Passing of Reason

Plato said that his Philosopher Kings would be selected to breed and their children would then be raised by the community and nurses. Even if the true parent of one of these children ever met their child, neither party would know that they were related. According to Plato's plan these children would be raised within a life of reason, but Plato himself said that we need a balance of Reason, Spirit, and Appetite in order to be well rounded individuals. In the situation that Plato describes, the children of the Philosopher Kings would most likely have a very weak Spirit and Appetite because they would never have a solid parental figure to learn from and have emotions towards, a relationship that it has been agreed upon in many studies that children need. (While you do not necessarily need your actual biological parent to have any part in your life I do believe you need some sort of stable mentor figure.) Even if this did work and the child grew up with perfectly reasonable emotions there is nothing to say that they would have the same amount of reason or intellect as their parents, especially if they were never allowed to be taught by them. However good Plato's intentions were with this proposition it simply would not work the way he hoped.