Cultural influence of Plato's Republic
Plato's The Republic has has been influential in literature and art.
Similarities in literature
Aristophanes
Around the same time that The Republic was being composed, the playwright Aristophanes produced the play Assemblywomen. The state formed by the women in this play bears many similarities to the ideal government described by Plato. It is not discernible which was released first; most likely Aristophanes had heard an early form of The Republic before it was completed and used it as the basis for Assemblywomen. Certainly, the similarities have long been commented upon.[1] [2]
Utopias
Thomas More, when writing his Utopia, invented the technique of using the portrayal of a "utopia" as the carrier of his thoughts about the ideal society. In Thomas More's Utopia, the island Utopia is also similar to Plato's Republic in some aspects, among them common property and the lack of privacy. [3][4][5][6]
Dystopias
The form of government described in the Republic has been adapted in several modern dystopic novels and stories. The separation of people by professional class, assignment of profession and purpose by the state, and the absence of traditional family units, replaced by state-organized breeding, was included by authors in descriptions of totalitarian dystopic governments. Government which bears resemblance to Plato's Republic is found in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World [7]and Lois Lowry's The Giver.
The Orwellian dystopia depicted in the novel 1984 had many characteristics in common with Plato's description of the allegory of the Cave as Winston Smith strives to liberate himself from it. [8]
Heinlein
A more positive view of an Platonic style government would be Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers. His citizen can be compared to a Platonic Guardian, without the communal breeding and property, but still having a militaristic base. Although there are significant differences in the specifics of the system, Heinlein and Plato both endorse systems of limited franchise, with a political class that has earned their power and wisely governs the whole. Republic is specifically attacked in Starship Troopers. Indeed, the arachnids can be seen as much closer to a Republic society than the humans. [9]
Artistic creations based on Plato's Republic
- In the early 1970s the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen composed a vocal work called De Staat, based on the text of Plato's Republic.[10]
- The film The Matrix models Plato's Allegory of the cave. [11]
- The Simpsons episode They Saved Lisa's Brain is based off the ruling principles expressed in The Republic. In the episode Mayor Quimby abandons the town which is then left to look for a new government. Lisa's new MENSA friends take charge of the city and attempt to govern Springfield on the principles of The Republic. In the end their platonic experiment fails (and can thus be seen as a criticism of Plato's Philosopher King(s)).
References
- ^ Josiah Ober (1998). Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691089817.
- ^ Mary P. Nichols (1987). Socrates and the Political Community: An Ancient Debate. SUNY Press. ISBN 0887063950.
- ^ Imterpreting Thomas More's Utopia By John Charles Olin Fordham Univ Press, 1989. ISBN 0823212335
- ^ "The Function of the Ideal in Plato's 'Republic' and St. Thomas More's 'Utopia' " by K. Corrigan Moreana 1990, vol. 27, no.104, pp. 27-49
- ^ "Thomas More: On the Margins of Modernity " by J. H. Hexter The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 1 (Nov., 1961), pp. 20-37 JSTOR "We find it in Plato's Republic, and in Utopia More acknowledges his debt to that book."
- ^ "More on Utopia" by Brendan Bradshaw The Historical Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1981), pp. 1-27 JSTOR "claims that Utopia not merely emulated Plato's Republic but excelled it."
- ^ Franck, Matthew. "Aldous Huxley’s City in Speech: Brave New World and the Republic of Plato" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the The Midwest Political Science Association, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois, Apr 15, 2004 [http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p84006_index.html abstract>
- ^ "From Plato to Orwell: Utopian Rhetoric in a Dystopian World." by Deatherage, Scott. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association (73rd, Boston, MA, November 5-8, 1987). ERIC
- ^ Donald McQuarie "Utopia and Transcendence: An Analysis of Their Decline in Contemporary Science Fiction" The Journal of Popular Culture xiv (2), 242–250. (1980) Blackwell Synergy
- ^ Adlington, Robert. Louis Andriessen: De Staat. Ashgate, 2004. ISBN 0-7546-0925-1 [1] - In 1992 a CD-recording by the Schoenberg Ensemble, conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw appeared [2] - In 1977 Andriessen had been awarded several prizes for this composition [3]
- ^ The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real By William Irwin. Open Court Publishing, 2002/ ISBN 0812695011 "written for those fans of the film who are already philosophers."