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Having A Philosopher King In Plato's Republic Book VI

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In Plato’s Republic Book VI, Plato’s offers a lot of insight in how he pictures the perfect state would be ruled. Plato puts forward the view that only through the study of philosophy would allow man to see what was good and just in society. Plato entertains that the only way society can be ruled the best is if a Philosopher King rules the state. By saying this Plato rejects Democracy and even goes as far as saying, “Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy”1. Plato’s arguments for Philosopher Kings and his objections towards democracy are flawed, but do put possible changes to the United State’s current system into perspective. I intend to argue that the concept of having a Philosopher King is implausible if not impossible, and that …show more content…

Then I will focus on the philosopher-kings that Plato deems is the best-fit ruler of the state. After which, I will begin to deconstruct the concept of having a philosopher-king and how it is implausible and flawed. Then I will present a few aspects of the philosophy-king concept and Plato’s vision of a perfect city that could be used to help better the current system of government of the United States. Afterwards, I will address some objections to my argument and issue a response to those …show more content…

This is significant because the current system of government of the United States is wildly different from Athens government. This begs the question; ‘How would Plato respond to the U.S.’s current system of government?’ Before that can be answered, it must be figured out how much different is the U.S. government from the Athenian government. Three main aspects of the Athenian Democracy are as follows: First all male citizens are eligible to participate. Also, and citizen can speak in the Assembly. Finally, public offices are filled by lot, or by the people. In contrast, the U.S. allows all citizens, with a few exceptions, to vote in public elections. And only public officials gather in congress. Similarly the United States does have its public offices filled by the people. Plato rejects the Athenian Democracy because he feels it assigns, “a kind of equality to equals and unequals alike" 2. This means even the unknowledgeable citizens had a say in government. Plato may offer that the United States should limit who could vote based on the progression of their education. For example, Plato would recommend that only college graduates or at the very least high school graduates have the ability to vote. The entire voting population would have some benchmark of knowledge that could select a qualified leader through the election

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Athenians Democracy Ancient Athens has two documents that discuss democracy. The first one is “Document A: Pericles” and the other one is “Document B: The The Athenian Constitution”. In document A, I found that is truly democratic because your social class is not allowed the interfere with someone 's merit. For example, if you’re poor you’re still able to serve the state or be part of the government. In document A it also states that “you get equal justice.”

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The Athenians had a direct democracy which allowed the citizens to directly decide and vote for who they wanted to rule their country. In Athens there were three bodies of the government. The Assembly is the first branch which included all citizens that showed up to cast their vote. The Assembly decided what new laws would be and they made important decisions regarding war, laws, etc.

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Unlike the Romans, Athenians had a strict but fair schedule that allowed them to enjoy citizenship equally. Equally, hard workers have brought Athens power just as much as hereditary leaders. According to Document B all citizens should be allowed to speak their opinion and have a share in election because of the hard work they do to make the city powerful. Athenians allowed poor and common men to win a position in government which was a transition from the wealthy having power to everyone having power.

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He also believed that “the welfare of society had always been left to corrupt or incompetent politicians, ignorant voters, over-ambitious generals, and other people unsuited to run a state” (Plato: Democracy). He believed that philosophers should be in charge (Plato: Democracy) and in his mind, the government should be representative of the ordinary man. While Plato would never have considered himself a supporter of democracy, I believe that many of his ideas fit nicely into one. In my ideal government, the voice of the general public would be more important than those of politicians, because as humans, we are easily corrupted and when only a few individuals are in power, it is only the rich and powerful who end up with a

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In his exclusive essay for Glamour, former president Barack Obama shares his views as a feminist, as well as how it has impacted his life as a son, husband, father, and president. He states how growing up with a single mother, supporting his wife, and raising two daughters has inspired and formed his views as a feminist. Throughout his life, he has seen the progress of women’s role in society enhance over time and he claims that right now is an “extraordinary time to be a woman”. Though there is still room for improvement on women 's rights, our country has made great progress in the act of women’s rights, according to Obama. During his presidency, he admits that he was working on creating policies to create further equality for women and their rights.

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Firstly, only male citizens had equal rights to vote, freedom of speech, and opportunities to participate directly in political arenas, which is only 12% of the population. For example Citizen women, Children of citizens, Metics, and Slaves did not have the right to vote which is the other 68%. This shows the Athenians were not democratic because not the whole population wasn 't a system of government, when not even half of them were. Also in Athen nobody had the freedom of thought and or speech. If someone

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Athens organized a group of Greek city states into the Delian League and eventually lead and dominated all of the city states in the League. Athens’s military prowess allowed them to look down on the other members of the League and treat them as members of an empire instead of equals. This caused some to view them with hostility which sparked the conflicts between Athens and Sparta that lead to the Peloponnesian War. The direct democracy of Athens wasn’t actually as inclusive and steady as the statement at Pericles 's funeral state, “Our Constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people (Doc C).” In fact, of the 450,000 citizens of Athens in 430 BC, only about 40,000 people had the power to vote.

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While the Athenians did have their government centered on three major institutions, they were not

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While some, like Plato in his The Republic, thought it weak to give government into the hands of the common people, Pericles countered this argument with a compelling argument of greatness. By putting government into the hands of the people, the people are united and more devoted to their country. Democracy bonds the people together in a way that no other government can understand. Pericles confidently states, “Athenians advance unsupported into the territory of a neighbor, and fighting upon a foreign soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their homes.”

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The source of Socrates’ suspicion of democracy stems from the argument that the general public is ignorant and therefore lacks the knowledge or reason to make the best decision for government and electing officials. The foundation of democracy is based on majority rule, however because the majority is unaware of what truly is good for them, by virtue of their ignorance, the masses are not capable of electing a leaders fit to run the state or government. Socrates contends that due to the general public’s ignorance, the majority will vote in favor of what and who panders to their desires and wants rather than what is logical and better for their souls (459b). Because the general public is ignorant, those who have the knack of oratory pander to the desires of the masses and therefore the consequence of democracy is inherent corruption in the governing structure. Socrates contends that the art of

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1355 Words | 6 Pages

Was Plato trying to show what an ‘unjust’ city would look like? Why would he do that? The analysis and discussion of Plato’s ‘just’ city opens new doors about Plato, himself, and his intentions. From this analysis on the city’s short comings, one can spring more and more ideas about his ‘republic’ and his ‘ideals’ forever. This one analysis is only a small interpretation, or perspective of a small portion, or passage of The

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The Greeks displayed their humanistic values through government by they utilizing an effective system of self governing. This system was a direct democracy, defined as “government by the people” or “rule of the majority.” In the Athenian Democracy, the Assembly was the regular

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Democracy, a form of government, allows the people in their own nationality to vote for people in order for them to become representatives as a result to vote on new laws that would affect their own nationality. One of the many states of Greece, ancient Athens was indeed not truly democratic as a result of not inclusive, other than male citizens, to gain authority in ancient Athens, ¨Demokratia was ruled by male citizens only, excluding women, free foreigners(Metics) and slaves.¨(Document D), therefore ruling Athens was only accessible to male citizen since since women, free foreigners(Metics), and slaves were not allowed to rule as a result of not being male citizens. One of the many states of Greece, ancient Athens, was indeed not truly democratic as a result of not even using the essentials of democracy that is used today, “Thus, by our standards, it was oligarchy, not democracy.¨(Document D), therefore ancient Athens was not using democracy as their form of government, they were using oligarchy,another form of government in which a small group of people has power and control, as their form of government instead of democracy.

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Arguments On the other hand, objections against the government of philosopher-rulers can be made. However strong the foundation of the strengths of his idea of a philosopher king may be, there are also a lot of flaws and weaknesses and misconceptions that can be found in it. While in truth that his arguments with regard to them as the ones who are more suitable and capable of giving better judgments than those of the normal men, it is still not persuasive enough to capture the minds of the other philosophers that time into taking into action the idea of the philosopher king. And while his altercation may be valid enough to stand in solid ground, it is still not contemporary with the realistic perception of the world and as well as to the modern

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1 INTRODUCTION Power and authority are the most important aspects of politics as such way of thinking comes a long way from the earliest thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle to mention few. They are the fundamental features of state in politics, focusing on who should have the power and authority over the people and who should rule them. During the time prior and after the birth of states, political authority has always been a major concern with regards to who should rule and how and who shouldn’t. Therefore this issues need to be addressed in a way that will at the end benefit the society. Plato is the thinker or theorist who came with addressing who should rule in a political environment in what Plato outlined that only Philosophers should rule.

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