Platos Repulic, book V Essay -- essays research papers fc

ABSTRACT This radical discusses the viability of certain aspects (the sex lottery) of Platos res publica, book V. It is college level A paper.Book V of The Republic finds Socrates explaining the practical details necessary in the creation of an ideal polis. He proposes a system for population control and benevolent eugenics based on a lottery of sorts which leading determine who will mate with whom and when. The lottery is rigged by the rulers in order that the best of the herd will mate much more frequently than others. However, only the rulers of this society will know the lottery is rigged. This system will presumably assure that children will be conceived as the result of reason, not irrational behaviors such as love or lust, and will produce the best possible in store(predicate) generations (Plato 458d 460c). I argue that Platos lottery would not drop worked in his time, nor would it work now because the desire to propagate was and still is a human instinct propelled b y passion, not mostthing that dissolve simply be reason out away. While Plato proposed that licentiousness would be forbidden and matrimony given the highest stage of sanctity (458e), I do not think that would be teeming to stop a massive rise in sex crimes and fanatical affairs. Instead of a precisely society, Platos proposal would confine created atomic number 53 of fear, self-doubt and lack of trust in the government and is not something I would advocate implementing. While we can never really know how this utopia would defy played out in Platos time, the negative effects on a society when passions argon forcibly controlled can be illustrated in a modern sense by the Catholic Church and our punishable system.Plato wrote that guardians would be drawn together by a necessity of their natures to have intercourse (458d) and yet, their inner interludes should be limited by the use of the lottery. It is substantial to point out that since reliable and accessible birth contr ol is a recent luxury, Plato was not simply advocating for selective child birth, he was talking about abstaining from heterosexual sex unless you won the lottery. I dont think Platos lottery system would have worked out as well as he envisioned. When the less desirable of the population were consistently unlucky and unable to propagate year after year, what would have happened to them psychologically? Given that copulation was to be an honor bestowed upon... ...or other punishments. Whether restraint of sexual instincts are willingly accepted or forced upon a community, the results can lead to a decidedly non-ideal situation.By looking at some modern examples, I have shown how human desire can, and often does, subvert reason and the law even when faced with community imposed consequences or dire punishments. While current society differs greatly from Platos Greece, sight are still people and human instinct existed then just as it exists today. People who are denied the ability t o choose if and with whom they can have sex are liable to become irrational or maneuver to violent means to reach that end, regardless of the era in which they live. In Platos ideal society these unsanctioned actions could have lead to an change magnitude level in the publics fear for their physical safety. Individuals consistently denied by the rulers to copulate might develop self-worth issues and finally, a pin-prick of imperfection in this utopian society may be discovered by those who are forbidden from enjoying physical relations with those they desire or love. Works CitedPlato, The Republic. Trans. genus Benzoin Jowett. New York Barnes & Noble Books, 2004.