- Joined
- May 11, 2016
- Messages
- 16,975
- Reaction score
- 11,176
I mean, you're wrong. Just, basic familiarity with the text shows this.You are falsely assuming that the entire city had upward mobility. You are limited by a subjective interpretation of what "metal" your soul is made up of and the only people who are able to move up are down are arguably the guardians and that's it.
And as you are all akin, though for the most part you will breed after your kinds,222 [415b] it may sometimes happen that a golden father would beget a silver son and that a golden offspring would come from a silver sire and that the rest would in like manner be born of one another. So that the first and chief injunction that the god lays upon the rulers is that of nothing else223 are they to be such careful guardians and so intently observant as of the intermixture of these metals in the souls of their offspring, and if sons are born to them with an infusion of brass or iron [415c] they shall by no means give way to pity in their treatment of them, but shall assign to each the status due to his nature and thrust them out224 among the artisans or the farmers. And again, if from these there is born a son with unexpected gold or silver in his composition they shall honor such and bid them go up higher, some to the office of guardian, some to the assistanceship, alleging that there is an oracle225 that the state shall then be overthrown when the man of iron or brass is its guardian. Do you see any way of getting them to believe this tale?”
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0168:book=3
Or hell, if that's too tough, you could just at least read the SparkNotes on the section you are trying to quote:
https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/republic/section3/page/3/The people must be told that though for the most part iron and bronze people will produce iron and bronze children, silver people silver children, and gold people gold children, that is not always the case. It is critical to observe the next generation to discover their class of soul. Those who are born to producers but seem to have the nature of a guardian or an auxiliary will be whisked away and raised with other such children. Similarly, those born to guardians or auxiliaries who seem more fit as producers will be removed to that class of society. Although the just society is rigid in terms of adult mobility between classes, it is not as rigid in terms of heredity
I am literally the only one who has ever interpreted The Republic as describing a meritocracy?Which is a far cry from your interpretation of the Republic being a "meritocracy" you are literally the only person who has ever deduced it as such.
So, I guess, Wikipedia doesn't literally say this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato's_five_regimesIn contrast to historical aristocracies, Plato's resembles a meritocracy or proto-technocracy of sorts. In it, a big government state keeps track of the innate character and natural skills of the citizens' children, directing them to the education that best suits those traits. In this manner, a child with a gold soul born to parents with silver, bronze or iron souls will not be held back by his inferior birth and will be educated to levels above his kin according to his golden qualities. Conversely, from parents with gold and silver souls, a child born with a bronze or an iron soul is educated to only the level earned by his natural aptitudes.
So, yeah, I'll be happy to accept your apology.Actually it's not and also telling you didn't understand what you read when you read it.
Last edited: