Finished my midterm paper for Political Philosophy today, it’s only the rough draft but I think it’s pretty good. It’s hard to understand if you haven’t read the book, but here it is.
“All these women are to belong in common to all the men, that none are to live privately with any man, and that the children, too, are to be possessed in common, so that no parent will know his own offspring or any child his parent”(457:C). If the kallipolis was run this way I believe that the city’s level of justice would increase immensely. If there was no “baby mama drama” the city would be able to run much smoother, and the guardians would be able to decide what is just much easier without having the burden of protecting their own specific family because the city as a whole would be their family. I think that if you were a guardian and you knew which children were yours, and who was part of your family, it would be extremely difficult for you to unbiasedly judge what is just and what is unjust. This also comes into effect if your child is deemed to be “defective” and must be sentenced to live in darkness. It would be incredibly hard for you to judge your own child, knowing the consequences. If the rulers want their city to be the best of the best, it is almost required to not permit the existence of families, in order to achieve the most just city possible.
If the women and children were to be held in common they would be, by default, raised by the city as a whole. Plato then explains on pages 134-135, how marriages and children would be taken care of. It is decided, “that the best men must have sex with the best women as frequently as possible, while the opposite is true of the most inferior men and women” (459:C). Since the guardians are supposed to be the best citizens it would be assumed that the guardians would be producing most of the city’s new generation-which can be good, or bad. If the guardians produce all or most of the kallipolis’ children then they will have a new sense of protection for the city knowing that they are protecting and working for their children. However, craftsmen and others lower than the guardians know that they have less of a chance of being granted permission to have a child and therefore would be less inclined to work for their city. Though hopefully, they would realize that they, too, were probably children of a guardian, and would therefore respect the city that gave them their lives. The citizens of the kallipolis would also give the guardians much more respect knowing that they are their “mothers” and “fathers.”
It goes without saying though, that there will of course be inferior offspring produced, no matter how many restrictions are put on procreation. These children will, unfortunately, “hide in a secret and unknown place, as is appropriate” (460:C). The mother’s will also be brought to the rearing pen in order to help supply milk for the children. If this is to happen though, they must sanction how much time each mother spends with each individual child. They can’t spend too much time with one individual because they might create a stronger bond. The goal is for them to create an equal bond with each child in order to further emphasize the feeling of the city as a family. Some mothers though, will not be able to produce milk for the children, due to a medical deficiency. This is where the wet nurses will come into play. Their job is to govern the rearing pen. They make sure that each mother spends equal amounts of time with the children, and they also take care of the kids when they can’t sleep, and all other troublesome tasks. I do think there is a minor flaw in the general breeding idea. If the best women only have sex with the best men, we begin to cross the lines of incest. I would be brought to believe, since we know now that inbreeding causes many genetic deficiencies, that after a while, they will start to have more and more children born that aren’t exactly “up to par,” and will spend their lives in darkness. This could possibly even eventually lead to the downfall of the kallipolis.
If the city was to be run this way, they would have to give women and men the same training. If both sexes received the same education, then they must both be considered for all jobs in the kallipolis. Some women might be naturally inclined to be carpenters. Some women might lean more towards a traditional womanly job such as working in the nursery, and some women might even be just and philosophical enough to be guardians themselves. This would be a great opportunity for women to be treated as equals to the men. There was one issue concerning the gymnasium training of the women. The men train naked in the gym, even when they are old and wrinkled. However, it seemed too risqué for the women to be held under the same rules. It is decided though that since women are going to be held as equals in the fields, then they must abide by the same rules and restrictions. If this situation actually worked and proved to be beneficial for the city, it would almost be as if there were no differences between men and women specifically, besides the fact that the women would bear the children. The citizens of the kallipolis would no longer be thought of in regards to their sex, but everyone’s worth, so to say, would be decided on their occupation. Plato, however, leaves out what I believe to be a big part of this section. He never says whether or not the men will be chosen to do “womanly” jobs. If a man was so suited, would he be able to be a nurse? I think that if the city was to run as equally and justly as possible, the answer would be yes. If a woman can be a guardian, then certainly a man could be a rearing pen attendant. There is also the aspect of war to be considered. If women and men can both be considered to be guardians then they will of course both be eligible to fight in wars. When it comes to the physical aspect of being a guardian, I do agree that it is hard to say that a woman can be as strong as the strongest man, due to the fact that our bodies are built a different way. This being said, though a woman might have the mindset to be a guardian, her tasks might be more suited to a woman than a man. Women have advantages in areas such as speed and agility. Her task might revolve more around sneaky war tactics, such as spying and ambushing, while the men would have a more “brute force style”.
When I first began to question this topic, I thought that it was a somewhat minor part of the Republic; however, upon further inspection, if the women and children were held in common it would change almost every aspect of the city. I’m not a feminist by any means, and I do believe that most women deserve the stereotype that they’re given. There are cases though where a woman could do a job just as well as a man, and if that is so, then the woman must be given the opportunity. That being said, if the citizens of the kallipolis were classified based on their skills, and not by their sex, it would help bring the city together as a whole, and as a family.
