The Connection between Political Equality and Justice in the Gorgias

This article explores the connection between political equality and justice in Plato’s Gorgias by re-reading the notoriously elusive reference to ‘ἡ ἰσότης ἡ γεωμετρική’ in the dialogue’s famous cosmological passage (507e6–508a8) within the broader dialectical context provided by Socrates’ discussion with Callicles. It argues that ‘geometrical equality’ is the logical consequence of two diametrically opposed but insufficient political views outlined in Callicles’ great monologue (483b4–484a2): ‘τὸ πλέον ἔχειν’ understood as ‘having more’ than another, and ‘τὸ ἴσον ἔχειν’ understood as ‘having an equal share’. This interpretation of ἡ ἰσότης ἡ γεωμετρική is bolstered by a scientific reading of geometrical equality as the political analogue to Archytas’ ‘geometric mean’ (Fragment 2). In its political expression, geometrical equality offers an advance on existing political views by granting greater political advantages to those capable of genuine philosophical wisdom, whilst doing so in a way which sustains the well-established connection between justice and equality

Connection (principal bundle · Economic Justice · Geometry · Political science · Politics · Reading (process · Sociology · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Mathematics · Religion and Society Interactions