Descent to the Cave

Considerable controversy in recent decades has centered on the question of why the philosopher in Plato's Republic would condescend to participate in politics. The traditional view is that philosophers rule from a general obligation to the city in which they live, a specific duty to the kallipolis which educated them or an acknowledgement of “the rule of reason as the primary and natural imperative.” However, if the ultimate happiness of the philosopher consists in a contemplative life divorced from politics, then the justice of the city which demands that philosophers rule conflicts with the psychic harmony of the individual philosopher. The analogy between justice in the state and in the individual soul breaks down as justice in the state demands functions of the philosopher for which he has no inclination or expertise. The just rule of reason is possible for individuals but impossible for states, unless philosophers can be required to meet their obligation to rule

Contemplation · Duty · Economic Justice · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Happiness · Harmony (color · Obligation · Political science · Politics · Psychic · Sociology · Soul · State (computer science · The Republic · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought

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• Theory and Practice

  Open Access•Terence Ball•The Western Political Quarterly•1972

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• Egoism, Love, and Political Office in Plato

  Richard Kraut•The Philosophical Review•1973

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• The Fire and the Sun

  Ronald W Hepburn, Iris Murdoch•The Philosophical Quarterly•1978

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• Response to Hall

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  Open Access•Joseph Beatty•The Review of Politics•1976

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  Open Access•Dale Hall•Political Theory•1977

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• Plato on Political Obligation

  Open Access•John T Bookman•The Western Political Quarterly•1972

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