Sharing Paula's Law Volume III
Plato said in the Republic: "A happy country must be wise, brave, temperate and just." In the chapter of law, he also arranged these four qualities in order: wisdom first, temperance second, justice third and courage fourth. (The original words are good judgment; Use rational soul and natural self-control; Justice; Brave)
In the discussion of courage, he thinks that courage can not only endure pain, but also resist the temptation of happiness. There is a similar argument in the Republic:
However, in The Republic, Plato emphasized that a person's reason should play a leading role in his soul and control his own desires and passions, so as to achieve the golden mean. Unnecessary desires are not desirable. In the Law, he emphasized that desire and reason should be reconciled with each other. People's desires can sometimes be used to train rational use, and laws can influence and promote their harmony, just like a puppet metaphor in the first volume, which Ding mentioned before, and I think it is well written. Therefore, it is also beneficial to hold appropriate cocktail parties, limit the right to drink according to age, let young people learn to be temperate, make the elderly more confident, and let people of all ages be plastic and continue to receive education. I think his thought is more mature and flexible in this respect, unlike the mechanical rules of female public ownership and birth lottery proposed in the Republic. Perhaps he later admitted that people are fickle and the philosopher king can only exist in fantasy after all.
Then, the legislative themes of the first and second volumes should take into account the integrity of virtue and the discussion on the benefits of booze. In the third volume, Plato began to discuss the political system of the country, and looked at the role of law from the rise and fall of the country.
Plato began with the question of how early people gradually felt the necessity of law and who was their legislator. Suppose a flood flooded the city, and finally only a few shepherds lived on the top of the mountain. In these closed and self-sufficient shepherd families, the customs and habits of their ancestors are their "laws", which are actually dictatorships, and their parents are rulers. In the next stage, when several families unite and each family respects its own rules, each family will send representatives, and these representatives will become legislators, and an oligarchy or monarchy will emerge.
Then people came down from the mountains and went to the plains to establish Irian (Troy). Plato's intention here is actually to trigger the Trojan War. After ten years of siege, the Greeks occupied Troy. During the ten-year siege, various contradictions and rebellions also occurred within the Greek army.
At that time, the Greek army consisted of three countries: Sparta, Argos and Mycenae. Why did only Sparta survive later?
When a monarchy (or any other dictatorship) is overthrown, is it really only the ruler who is condemned? (This is the main idea of Plato)
At that time, the three countries swore to each other that if someone tried to overthrow the king's rule, they would help each other, and the kings also vowed that they would not strengthen their rule as long as the country was stable; The people also vowed that as long as the king kept his oath, they would not overthrow his rule and the king and the people helped each other.
In fact, most people just ask their legislators to make laws, and they usually accept them without opposing them. Just as a coach trains your physique, a doctor heals your body and makes him give you pleasure, as long as you are healthy and energetic and have no excessive pain, you will always be satisfied. (This metaphor is unconstrained and unconstrained, subtly revealing the elements of fear and trust in the relationship between legislators and the people. )
On the basis of this legislation, why were the political systems and codes of the other two countries quickly destroyed except Sparta?
The country was destroyed not because the commanders or those who obeyed their orders were timid or lacked military expertise. A good legislator should pay attention to the whole virtue, not just the (brave) response to the first volume.
And the cause of disaster lies in ignorance of the most important thing of mankind. An "extreme" ignorance is that a person's sense of pain and happiness is inconsistent with his rational judgment, that is, a person thinks something is good, but hates it, but welcomes what he thinks is evil and dishonest. This is ignorance.
Plato believes that this ignorance affects the most extensive elements in the soul, that is, the elements that experience happiness and pain, and the most extensive elements in a country are the people. Then people with this kind of ignorance, no matter how strong their rational ability is, no matter how much they have achieved through hard work, should not be given any power.
These two countries were destroyed only because their arrogant kings wanted more than the positive law allowed, and this idea split from their previous vows, which is the greatest ignorance.
So how should legislators prevent this disease in the code?
Then Plato returned to Sparta for the following reasons: 1. Proper limit, the legislator of Sparta, divided the kingship into two parts and implemented a dual monarchy; 2. There are 28 elders in Sparta, who have the same authority as the king when making important decisions (combining the stubbornness and boldness of young people with the caution of old people). Five governors who can influence the king are elected by voters to restrain their power.
Binding a young man's soul with vows is likely to become a tyrant when he gains power.
Then Plato mentioned that there are two matriarchal systems, from which all other systems are produced, one is monarchy and the other is democracy. Plato thinks that to build a wise, free and unified country correctly, we must combine these two systems. Then he gave some examples to illustrate the extremes of these two systems:
For example, Ju Lushi's son Cambyses, whose father spent half his life as a soldier, left him to be raised by women, but women and eunuchs didn't give him the right education, which led him to become a person who indulged in pleasure and debauchery. He killed other heirs, drank too much, lost self-control, and was finally caught by the Medes and eunuchs. Later, Darius and the Group of Seven rebuilt the Persian Empire, divided it into seven administrative regions, and promulgated new laws to give people a certain degree of equality. However, Xue Xisi, his descendant, followed the old path of Cambyses, so Plato said that dictators and children of rich parents almost always lead a bad life.
The rich, the poor, the common people and the king should all be respected to the same extent, receive the same education, and have no privileges. A person's wealth and status should match his management self-control, that is, his virtue.
In the distribution of national honor, Plato believes that the self-control of the soul is an additional component, which, together with another thing that can bring us the greatest benefit, deserves the highest honor. He believes that the basis of a country's long-term stability is to list spiritual wealth as the first honor, the second is material interests, and the third is property.
Then it discusses the extreme democracy in Athens. Excessive freedom will make people escape the authority of the law and no longer value vows, promises and religions.
Finally, Plato concluded that it is useless to push the Persian monarchy or Athenian democracy to extremes.