Women and Families in Plato’s Republic

Mohamed Aldhanhani
Doshisha Uninversity
 Abstract

In this paper, the focus shall be on the “Republic” by (Plato, 380BC) . specifically Book V

which focuses on children and family. An analysis will be conducted upon Plato’s work and

contribution to Political thoughts and philosophy. In addition to speculating how society

would react should Plato’s ideas came to fruition in today’s society and scaling how feasible

his ideas are for a government. More online resources are going to be implemented in

addition to the “Republic”, in order to solidify my opinion on Plato’s thoughts, especially

since translating an ancient Greek book from 360BC won’t do us any favor in terms of

pinpointing the main thesis and having a fair understanding of the book. It is better to be

skeptical of translations, so additional resources are of a necessity in this case, as said by

Allin Bloom in the republic of Plato “Above all, I have avoided using terms of recent origin

for which it is difficult to find an exact Greek equivalent, inasmuch as they are likely to be

the ones which most reflect specifically modem thought. It is, of course, impossible always

[ xvii ] Preface to translate every Greek word in the same way. But the only standard for

change was the absolute unintelligibility of the rendition and not any desire to make Plato

sound better or to add variety where he might seem monotonous. And the most crucial words,

like those just mentioned and form and regime, etc., are always the same in spite of the

difficulties”
 Analyzing The Republic

The way (Plato,380BC) wrote the republic is quite unconventional in comparison to many of

the political theory and philosophical work of the modern era. It is safe to assume that one

reason might be that Plato was the first of his kind. Indeed, Socrates was his teacher, but that

is where it ends. There was no clear method on writing philosophy, nor political thoughts.

The way The Republic has been written is in a form of story narration, similar to how short

stories and novels are written. The conversations follow the point of view of Socrates, the

main character in the Republic. It caused confusion since it was not clear if the opinions

shared by Socrates character belong to the real Socrates or Plato. However, reading the book

carefully. One might be able to deduce that Socrates dialog contain a lot of Plato’s idea since

ultimately Socrates’s character comes up with solutions and give the moral and political

lessons, which the rest of the character mostly agree with. For the most part, as the message
of the book is concerned, and for the rest of this paper the Character Socrates and

(Plato,380BC) are interchangeable

Book V: Women and the family

(Plato,380BC) started the chapter with Socrates and his companions discussing state

issues. They seem to have had long discussions about many essential parts of making the

ideal republic. However, Socrates’s focus was on the raising and educating young children,

acknowledging that the time between human’s birth and the start of his official education is

very significant, which is why he though regulating it is an important job of the state because

as (Plato,380BC,p305-306) wrote him say “We have been long expecting that you would tell

us something about the family life of your citizens–how they will bring children into the

world, and rear them when they have arrived, and, in general, what is the nature of this

community of women and children–for we are of opinion that the right or wrong

management of such matters will have a great and paramount influence on the State for good

or for evil” . The common good is one of the themes which are associated with Plato and it

shows as (Plato,380BC) wrote Socrates emphasizing how in order to have a great people who

serve a great state, their upbringing must be up to par.

The gender issue has been brought up within the conversation. (Plato, 380BC) wrote

Socrates questioning the differences between the nature of the two sexes. Specifically, how
because the two have different natures, they are bound to have different pursuits. However,

he then retaliates that not all men nor women are the same. What (Plato,380BC) followed

with was basically denouncing the ignorant act of over generalization when it comes to men

and women. (Plato, 380BC) wrote Socrates’s companion having very little intervention or

criticism on his ideas, since it is very hard to legitimize a thesis without challenging it,

Socrates in the story imagine the reaction of the society as the counter argument to his ideas

about how government must operate. Those are the anti-thesis to what he is proposing, so

after introducing them (Plato, 380BC) proceed to reply to them and having what seems to be

a one-sided debate. One of those points being how men and woman shall not receive the

same education based on how they have different natures and pursuits. However, Socrates in

the story argued that it is very possible for the woman to share men in his duties. Socrates in

the story does not argue against the inherent nature of men and women, he indeed

acknowledge the differences between the two however as (Plato, 380BC) wrote him, he said

“the male and female sex appear to differ in their fitness for any art or pursuit, we should say

that such pursuit or art ought to be assigned to one or the other of them; but if the difference

consists only in women bearing and men begetting children, this does not amount to a proof

that a woman differs from a man in respect of the sort of education she should receive; and

we shall therefore continue to maintain that our guardians and their wives ought to have the

same pursuits”. After that he explained the individual aspects of the matter for his favor, one

of the few time individualisms has been brought up so slightly to benefit his argument. (Plato,

380BC) wrote Socrates explaining how within the sexes, there are different natures and

pursuits, just like a physician does not possess the same nature as a carpenter.

One more significant part of (Plato, 380BC) republic, is how offsprings are ought to

be regulated by the state, and children are going to be born ignorant to whom their biological
parents, the carers for these children are going to be assigned by the state for the common

good of it. Socrates in the story believe that this will remove the acts of selfishness, having all

the guardians to share women and children, everyone will be in harmony with no posessions

of private property nor family members. Socrates imagined the backlash against this idea,

specifically because it might lead to marrages within the real families, as it seems impossible

to tell who the siblings among the children are. However, Socrates has an answer, by keeping

record of date of birth and the people who gave birth on that day. Marriages within the same

family can be prevented

Feasibility in real life

It is hard to imagine any of (Plato380BC) ideas which was discussed in Book V to be feasible

in today’s western society. A society which was built on the concepts of liberty and

individualism. Both concepts that has been discarded in Plato’s Republic in favor to the

bettering of the state and the common good.

Lesson

It can be inferred that (Plato, 380BC) believed that women had the potential to do more than

what previously been perceived by people in his society as stated by Eric brown in the

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy “Many readers have seen in Plato’s Republic a rare

exception in western philosophy’s long history of sexist denigration of women, and some

have even decided that Plato’s willingness to open up the best education and the highest jobs

to women shows a kind of feminism (Wender 1973). Other readers disagree (Annas 1976,

Buchan 1999). They point to Plato’s indifference to the needs of actual women in his own

city, to Socrates’ frequent, disparaging remarks about women and “womanish” attitudes, and

to the illiberal reasons Socrates offers for educating and empowering women”
In addition, (Plato, 380BC) focused on the common good for the whole socity rather than

having selfish desires for one’s own property or family, as stated by “This is particularly

problematic in a class such as theguardians, where working as a cohesive group would be

essential to success. If a father began tofavor his own children over the children of others, it

could lead to the failure of the entire groupand, with it, the society as a whole. In addition, the

presence of families can cause direct conflictwithin a society”.