Plato’s “Republic” and Attack on Titan

The Parts of the Soul, Job Specialization, and Nature

My roommate recently introduced me to the Attack on Titan animated series, and I was immediately hooked. As a Philosophy major, I started noticing strong correlations between the series and one of Plato’s dialogues called The Republic. Now, after some motivation from my roommate, here is a very long extended review comparing the themes of Attack on Titan to Plato’s dialogue for anyone who is interested in how certain ideas have continued from Ancient Greece. Please feel free to read and critique!

The first theme that stands out from AoT that made me think about The Republic is the type of character traits that the three main characters portray. The three main characters (Eren Yaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, and Armin Arlert) all start training in hopes of joining one of the corps of soldiers that defend the country from the titans. You quickly realize that the three friends make a great team: Eren is the passion that really drives the team to go out and do the crazy shit (well…he might not exactly be the best part for the team), Armin is the clever one who actually comes up with great plans, and Mikasa is basically the main person who executes the plans and makes sure that Eren doesn’t kill himself! This same idea of different traits coming together is in Plato’s works.

One of Plato’s ideas of the soul is that there three parts: Rationality, Passion (or Impulses), and Spirit (Spirit is kind of hard to explain, but it’s kind of like the fighting desire to do what is right/just). According to Plato, the soul is just when the three parts are balanced and working together in the right way: Rationality is aided by Spirit and rules over the Passion/Impulses. If you can think of a situation where you rationalized against doing something impulsive, this is basically what Plato is talking about. Well the three parts of the soul can relate to the three friends: Armin is clearly rationality because he is smart and comes up with the plans. Eren is the Passion/Impulse because of his raw emotions. Mikasa is Spirit because of her ability to fight so effectively. The relationship between the three of them is probably my favorite part of AoT. The three of them love and care about one another very much, and they will all do anything to protect one another. Eren will use every ounce of emotion and passion to keep his friends safe, Armin will think up every possible solution or plan, and Mikasa will kill anyone who even considers hurting any of them.

These three parts extend beyond just the friends. In Plato’s Republic, Plato creates a city where its citizens have jobs specialized depending on their nature. If a person has more of a rational nature, he/she is put into the classification of Philosopher-King. A person with spirited nature is an Auxiliary (basically a soldier). The Philosopher-Kings and Auxiliaries together make up the Guardian Class that rules over the city and protects it. Everyone else is a Producer (general jobs where they make one thing, like a shoe-maker or baker). Similarly, the civilization in AoT is sort of broken into those classifications…but the main part that was focused on were the soldiers. The soldiers all volunteer, but those who succeed are those who fit the “Spirit” definition that Plato gives. Then the higher ranked soldiers are those who are clever and make the plans (Philosopher-Kings) and are able to think about the long-term goals.

So the question arises from seeing all the similarities to Ancient Greek philosophy on modern fiction: is this way of viewing ourselves correct? These ideas clearly pertinent because these themes that are thousands of years old continue to reoccur in our fiction today (for example, Divergent is another fictional story that has strong correlations to Plato’s Republic). I would argue that although we may not actively see ourselves in the way that Plato describes with the three parts of the soul, the idea is still around today because it’s simple to categorize parts of ourselves into good vs bad. Rational vs Irrational. Wild vs Tame.

Thanks for reading! If you have any further questions regarding Plato, The Republic, or other philosophy terms, feel free to send me an ask here!

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