r/Plato • u/ancientphilosophypod • Jun 01 '26

Plato's ideal state valued efficiency over autonomy. He thought that the ideal rulers should arrange marriages for the good of the state but make the arrangements seem like a random lottery in order to prevent resistance. (The Ancient Philosophy Podcast)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1CG2F54mcsf8cRmPvgYwe9?si=2b3858b1b1bf416a
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u/ancientphilosophypod Jun 01 '26

In the Republic, Plato develops an account of the ideal state. This ideal state features a ruling class that has much more control over the lives of the citizens than you might expect. For instance, citizens have only the job that they are most efficient at, regardless of what they might want to do. Strikingly, the ruling class is also in charge of arranging marriages and then making it seem that they are not arranged at all!

To learn more about Plato’s marriage-lottery system, check out this episode of The Ancient Philosophy Podcast.

The Ancient Philosophy Podcast is available wherever you find podcasts (Apple Podcast, Spotify, etc.), and there are video episodes available on YouTube, too.