Plato’s Politeia Reconsidered: Book 2

In my understanding, it has at least 2 prerequisite on Plato’s educational theory described in book 2. Ancient athens, where moral skepticism was broadly normal and endless war and battle came to fatigue the whole society, was the basis of Plato’s political and philosophical theory. So I tried to investigate Plato’s hypothesis on human beings and the characteristics of societies. The heroic myth of Gyges in book 2 shows the moral condition of Pericles’ Athens. A shepherd who had magical power directly plan to kill a king and steal the monarch. This story has a lot of differency compared to Korean folk-tale and Timor genesis myth. The genesis of war and battle is connected to Plato’s educational theory especially for guardians. Greedy society needs more lands and territories that makes war inevitable in every society. For Plato, it was urgent to educate well-prepared and morally concrete guardians for keeping the society safe and sound. However we can find different understanding on the flux of society and war especially on Tao Te Ching and Bhagavad Gītā. We are recommended in depth philosophical thinking from these literatures which shows different opinions from the Plato’s philosophical basis. Then we can reach more general educational theory.