The history of Socrates and Plato in ancient Greece
Socrates and Plato
With just the previous description science of state, we come to a discussion about one of the topics of discussion for, namely the origin of the country, that is, by means of how something called a state is formed or can happen.
The idea of how the country was formed or happened has also started since ancient Greece.
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| Socrates with face detection |
The first scholars to direct his thinking in that direction were: Socrates and his Disciple, Plato.
Socrates died in 399 BC. According to Socrates, the state is not merely an objective necessity, the origin of state thinking is based on human character.
Meanwhile, the task of the state is to create laws, which must be carried out by the leaders or rulers who are carefully chosen by the people.
This is where the thought of Democratic rather than Socrates concludes.
Socrates always rejected and strongly opposed what he considered to be contrary to his teachings, namely obeying the law.
Socrates died because he was forced (punished) to drink poison, because he was considered to be destroying the mind with his existing intelligence at that time, leaving nothing, either written writings or handwritten ones.
That Socrates continues to live in the realm of thought about state and law is primarily thanks to his illustrious pupil Plato.
Because Plato in his books gave the main place for his teacher, Socrates.
In many ways Plato's book is question-and-answer, while the answers are expressed according to the teachings of his teacher, Socrates.
Plato and Athena were given the name Academia
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| Plato with face detection |
For 40 years Plato taught at the Academia school. And during that time Plato wrote many books, so in contrast to his teacher, namely Socrates, Plato left many of his books.
Most of Plato's books were written in a question-and-answer form, and in these conversations his teacher, Socrates, always found a special place.
In this way Socrates, although not leaving any writings, Socrates' name can be immortalized in the history of thought about the state and law.
The most important books of Plato in the history of thought about the state and law are: Polytheia, or State, this book contains Plato's teachings about the state and law; Politeia's book is then continued in Plato's other book named Politikos, or State Expert, and in Plato's next book it is named Nomoi, or Law.
The teachings of Plato about the state and law in the books Politeia, Politikos and Nomoi were much influenced by Plato's mind in the field of philosophy, in fact it was this realm of thought that gave birth to books Politeia, Politikos and Nomoi.
So before discussing the main points of Plato's teachings about the state and law in his books, it is better to discuss briefly Plato's thoughts in the field of philosophy.
Plato is the creator of the ideological teachings (ideeenleer), and therefore his philosophy is called idealism.
The philosophy of Plato's teachings
So the essence of truth is in the idea of man.
Everything that exists outside of man is actually only a reflection of what already exists in the world of man's ideas.
The shapes of things that exist outside of the human being are not the same, for example a horse, some are black, some are white, some are large, some are small and so on.
But even so we already know that these things (horses) are one of a kind.
The reason is that because of the pure form of new things, they are not completely new things, because they are merely reminiscent of their pure forms that already existed in the world of ideas.
Because the human soul has already existed in the realm of ideas (pure ideals) before it enters our bodies; there has seen the idea or mind of a horse and then recognizes the horse in a less than perfect form in this world.
These ideas or ideals are things that already exist in humans at birth.
Seeking knowledge means bringing back memories, and arises from our soul's longing for the world of ideas where our souls used to be.
With these teachings, Plato became the first expert thinker to accept the understanding of the existence of a Nature without matter, a nature with a full mind.
And his thoughts or teachings like that arose because of the influence of his association with the Sofists.
Thus it is assumed that all knowledge obtained only through the senses is of a very relative nature, because perfect knowledge can only be born from the spiritual realm.
Plato's teachings as mentioned above will have a lot of influence in his teachings about the state and law, for example in his teachings about the purpose of the state.
Plato said that the real goal of the state is to know or achieve or recognize real ideas, while those who can know or reach real ideas are only philosophers, therefore the leadership of the state or state government should be held by experts. philosophy only.
This would later be proved dialectically by Plato in his teachings about the forms of the state.
Now what is Plato's teaching regarding the origin or formation of the state ?
Plato's teachings were very simple
According to Plato, the state arises or exists because of the various needs and desires of humans, which causes them to work together to meet their needs.
Because each person alone is unable to meet his needs.
Therefore, according to their respective abilities, each person has his own duties and works together to fulfill their common interests.
Their unity is then called society or state.
About the essence of the state
Regarding this, Plato said that the size of the country must be measured or adjusted according to whether or not the state is able to maintain unity in the country, because the country is actually a large family.
Therefore, the state must not have an indefinite area.
Regarding state forms. This is actually included in the discussion about country classification.
But considering that even in this case Plato includes a lot of influences on his philosophical teachings, so hopefully we don't interrupt in talking about Plato's teachings, let's talk about this matter here.
Before Plato put forward his teachings about the forms of the state, it was preceded by asking a question. First of all, State Science must raise a question of a moral nature,
In this situation, a strong, strong leader who can overcome the chaos is desired.
So then someone who is considered to have leadership talent is looked for to be entrusted with the government.
So now the government is only held by one person. In such circumstances the desire of the ruler is to ensure that there is no competition against him, and for this the ruler does not hesitate to alienate or get rid of all his enemies or rivals. Such action is far from justice. The governing country is called Tyranni.
Such a government is a government that is very far from the ideals of justice, because a Tyran always tries to suppress his people.
With his teachings above, Plato has proved by means of dialectics, that Aristocracy is the best government, for only justice, that is, an order of government from, and run by, talented and wise people, can bring happiness.
They are the ones who can achieve the country's goals, namely achieving real ideas.
This is where Plato entered the influence of his philosophical teachings.
Meanwhile, the worst is Tyranni. This is except what has been described above, by Plato explained further as follows.
The life of a Tyran's soul as the most unhappy creature. Then appeared a true criminal who wanted to satisfy all his desires.
Even though a Tyran is at the pinnacle of his power, falling prey to all his passions.
Therefore, in truth, Tyran is more miserable than his own people whom he governs.
A Tyran resembles the country he rules
No state can be thought of which is more sad than the state of a Tyran, because he is constantly faced with his growing desires.
Hence it then creates a situation that is the opposite of what it wants.
Because of his behavior, Tyran can no longer trust other people, even himself, Tyran lives in a helpless state, always teased by fear.
Can Tyran trust the people guarding him?Because, whoever does not respect others, is afraid that other people will not respect him as well, and is afraid that he will be destroyed by his own arguments.
While Tyran eats and drinks, Tyran is afraid of being poisoned by people, while Tyran is resting and sleeping, afraid of being ambushed and killed by others.
A Tyran cannot move freely.
Is not such a person the best example of how people who pursue evil are not happy, but become people who are very sad? higher livelihood, besides that there are many similarities between the country that Plato aspired to and the state of the Catholic church in the Middle Ages.
