Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / The purpose of this thesis is to find a basis of comparison between the educational practices of ancient Greece, specifically those of Athens and Sparta, and the educational theories put forth by Plato in his book, The Republic. This basis will be formed on the relationship between the individual and the society of which he is a member. As the historical approach is to be used, not only will the educational systems of Athens and Sparta be studied, but also the educational ideals of the Greeks all the way back to Homer, and the histories of the city-states themselves. This latter is an especially important point, for the city-states of ancient Greece were unqiue in themselves. They were not merely organizations for the preservation of law and order, but the very life source of all Greek activity and thought. As a result, education was an integral part of the function of the polis, just as the polis was an integral part, if not the consuming part, of a Greek's daily life. The education of each group is in accordance with its objectives. The Artisans receive practical training in their craft or profession; the Guardians receive a liberal education designed to produce a strong feeling of loyalty toward the state and its rulers; while the Rulers themselves receive the training of the Guardians for their primary education, and then pass on to advanced study of mathematics and philosophy, finally culminating in the study of ultimate reality, the Forms, and especially in the Form of Goodness, from whence all reality and truth and virtue and goodness derive their very existence. [TRUNCATED]

Thesis (M.A. (Applied Ethics for Professionals))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, School of Social Sciences, 2015. / Plato in his dialogue the Republic designs an ideal polis, the Kallipolis, seeking ‗justice, our good and the knowledge of the good required for understanding and bringing justice, happiness and good government into our lives and society‘ (Santas 2010, p.7). The first step in the Kallipolis‘ development is a polis without formal government whose citizens live a modest, stable, sustainable lifestyle. Disparaged by Glaucon as a polis for pigs, Socrates‘ incongruous rejoinder is ‗the true polis… is the one we‘ve described, the healthy one, as it were‘ (Rep. 372e). Contemporary commentators are critical of this polis, questioning its role in the Republic. In trying to understand the polis for pigs, and Socrates‘ praise thereof, I posit it is a village, and consider it has virtue, is good and its citizens are happy. However, despite being true and healthy, it is not the best or an ideal polis, but it is crucial to the development of the Kallipolis.

Thesis advisor: Christopher Bruell / This dissertation is an approach to Plato’s longest political work, The Laws, with a view to the problem of the harmony of the goods. Since I understand the problem of the harmony of the goods as a universal one, i.e., as a problem stemming from human condition rather than from the reading of Plato, the first task is to present what it means to adopt a Platonic perspective on this problem. This is what I do in the first chapter through a discussion of the Euthydemus and the Statesman. This discussion leads me to these three questions: (1) What is the relation between the happiness of the individual and that of the city? (2) What is the model that guides the statesman’s work of harmonizing the goods in one whole? (3) How can the knowledge of harmonizing the various goods be passed to the citizens? Since these three questions concern the city, it is the city that I examine next. But since there are two cities in the Platonic corpus, I thus turn to a brief exposition of the Republic (Books I-VII) and the Laws (Books I-III). From my discussion of the Republic, in the first part of chapter two, I draw the conclusion that the happiness of the city and that of the individual may not necessarily coincide. This conclusion justifies my turn to the Laws in the second part of chapter two, for in the Laws the emphasis is more on individual happiness than on that of the city, as it is in the Republic. I then show that the first Books of the Laws provide an answer to the central question phrased at the end of chapter one, namely that it is by translating the natural hierarchy of the goods into a coherent and harmonized way of life that the good lawgiver can pass his knowledge to the citizens. Yet, since this solution is challenged in the sequel, I then move on in that dialogue. The third and last chapter is devoted to the Books IV and V of the Laws. The core of that chapter consists in a close analysis of the general prelude to the law code of the city to be built in the Laws. I show that the aim of the prelude is to educate the citizens and that the prelude is therefore the means by which the lawgiver passes on his knowledge to them. Yet, since the prelude is a twofold speech which conveys a teaching that can be understood in accordance with the power of the listener’s soul, I come to the conclusion that the answer to the question about the lawgiver’s solution to the problem of the harmony of the goods is inseparable from my own interpretation of the prelude. My interpretation of the prelude is that the harmony of the goods will always remain partly imperfect and that this is why the knowledge of the hierarchy of the goods is, ultimately, more important than that of the harmony of the goods. This I take to be Plato’s position. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Esta Dissertação de Mestrado examina o tema Utopias/Distopias e o discurso totalitário em duas obras de caráter e gênero distintos: A República, de Platão (Filosofia), e Admirável Mundo Novo, de Aldous Huxley (Literatura). Tendo como objetivo principal a comparação de elementos narrativos, temáticos e ideológicos encontrados nessas duas obras, utiliza como metodologia a análise embasada em referenciais da Literatura Comparada e da Teoria da Literatura (Narratologia e a Tematologia), da Análise do Discurso Francesa, dos estudos da obra de Platão e de estudos sociológicos. Esta análise segue a sequência de apresentação dos pressupostos teóricos, análise das obras de Platão e de Huxley (em seus aspectos internos e externos), para, finalmente, apresentar um quadro comparativo com os discursos totalitários retirados dessas obras - discursos esses que são analisados em pormenores. Por fim, esta Dissertação culmina com a compreensão de que o tema utopia/distopia, e os discursos acerca dele, não se restringe somente à literatura ficcional, mas pode ser encontrado em estudos filosóficos e políticos, e no nosso dia a dia. / This thesis examines the theme of Utopia/Dystopia and the totalitarian discourse in two works of different nature and genre: Plato's Republic (a work of Philosophy) and Brave New World (a work of Literature) by Aldous Huxley. The thesis' main objective is to compare narrative, thematic and ideological elements. In order to perform this analysis, the author will make use of methodologies taken from Comparative Literature, Literary Theory (Narratology and Thematology), the French school of Discourse Analysis, studies on Plato's works and sociological studies. After presenting and explaining those theoretical references, the author shall perform an analysis of Plato's and Huxley's works, considering their internal and external aspects; afterwards, a final analysis shall be performed, comparing the totalitarian discourses contained within those works. After examining minutely those discourses, the thesis concludes by stating that the theme of Utopia/Dystopia is not restricted to fictional literature; it can be found, also, within the frame of philosophical and political studies, and in our day-to-day lives.

Esta Dissertação de Mestrado examina o tema Utopias/Distopias e o discurso totalitário em duas obras de caráter e gênero distintos: A República, de Platão (Filosofia), e Admirável Mundo Novo, de Aldous Huxley (Literatura). Tendo como objetivo principal a comparação de elementos narrativos, temáticos e ideológicos encontrados nessas duas obras, utiliza como metodologia a análise embasada em referenciais da Literatura Comparada e da Teoria da Literatura (Narratologia e a Tematologia), da Análise do Discurso Francesa, dos estudos da obra de Platão e de estudos sociológicos. Esta análise segue a sequência de apresentação dos pressupostos teóricos, análise das obras de Platão e de Huxley (em seus aspectos internos e externos), para, finalmente, apresentar um quadro comparativo com os discursos totalitários retirados dessas obras - discursos esses que são analisados em pormenores. Por fim, esta Dissertação culmina com a compreensão de que o tema utopia/distopia, e os discursos acerca dele, não se restringe somente à literatura ficcional, mas pode ser encontrado em estudos filosóficos e políticos, e no nosso dia a dia. / This thesis examines the theme of Utopia/Dystopia and the totalitarian discourse in two works of different nature and genre: Plato's Republic (a work of Philosophy) and Brave New World (a work of Literature) by Aldous Huxley. The thesis' main objective is to compare narrative, thematic and ideological elements. In order to perform this analysis, the author will make use of methodologies taken from Comparative Literature, Literary Theory (Narratology and Thematology), the French school of Discourse Analysis, studies on Plato's works and sociological studies. After presenting and explaining those theoretical references, the author shall perform an analysis of Plato's and Huxley's works, considering their internal and external aspects; afterwards, a final analysis shall be performed, comparing the totalitarian discourses contained within those works. After examining minutely those discourses, the thesis concludes by stating that the theme of Utopia/Dystopia is not restricted to fictional literature; it can be found, also, within the frame of philosophical and political studies, and in our day-to-day lives.

Esta Dissertação de Mestrado examina o tema Utopias/Distopias e o discurso totalitário em duas obras de caráter e gênero distintos: A República, de Platão (Filosofia), e Admirável Mundo Novo, de Aldous Huxley (Literatura). Tendo como objetivo principal a comparação de elementos narrativos, temáticos e ideológicos encontrados nessas duas obras, utiliza como metodologia a análise embasada em referenciais da Literatura Comparada e da Teoria da Literatura (Narratologia e a Tematologia), da Análise do Discurso Francesa, dos estudos da obra de Platão e de estudos sociológicos. Esta análise segue a sequência de apresentação dos pressupostos teóricos, análise das obras de Platão e de Huxley (em seus aspectos internos e externos), para, finalmente, apresentar um quadro comparativo com os discursos totalitários retirados dessas obras - discursos esses que são analisados em pormenores. Por fim, esta Dissertação culmina com a compreensão de que o tema utopia/distopia, e os discursos acerca dele, não se restringe somente à literatura ficcional, mas pode ser encontrado em estudos filosóficos e políticos, e no nosso dia a dia. / This thesis examines the theme of Utopia/Dystopia and the totalitarian discourse in two works of different nature and genre: Plato's Republic (a work of Philosophy) and Brave New World (a work of Literature) by Aldous Huxley. The thesis' main objective is to compare narrative, thematic and ideological elements. In order to perform this analysis, the author will make use of methodologies taken from Comparative Literature, Literary Theory (Narratology and Thematology), the French school of Discourse Analysis, studies on Plato's works and sociological studies. After presenting and explaining those theoretical references, the author shall perform an analysis of Plato's and Huxley's works, considering their internal and external aspects; afterwards, a final analysis shall be performed, comparing the totalitarian discourses contained within those works. After examining minutely those discourses, the thesis concludes by stating that the theme of Utopia/Dystopia is not restricted to fictional literature; it can be found, also, within the frame of philosophical and political studies, and in our day-to-day lives.