Plato s Republic Book III Part 2 Gymnastic Education The gymnastic education of the guardians involved their physical training e g with weapons but encompasses much more than that It also pertains to the cultivation of certain health habits physical characteristics and bodily resilience in guardians For example The guardians need to learn temperance so that they do not become intoxicated when The guardians need to abstain from certain kinds of indulgences when it comes to their consuming alcohol diet The guardians must be accustomed to working in different temperatures and limited food water events Guardians and Auxiliaries Now that Socrates has discussed the musical and gymnastic education of the guardians he moves on to consider who should be the rulers of our state Starting on page 318 The best farmers are those who are most devoted to farming This is a necessary condition for being the best farmer Analogy By analogy the best guardians will be those who are most dedicated to their role of protecting the state The term Guardians will now refer exclusively to the best members of that group The remaining members of that group will be referred to as Auxiliaries from here forth The Noble Lie How do we explain auxiliaries who are promoted to guardians to the other auxiliaries How do we account for the children of guardians who perform too poorly to become guardians themselves The whole system and the citizen s place within that system will be explained and justified through a tale that is fabricated but that citizens will be taught to believe is true Interestingly it appears that the guardians themselves must believe in this lie to justify promotion or demotion to and from being guardians So it seems that the founder of this ideal state will be the only one who knows the tale is fabricated at that the secret will presumably die with them The Tale Citizens have a soul that is intermingled with gold silver or brass and iron Guardians are gold Auxiliaries are silver and Craftspeople are brass and iron Depending on the kind of soul that one has one has been divinely chosen for a different role in the state An oracle says that when a man of brass or iron guards the State it will be destroyed 322 Because all people have the same origin it is nevertheless possible for parents to produce children with a mismatched soul This justifies people being moved to another group should their nature be revealed as Because citizens will not want their state brought to ruin they will want to be sorted unfitting their current position correctly to avoid catastrophic results The Life of a Guardian The life of guardians and auxiliaries must be significantly different from the rest of the state s citizens the craftspeople to help guardians auxiliaries cultivate the appropriate character Guardians and auxiliaries should not have private property beyond the necessities required for performing their roles The above includes not having a private home The dwelling of guardians and auxiliaries will be communal Guardians and auxiliaries shall receive just enough money to meet the requirements for their basic needs and they shall receive no more money than that no luxury spending Guardians and auxiliaries have gold and silver in their souls so they do not need gold and silver possessions Should they try to acquire gold and silver they will prove they do not have those metals in their souls and will be demoted to craftspeople Book IV Part 1 Adeimantus claims that the guardians and auxiliaries of the State that they are constructing will despite being the leaders of this great state in fact have miserable lives Socrates suggests that the guardians and auxiliaries may well be the happiest members of the State But setting that aside he is not concerned with the happiness or unhappiness of any one person or group of people within the state but rather with the happiness of the State as a whole If we look at the State holistically rather than trying to evaluate its merits in a piecemeal fashion by looking at the relative happiness or unhappiness of each individual citizen then we are more likely to arrive at a picture of a well ordered State Socrates wants a picture of the well ordered State so that they can look and see what justice looks like within that State If just having individually happy citizens is our goal in creating a well ordered State we could just stipulate that everyone will possess all the money and fine goods they could want have the option to work as little as they like and continually get to participate in feasts parties and so on The problem with just going around and focusing on making each citizen as happy as possible in isolation is that no citizen would then perform the roles that are required for the State in which they live to function Consequently the whole State would collapse and this would undercut the happiness that we were just trying to bring about for all citizens Furthermore the guardians and auxiliaries are the most crucial members of the State due to their role as leaders and enforcers It would be enough to bring about the end of the well ordered State should they stop acting like leaders who have the good of the State as their goal and this is what would happen if our focus was on giving the leaders of the State as many pleasures as anyone could want Wealth and Poverty When it comes to artistic practice Socrates suggests that both wealth and poverty on the part of the artist can undermine the quality of their work A rich potter will not be as careful with the creation of their pottery because they don t have to be Someone who is wealthy enough can afford to be sloppy if they are not at risk of dropping into poverty because they would still be well off even if they do not sell as many pots A poor potter has a great reason to take care in crafting their pots because unlike the rich potter they need to sell as many pots as possible However someone who is poor will not be able to afford the same quality or number of tools and materials as someone who is wealthy Despite having the right kind of spirit their material circumstances will cause their work to suffer By analogy workers more generally who labor under conditions of great wealth or great poverty will have their work suffer as a result Guardians need to prevent the State from becoming too wealthy or too impoverished Vulnerability in War Adeimantus raises the concern that if the State is not very rich it is liable to be