Outline and Critique Plato’s Tripartite Model of Self and Society

 Plato’s theories on human nature is based largely on class. One of these was The Tripartite model of self and society. The main idea is that we are all made up of three elements, but some of us have more of one element than another. These elements are appetite, emotion or sprit, and rationality.  Plato split people up in to three categories: the bronze, the silver and the gold. He explained how the bronze have a huge appetite, with little of the other two elements, this makes them dangerous as they have almost no rationality and are driven by want. The silver are good at controlling their appetite, but are mostly controlled by emotion, which can also make them dangerous not as much as the bronze but they still need to be watched. The gold have little emotion or appetite, they are ruled by rationality; this makes them the best people to rule, as they are so rational. “Plato believes that reason must dominate, but equally each part of the human personality is essential.” (‘Ideas of human nature’)  Plato believed the bronze and silver should be controlled and watched by the gold, this would insure the security of the society in which he lived in. Also the gold or upper class had the qualities needed to rule, and so they formed the government. He was of the opinion that gold parents would have gold children and that bronze parents would have bronze children. The problem with this is that it did not take into account Socrates who was not from a gold family, but Plato believed him to be a gold, somebody who was equal to him. So he added to his model that sometimes this was not the case, on rare occasions gold children could be born to bronze families and the other way round. Applying the tripartite model to our society today, the bronze would be the working class, the silver the middle class and the gold the upper class.

 This model gives us a basic understanding of how Plato saw the different classes living within Athens at the time.

 Plato says that the gold are the rulers, that they are the people to hold Athens together, however these were also the same people that sentenced Socrates to death. Also this view of human nature is inherently restraining; putting all people into characterized brackets creates ideals of superiority for the golds and asserts one particular kind of people to be the leaders. This division of the people directly results in a loss of individuality for everyone, as each person attempts to live up to their parental standards of being their respective colour. For example a child born into a bronze family will grow up believing they are a bad person who is driven by want, so there will be no reason for them to care about other, or try to better themselves.

Although Plato’s model of self and society gives us a basic understanding of class and the differences between them, it should not be applied to modern life without adjustment. People have changed with time and our class structure is not so set, it would be wrong to live in a society where people believe just because they are born into the working class they should not try to achieve higher. People should not be limited by class, as Plato seems to think they are, and to believe a whole class is driven by the same desires of either emotion or appetite does not seem realistic.