POLS 320 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Timocracy, Tyrant, Aristocracy
6 Oct 2020
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Only philosophers have access to knowledge. (liberation: philosophers freed from their chains) Philosophers must be forced to be free (515d-e) and then forced to return to the cave (519-20). (duty) If the city is not governed according to the knowledge of the philosopher-kings, then by necessity it must be governed either according to ignorance or opinion of others unfit to rule. Problem1: not everyone can be a philosopher-king, because true philosophers are so rare. Problem 2: no true philosopher really wants to rule. Problem 3: philosophers have a bad reputation. Plato"s answer: good rulership isn"t a popularity contest. Political inequality as central to plato"s thought: if the best" rule, it means others must obey. Republic vii & ix: how do we get from 3 classes/3 parts to 5 forms of constitution and 5 forms of souls, the desiring part of the soul actually can be subdivided into three further sub-categories. The rule of the honorable", honor-seeking", or worthy".
