We live in horrific times, and evil — modern, historical, symbolic — continue to fuel our darkest dreams. Yet it took the talents of Paul Thomas Anderson to unify all of these things into perfect portrait of a fiend in the person of Daniel Plainview, in his movie There Will Be Blood. Daniel Plainview is the epitome of a misanthrope He is a man governed by passions and his hated for the human race, saying at one point in the film, ” There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking”. There Will Be Blood presents a character of a man that is uncommon to today’s society, but one that exists nonetheless. This character is however lacking in the society formed by Plato in his writing of The Republic. Here we will look at how Plato would deal with a human like this, if one were to exist in his society, or if he would believe that a man such as this could not come to be at all in the civilization he created.
From the start of his society, Plato holds one idea to be truth, that all man through training, can be formed into the perfect humans. Plato believed that if he starts his society from children, that he would be able to train anyone through myths and education to become the type of person he wants them to be. Therefore, a man such as Daniel could never exist in his society, his educational system would never allow it. This is one major flaw in Plato’s argument. Plato believes that when humans are born, there is nothing to them, no preexisting personality or being inside every child. Each person from birth, is a blank slate, whose experiences and decisions make into the person that they end up being. While the way a person is raised does have an enormous impact on the life they lead, personality and traits they ar...
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...re will always be some people who will question life. Plato’s only way of handling these people is to throw them out of his city. Due to this, Plato would never be able to control a man like Daniel. Daniel symbolizes the type of man who reject what Plato put before him. He would be in a sense untrainable to the ideals that Plato was preaching. This is again a flaw in his argument. If anyone inside of Plato’s society were to question, then they whole society could crumble. The city-state run on the belief that man would simply follow what he had been told, but there will always be men like Daniel Plainview who question it.
Works Cited
Plato, G. R. F. Ferrari, and Tom Griffith. The Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000. Print.
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There Will Be Blood. Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson. Perf. Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciarán Hinds. Miramax, 2007. DVD.
Plato. Republic. Trans. G.M.A. Grube and C.D.C. Reeve. Plato Complete Works. Ed. John M. Cooper. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997.
However, Plato now describes the Democracy that has been implemented by the lower classes with the aim of leading onto the democratic character. With new freedom and liberty, the average individual will arran...
Thomas Clark first visit impression was he did not take ownership of his charges, therefore; he was constantly making excuses for not sticking to the conditions of his probation. The first step to rehabilitation is to acknowledge what caused him, to be in the situation he is currently facing. Thomas to keep the terms of his probation he must comply and make some positive choices in his life. The second required check-in, Thomas attitude had changed. He stated he wanted to be the first in his family to attend college, he goes to work, he attends NA meetings; however, his living arrangement is a problem because his roommates use drugs. Mr. Philipps, Thomas’s landlord, states Thomas as people coming in and out the apartment all time in the
Plato. The Republic of Plato, 2nd edition. Translated by Allan Bloom. New York: Basic Books, 1991.
He then travelled to college at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama. Twelve years later he would finally succeed in earning an undergraduate degree. In the novel, Mr. Thomas uses his character very wisely to bring the main message across to the reader. He was a low-life individual with no home and no future. His prospect career was a drug dealer that would eventually end up shot or in jail. (53) He uses this to show the most deprived place anyone can possibly go. This sets up the rest of the book so the difference between the past and the present is enormous. Additionally, he teaches the path to success with steps by changing character through the environment you’re in. After becoming homeless, Eric knew he had to change friends. He knew he only needed people around him that would stay to their beliefs and would be able to help him. This is how he found Bob. (33) Bob had many family members so Eric could not stay in his house but Bob let him sleep in an old car they had. (37) Eventually Bob got him to start going to church. This change of environment, from the streets to a church, would make an even better atmosphere for Eric to be able to succeed. By showing what changed him, he urges the reader to do something similar in their life to better who they
Plato. ""Glaucon's Challenge" from The Republic." Gendler, Tamar Szabo, Susanna Siegel and Steven M. Cahn. The Elements of Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. 217-220.
Plato. (1992). Plato Republic. (G. Grube, & C. Reeve, Eds.) Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company Inc.
Societies fall apart all the time in many ways. There are only a couple ways societies fall apart over and over again. Those reasons are corrupt leadership, in and a lot of poverty, and a lot of wars. We all know societies fall apart and they cause riots and all that, but there are three main reasonss why societies fall. The main reasons happen everywhere in the world. Societies always fall apart so if you know the main reasons you could stop societies fall apart.
Young people should not be permitted to read Plato’s Republic. In fact, the general population should not be allowed to read it either. This is arguably what most frustrated university students tend to think when they are asked to read this text. Although, it might please them to know that Plato feels exactly the same way as they do. Republic is a work that contains an abundance of lies, allegories and theories, all of which can be classified as falsehoods by Plato. Supposing Republic were to be evaluated by Plato as a story for young people, the presence of these falsehoods makes this dialogue one that children should not be allowed to read. This paper aims to evaluate Plato’s position by identifying excerpts from Republic which contain examples
Plato, and G. M. A. Grube. Five Dialogues. 2nd ed. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Pub., 2002. Print.
"Plato." The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Volume I. 6th ed. NY: W.W. Norton and Co., 1992. 726-746.
Plato. The Republic. Trans. Sterling, Richard and Scott, William. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1985.
1) Marra, James L., Zelnick, Stephen C., and Mattson, Mark T. IH 51 Source Book: Plato, The Republic, pp. 77-106
The purpose of the book is for readers to understand how a person that hopes for justice, but at the same time fights with words of intellect and clarity. In this case it is Plato spreading his knowledge that he has gained from Socrates to others.
Plato’s idea for a perfect government is to have three different classes to have different roles to help the society. The first group of people is the Producing class and they are responsible for providing materials and food for the city. This is where the farmers, blacksmiths, the fishermen, and other jobs like them. The second group is the Auxiliaries and they are the ones who job is to protect the city from threats, so the soldiers. The final group is the guardians, these are the philosophers and it is there job to not only be knowledgeable but to be just. Plato believes that there are several things that can derail the advancement of society. “Then nothing insane and nothing akin to dissoluteness can be involved in the right of love…Then sexual pleasure must not be involved” (121). Plato believed that sex should only be reserved for special festivals and for creating life, other than that people should keep in line with how a father and son touch each other. Plato did not just regulate what two people did in the privacy in the own home, but he also regulated what people should be learning in school. “At any rate, it ought to end where it has ended; for surely training in the musical crafts ought to end in a passion for beauty” ...