community, then, than the intrusion of any of the three classes into either of the other two, and the interchange of roles among them, and there could be no more correct context for using the term ‘criminal’."p142 Plato divides the human soul into three parts: the rational part, the will, and the appetites. The just person is the one in whom the rational element, supported by the will, contr...
