Plato Wants to Know… What Precious Metal Are YOU Made Of?
It might interest you to know that the Greek philosopher Plato made some philosophical inquiries into precious metals. You remember Plato. He lived from about 428-348 B.C., studied with Socrates, and taught Aristotle how to think.
In his famous book The Republic, Plato wrote that human beings, just like precious metals, come from the earth. He also wrote that human beings, like minerals, can be made of three different metals…
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), in this detail from "The School of Athens" a fresco by Raphael.
Gold-souled people are the highest. They are exceptional individuals who are born to be leaders, and other people should follow them because… hey, they have golden souls, right, and gold is the best? Today, I guess that people at this level would be leaders of nations, CEOs, maybe entrepreneurs, who knows? According to Plato, they have been endowed by nature with the ability to lead others.
Silver-souled people come next, one level down. Plato wrote that they belong to the “warrior class.” They were put on earth to serve golden-souled people. If you believe in that kind of thinking (and I don’t), I guess you would find silver-souled people in low-level jobs and maybe in middle management.
Bronze-souled people are born to serve. Ouch! They exist only to make stuff possible for their gold-souled and silver-souled superiors. I’m not going to guess where you would find bronze-souled people today. Frankly, I think the whole concept is terrible and I would rather not think about it for too long.
Plato Was an Elitist
For some reason, Plato has gotten the reputation of being a humanist. That reputation has been reinforced by the fact that The Republic is all about creating an ideal society. And that sounds good, right? But when you dig into The Republic, you discover that Plato also believed that people who came from aristocratic families were the right people to become rulers, and that people of “low” birth should know their place and never expect to rise too high.
That’s obnoxious and wrong, don’t you agree? Today, most of us have thrown out that kind of thinking and accept the idea that what we do matters more than whether we come from aristocratic families.
For example, all of us can invest in gold, silver or other precious metals successfully and show Plato that being smart is more important than coming from a well-to-do background. If you find gold, silver, platinum, palladium or rhodium to recycle or invest in, give us a call at 800-436-2344 and we will help you turn your precious metal discoveries into cash.
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