Obligation

In an ideal state, everyone has a certain level of freedom that extends until it interferes with others. Our responsibility to society and its values is what prevents us from acting on every impulse and desire we have. Part of our responsibility to society is our obligation to contribute through labor. We are expected to utilize our skills to benefit everyone in society. Part of what makes us individuals is our differences in skill. Plato divides these skills into three categories: businessmen, Auxiliaries, and Guardians. He states that the worst of evils is the “interference by the three classes with each other’s jobs, and interchange of jobs between them” (Book IV, 434). This could go on to be interpreted on a broader sense, where the worst of evils is harming others and ignoring your responsibility to society.

The greatest example of this is the tyrannical character. A definition of this character is someone who ignores Plato’s belief that “unnecessary pleasures and desires are lawless and violent” and is not “disciplined by law and by a combination of reason and the better desires” (Book IX, 571). It is because of these people that we often live in dysfunctional societies. A tyrant is the ultimate prisoner in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. They are so close-minded that it is impossible for them to even brush the edge between the society of shadows we live in and the world of perfect forms; Eidos. The tyrannical character who Plato describes is someone that has no respect for the spheres of interaction. They dominate all their spheres of interaction with no hesitation in disturbing others. A tyrant dismisses their responsibility to society and exercises their freedom to the point that it harms others.

No one is given complete freedom in the interest of a better society. Everyone is expected to carry out their responsibility to society and only exercise their freedom until it interferes with others. However, we often live in dysfunctional societies due to the fact that people live under the impression that it is okay to abuse our obligations to others. In order to live in a functional society, we must follow Plato’s definition of individual justice and do our job and mind our business.