Plato's Idea of the Emergence of Tyranny from Democracy Essay

A tyrant is a ruler who exercises power in a harsh, cruel manner, who puts his own interests over the best interests of the general population which he governs or controls and whose authority lacks sanction of law or custom.

How well do these philosophers arguments apply to today’s democracies? For the purpose of this essay we will be looking at the United States of America as an example. In Plato’s view democracy creates men who believe “insolence is good breeding, anarchy freedom, extravagance munificence, and shamelessness courage is found to be somewhat true in democracy today. In many counter cultures such as Punk/gothic it is evident that many American believe insolence to be good breeding. Anarchy on the other had is the most free a person could ever get. If we take a close look at the current economic system in the U.S in which a free market economic system is preferred. In a free market economy the government tends to stay out of regulating the markets. When the governments does not agree with the way business is operating and tries to step in and regulate it, people of influence such as big businessman or commentators that have a big say and control in the public opinion step in to ease the governments grip. Even the general public dislikes it when the government is interfering with their affairs and would like more autonomy, while they do not necessarily harbor drams of anarchy these are anarchist tendencies. When it comes to extravagant within America are very commonly seen as munificent individuals. This is based on the trickledown effect which

The main issue Plato has with democracy, as outlined in The Republic of Plato, is democracy has a uniquely level playing field for all and that this leads to people working toward endeavors that do not suit their best abilities, which goes against Plato’s own image of justice as Plato’s image holds to the idea that justice is primarily found in the community more so than the individual and that it is realized on an individual and societal level when people help to advance society by working toward endeavors that best suit their natural abilities (55). This democratic equality, the author feels, leads to those who are unequipped and unprepared to rule leading the masses. For example, Plato utilizes the metaphor of the ship to show this issue of democracy, that many of the crew, though not equipped to lead, will try to steer to steer the ship and that the struggle will eventually lead the crew to wreck the ship (195-196).

When someone thinks about the French revolution, they normally think of King Louis XVI, and his Queen Antoinette. Everyone has heard of the quote, “Let them eat cake”, which was rumored to have been said by Antoinette, when she was asked about her subjects not having any money for bread. What most people do not know, is how this quote exemplifies Socrates/ Plato’s idea of a political tyrant. Socrates presents us with a one of his allegories,which starts off with, “what if some god lift one of these men(Political Tyrant), his fifty or more slaves, and his wife and children out of the city? How frightened would he be that he himself and his wife and kids would be killed by these slaves?”(Plato 9 578e). This eventually happens to Louis XVI, and

In the era of the contemporary United States, a country that has had the longest standing democracy, we are used to thinking very highly of its system. However, throughout our history, there have been a couple of critics to the system of democracy. It comes as no surprise that democracy does have its issues. One of the first pieces of literature where democracy was mentioned and analyzed at a deeper level was The Republic by Plato. This ancient Greek philosopher did not completely agree with democracy, regardless of the fact that ancient Athens was the first civilization that gave rise to it. In fact, in a numerical list that he composes on which are the best ways of ruling, Plato puts democracy at one of the lowest levels. In order, Plato’s list of types of government from most desirable to least desirable looks like this: 1.) Republic (The ideal city) 2.) Timocracy 3.) Oligarchy 4.) Democracy 5.) Tyranny. Additionally, In The Republic, Plato tells us his beliefs and values on certain aspects of life through the eyes of Socrates. So, even though Plato himself does not appear in The Republic and instead Socrates does, nonetheless, Plato and Socrates shared the same ideology when it came to democracy. As we know, Plato did not agree with democracy. As a result, in this paper, I will explore the greatest intellectual strengths and weaknesses of Plato’s view on democracy.

What is a tyrant? According to Google Dictionary, a tyrant is defined as “A cruel and oppressive ruler”. There is a quote, “All men would be tyrants if they could” -Daniel Defoe. This quote explains how if a person has the opportunity to have and abuse their power, they would take it. This quote is important because it shows how people in our world can be hungry for power and use it to be harsh and cruel to other people. All men would be tyrants if they could since you will receive power and respect.

Philosophy is a Greek word meaning "love of wisdom." Throughout Plato's Republic, wisdom plays an important role. According to Plato, education is wisdom. In the passage, 518d, Plato discusses the true meaning of education vicariously through Socrates. Some literary mechanisms can be found in the passage and I will show how they fit in the text and how they contribute to the main themes of Plato's Republic.

“the having and doing of one’s own and what belongs to one would be agreed to

In short, it outlines the problem that there can be no correct leadership in a democracy. The leader elected by the people must act accordingly to secure and maintain his position, as a result the leader cannot act in the best interest of the society, only in the interests of the ‘mob.’ Secondly, Plato argues that within a democracy there will always be factions or a group of people that believe they are right, these factions gain power and support through their wealth and property. This problem creates conflicts and a breakdown of society which Plato believes could lead to civil war. Thirdly, Plato suggests that a proper society maintains itself by stability and authority. Stability is maintained by looking towards the future rather than short term, when authority is lost the people lose sight of what is best for them, thus losing stability. Finally, considering points two and three Plato argues that with a breakdown of authority and stability combined with factions, this would result in violence creating the inevitability of civil war. As a consequence, tyranny is formed to end violence in the interest of the many for the power of the one. These four problems present the inevitability that democracy is destined for ruin.

believes that the son will realize to be just is only worth it if you can get a

‘The Republic’ is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato around 380 BC, concerning about the order of justice, the order and character of just men and just city/states. The Republic is considered as the best known work of Plato and is considered one of the world’s most influential works of politics, history and philosophy. In this Socratic dialogue, Socrates discusses about the notions of justice and whether the just man is very happy when compared with his unjust, Athenian and foreign counterparts. Socrates considers the various facets of the existing regimes and proposes a series of hypothetical cities that are entirely different from his considerations. Such heated discussions result in the culmination of discussing kallipolis, a hypothetical city-state that was ruled by a philosopher king. In this paper, we are going to consider Socrates arguments about democracy by examining whether the concept of democracy always remains inconsistent with philosophical goals.

Plato's Republic is often read as a political work, as a statement of some sort on government, society, and law. This is certainly not a rash reading of the dialogue; it is called the Republic, and over half of it is devoted to the construction of a city through speech, a city complete with a government structure, a military, an economic system, and laws. However, I believe that to read the Republic as a political statement is inaccurate. Although Socrates and his companions construct a city out of speech as they attempt to define justice, the dialogue repeatedly frames justice as something that cannot be established through a fixed system of morality, let alone through a rigid

Do not be angry with me for speaking the truth; no man will survive who genuinely opposes you or any other crowd and prevents the occurrence of many unjust and illegal happenings in the city. A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if he is to survive for even a short time. (Apology 31e-32a)

Democracy is often referred to as the rule of the many, but Aristotle called this definition incomplete. In his book “Politics”, he explained that in a city if the majorities are aristocrats and if they have political authority, then it is an aristocracy not a democracy. He therefore defined democracy as when “free people have authority and Oligarchy as when the wealthy have it” (1290b). Plato viewed Democracy as a flawed system with too much inefficiency that would make any implementation of a true democracy not worth it. While Aristotle viewed democracy as a system that could work if it is limited to certain restrictions and if it is the regime that best fits the culture of the people to be governed. In this essay it will be argued that Plato’s view on democracy as a flawed system is more prevalent or more compelling if the current political arena around the world is observed.

Plato (429 B.C - 347 B.C) was a philosopher as well as a mathematician. He is considered to be the most influential figure in the development of philosophy in Western literary tradition. As an Athenian citizen he was so self conscious about how philosophy should be conceived, he raises questions about political events and intellectual movements around his time. The period from 387 B.C to 361 B.C is often called Plato's "middle" or transitional period and reveal Plato's method of hypothesis, The Republic is part of his middle dialogues where he discusses the virtues of justice, courage and wisdom of an individual and in the society. The Republic covers most of Plato's thought on philosophy and it includes the Allegory of the Cave where he