Plato Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Plato (427–347 BCE) was a highly influential Greek philosopher and writer. In his autobiographical Seventh Epistle (ca. 350 BCE), he describes his early desire to enter into politics, but his disillusionment with what he viewed as unjust regimes that came to power in the period at the end of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE). He goes on to say that, given the corrupt nature of existing societies, the only hope for a good society is one in which philosophers rule as kings.

Plato’s main works are in the form of dialogues, generally featuring his revered teacher, Socrates, as the main spokesperson. There are continuing questions of authenticity in regard to various works, although the combination of philosophical and literary brilliance of most dialogues, including the major political ones, leaves no doubt about their authorship. However, Plato’s use of the dialogue form has resulted in irresolvable issues of interpretation, including the extent to which Plato’s “Socrates” represents the historical Socrates, opposed to being a vehicle for Plato’s own ideas.

Many of Plato’s contributions to philosophy center upon his theory of forms (or ideas), which represent perfect moral, epistemological, and metaphysical standards. These exist beyond the phenomenal world and are accessible only intellectually. Plato’s political theory revolves around repeated contrasts between corrupt existing political systems—including Athenian democracy—and visions of reformed polities, in which people achieve their full moral development. Plato’s withering criticisms of Athenian democracy in the Gorgias (ca. 385 BCE) and to a lesser extent in other works, such as the Apology of Socrates (ca. 395 BCE), culminate in detailed exploration of a completely just city in the Republic (ca. 375 BCE), Plato’s best-known political work. In order to further an inquiry into the nature of justice, Plato’s Socrates develops a complex system based on a three-class division: farmers, auxiliaries, and philosophers. For the two latter classes, both property and families are communal, to allow them to more easily devote their lives entirely to the welfare of the city. In keeping with Plato’s long-held aspiration, the philosophers rule as philosopher-kings, in accordance with knowledge of the forms, which they alone possess. Their main task is to oversee an all-embracing system of education, intended to raise all members of society to the highest levels of justice possible for them. The just city of the Republic provides a timeless model of an ideal city, in regard to both the nature of just institutions and the costs they incur.

Plato’s later political works, the Statesman (ca. 360 BCE) and Laws (ca. 347 BCE), evince far greater interest in existing Greek political institutions and how they could be reformed. In Laws, his last and also longest work, the main speaker, an unnamed “Athenian Stranger,” discourses on laws and institutions for a new city to be founded on Crete. The political system in this “second best” city is based on the government of laws, rather than of philosophers, in the form of a modified democracy with a complicated system of checks and balances preventing political abuse. Ideals of community of property and of family have given way to more traditional Greek institutions for all citizens, including the rulers, although again, enormous attention is paid to education.

Ever since ancient times, Plato’s works have been the focus of intense scholarly and popular interest. The history of European political philosophy may be viewed as Alfred North Whitehead famously described it in his 1979 work, Process and Reality, as “a series of footnotes to Plato.”

Bibliography:

Cooper, John M., ed. Plato: Complete Works. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett, 1997.
Klosko, George. The Development of Plato’s Political Theory. 2nd. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Morrow, Glenn. Plato’s Cretan City. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960.
Popper, Karl. The Open Society and Its Enemies. Vol. 1, The Spell of Plato. 5th ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966.
Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality. New York: Free Press, 1979.

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