Sunday, February 5, 2012
Plato and Democracy
Plato's view on democracy and how a society should run in general is that there should be one leader who arises from a power struggle. According to Plato, this individual must be able to act on his own appetites, especially sexual. However, Plato also believed that "it is Reason that ought to control both Spirit and Appetite." This is confusing because Plato believed that a just society would be controlled by a leader who follows his appetites no matter what. However, he also wanted reason to be the main the acting force. Shouldn't society be run by a leader who follows reason which is controlling his appetites? When reason is the main factor in decision making, a society will benefit much more than if a single man's appetites made the decisions.
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Plato's ideal ruler would not follow his appetites at the expense of his reason. If you reread the section, you can see that from the bottom of page 83 to the top of page 84 he says that such a leader (specifically, a tyrant) would in fact create the worst form of government, worse even than anarchy.
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