Description of a Just Society in Book III of Plato’s Republic Socrates

In Book III of Plato’s Republic Socrates is describing his “just society”. He uses the metaphor of people being made of metal to describe which class they belong in. He uses an example of “some men the power of command, and in the composition of these he has mingled gold, wherefore also they have the greatest honour”. He then describes the next class of people being made of silver, who are to be “auxiliaries”, which is describing some sort of warrior. The final two classes of people he describes are composed of brass and iron, which will be the “husbandmen and craftsmen”. I believe Socrates is describing the middle class for the brass and iron. He believes that people are to believe that they can move into new classes, but in reality they won’t and will continue to work hard. I think Plato think that the “craftsmen” class of people are the most important, as they do the hard work that makes society run. If a child has a special talent, he should be taught to master only that talent. We must make sure that they are doing their job to the fullest because when we people are doing their jobs to the their full potential, we create an “ideal society”

The significance of this passage is Plato describing Socrates views social classes and how he thinks a society should be run. My impression of this passage is that Socrates believes that people are naturally put into social classes without having any actual preference. Plato uses the term “The Noble Lie” which is significant to the passage as a whole. He thinks that rulers lie to their citizens to make them believe that they can move into other social classes. They do this to make people want to work harder so that they can move, which in returns creates a just society.

In this passa...

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...e guiding others in the right direction. He thinks the biggest way that we can help people is to educate them. When we learn what right and what is wrong we are able to have an ideal society where everyone is helping each other. I believe Mills thinks that only selfishness can hinder a society.

This is significant because it relates to many of Mill’s themes in “On Liberty”. One of his biggest messages was that knowledge is more important than education. When people are actively discussing issues, we create a culture where people continue to want to learn. We shouldn’t just accept things as true because we are told, but rather search ourselves for answers. That ties in with Mills believe that authority should be limited on people’s liberties. It is authority that tells us what to learn, but Mills believes that when we are able to learn on our own we benefit more.