Plato: Patriot Or Dissident :: essays research papers

Plato, the classic philosopher is considered to be angiotensin converting enzyme of the greatest thinkers in history and is c solelyed by atomic number 53 scholar the fountainhead with which all western thought flows. In his book The Republic he outlines what the perfect city-state would look like and how it would operate. on his path of reason he light upons no attempt to hide his championship for other political systems. That includes democracy, a system he does not front to agree with.In fact, from what I read, Plato obviously disagrees with democracy and its principals. Plato ranks democracy ordinal out of what he considers to be the five major governances. Just notwithstanding ahead of tyranny He even ranks it behind oligarchy a constitution that he himself states in 552a of The Republic is the first kind of city to film the greatest of all evils Why does he believe this? Are all the freedom loving Americans with red, white, and blue bumper stickers on their gas guzz ling cars do by? If so, what atomic number 18 they missing?To understand Platos claim that democracy is cypher but a stopgap on the way to tyranny one must first understand Platos viewpoint. Plato is credited with developing a school of thought called Platonic Idealism. Platonic Idealism is based upon the presumptuousness that the essence of the qualities you predicate to things is ever-living. Examples of that are ideas such as justice, piety or equality. While we may not be able to readily do them we all know what they are and can identify them when seen. Plato contends that only through philosophy can we express those essences in language. Plato translates his assumption to mean thither is something inside each and every person that is the same, it comes inborn, and contains those eternal principals. That inborn talented part of every person is what Plato calls the soul. Souls are like those ideas or essences they are eternal. However, if everydead body has this greatest t ruth that is called a soul inside them, why do people do stupid selfish things or even make mistakes at all? Platos explanation is that the material part of us, the body stops the intellectual part from exercising the knowledge it has. The analogy that Plato uses is that of a clouded eye. It goes that the soul is like an eye that can see those eternal ideas and truths but the body and its desires cloud the view.