Architecturally, triangles give rise to stable structures such as pyramids and geodesic domes. Plato’s students (and future guardians) had to learn geometry as a prerequisite to ethics and politics. But when a polity’s guardians manifest folly in place of wisdom, they may bring about the ruin of the state and the people alike. If leaders disempower auxiliaries, then law, order, and defense are hamstrung. Ignoble opportunists arise: ideologues who profiteer in power or wealth by instilling hatred and inciting violence. If structurally weakened from within, a polity can implode into civil war, revolution, or anarchy, as we have seen time and again since Plato. But his Republic, if faithfully sustained, is immune to implosion. who cynically called justice “the advantage of the stronger,” and Glaucon, who claimed that injustices would be Recall Thrasymachus, commonplace if there were no consequences to perpetrators. Plato replied that justice is nothing other than a polity’s well-balanced soul: a harmonious triad of guardians, auxiliaries, and producers. Everyone fulfills the duties they are best equipped to discharge
with excellence at every level. Everyone partakes in the benefits of good government and enjoys the protection of law and order. Producers of goods and services flourish, and their prosperity benefits all. Power is exercised for the Good, not by brute strength but by wisdom. And if brute strength is needed, wisdom enlists it in the service of the Good. The auxiliaries protect the state against external threats and protect it internally from any who seek to profit through injustice. A “litmus test” for Plato’s utopia is described in the Republic. It’s a parable about a shepherd boy named Gyges. He finds a ring and discovers that wearing it makes him invisible. (Yes, the great J.R.R. Tolkien read Plato too!) Gyges does what many may be tempted to do with such a ring: he infiltrates the palace, seduces the queen, murders the king, and puts himself in charge. Of course, disaster follows. Whoever craves Gyges’ ring allows their desires and passions to run roughshod over their reason, in blind quests for pleasure and power, heedless of the Good. This never ends well for them. Plato’s litmus test reveals that anyone who would use Gyges’ ring to attain their goals must be suffering from an
unbalanced soul. Using the ring only makes matters worse. In Plato’s Republic, nobody would even touch the ring. Why not? Because they are already well- balanced and fulfilled. So who needs it? Only in a polity ruled by unbalanced souls, governed by folly and courted by chaos, would people crave the ring. That path leads to implosion: both the personal and the political disintegrate. Plato knew this in antiquity. But today, too many have forgotten.
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Lou Marinoff is a professor of philosophy at The City College of New York and founding president of the non-profit American Philosophical Practitioners Association. He is also an internationally bestselling author, a table hockey champion, and a Bellwether Alliance member since 2021. https://appa.edu and https://www.loumarinoff.com
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