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The last paragraph was a bizarre pivot to China, which no apparent justification for the analogy. As a totalitarian state, China would be the first to suppress
by _qulr 6y ago
The last paragraph was a bizarre pivot to China, which no apparent justification for the analogy. As a totalitarian state, China would be the first to suppress and oppress philosophers. No freedom of thought. They'd put Plato to death much faster than Athens did to Socrates.
- fennecfoxen 6y agoIt's not bizarre. It's the culmination of an unfortunate "democracy is bad" and even "freedom is bad" undertone in the rest of the author's essay. Plato of course got a lot going for him, but The Republic never really solved the problem of making sure you get a philosopher-king instead of a tyrant. This essay's author declines to mention the possibility of tyrants because he knows it will undermine his argument badly.
- _qulr 6y ago> The Republic never really solved the problem of making sure you get a philosopher-king instead of a tyrant. I disagree. "train the guardians through a prolonged education that involves not just academic education but also character-training designed to ensure that guardians put the public good above private interests" "the guardians should be banned from getting married or owning private property in order to focus their minds on the common good" The point is that you don't just give any idiot supreme power after they win an election. The guardians go through lifelong training for rule, and only the best of the best, the most thoroughly tested, are left at the end of that process.
- fennecfoxen 6y agoThis isn’t actually a solution in fact.