Plato was a Virtue Ethicist, so his account was that extensive and life-long physical, moral, and intellectual training and the philosopher-king could realize enough moderation, courage, and wisdom, and that if someone was moderate, brave, and wise they could be just. His rejection of democracy was a metaphor tied to weighing virtues equally rather than seeing them as a hierarchy. It’s interesting for what it is, but the reading as a political manifesto’s just a misreading of a long difficult work that ignore’s Book II and Book VIII telling readers not to read the book the way it typically is. The philosopher-king is a metaphor for the realization of those virtues. It was once one of my aggravations, since he explains both at the beginning and end that the work is specifically a metaphorical exercise to try to understand moderation, courage, wisdom, and justice as virtues, but since it’s a 500ish page difficult to translate, convoluted, complicated Greek drama of people discussing an extended metaphor, it’s not so surprising it’s often misunderstood as a political work.
10 Likes
