Weaknesses And Strengths Of Plato's View On Democracy

In The Republic of Plato, Plato, in addition to sharing his views on justice, shares his views on democracy using a fictionalized Socrates to outline the most pressing issues. Plato’s views on democracy are negative; he believes democracy to be bred from a response to inequality of wealth and to heighten all of humanities worst traits. Plato believes democracy leads to unequipped leaders who hold offices and power without the necessary traits and preparation.

Plato describes the degeneration to democracy in Book VIII of The Republic as the relationship between man and the city. There are five stages starting with the first being and aristocracy led by a philosopher king who is wise and makes the decision for all and his soul is considered to be that of gold. Aristocracy stage leads to timocracy which would is the new generation of leaders and their souls are not considered to be made of gold as the philosopher king would be in the previous stage leading to a stronger lust for wealth. Timocracy then goes to oligarchy which leads to wealth and poverty, while the wealthy write laws to help them continue to be wealthy. Oligarchy then degrades to the democracy stage where wealth and freedom, a lavish of riches so to speak is desired in this stage. Democracy degenerates into tyranny where the people give into their desires and is considered to be chaos.

Socrates’, Plato’s, and Aristotle’s main criticisms of democracy were based on both theory and precedents. Whereas Plato and Aristotle believed that democracy could lead to mob rule in part due to group-think based on a population’s impulses, Socrates advocated that governance should not be solicited based on the citizenry’s desires at any given time. Aristotle advocated that democracy was indeed the best form of government, or better said he believed democracy to be lesser of the forms of government. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all believed that only the wisest should govern because those governed might squander resources and wealth, make decisions based on emotion, and revolt due to a perceived or real notion of inequality.

In Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Politics, the topic of the ideal form of government is addressed at several points. Among the forms of government discussed is democracy, which Plato and Aristotle critique using their own objective reasoning. As a student of Plato, Aristotle shares many opinions as his teacher, including a similar critique of regime types. That said, Aristotle has a differing view on democracy in large part thanks to his contrasting psyche. In this paper, I will use passages from the Republic and Politics to answer the question, “how did Plato’s and Aristotle’s personalities create a tension between their physiological beliefs? And how did this tension influence their views on democracy?” I will use an examination of Plato’s ranking of regimes and Aristotle’s 3 good forms and 3 bad forms of government in order to analyze their interpretation of the ideal form of government and create a framework that will make the tension between Plato and Aristotle easier to pinpoint. Upon analyzation of the Republic and Politics, it is evident that Aristotle’s psyche creates a tension with Plato’s because while Plato uses subjective arguments to stress the importance of knowledge, Aristotle uses more rational arguments to put a higher emphasis on the power of observation and the establishment of reality. This difference in their views of the world around them directly influences their stance on democracy. Plato claims that democracy is a faulty form of government,

During the dawn of the Greek civilization, rulership consisted of one king that rule the entire occupied land. Such system included only family members, tribe members, and wealthy individuals to receive whatever good the empire had to offer. It took many years until new reforms came about in regards of rulership. The Athenian democracy was developed by the efforts of the leaders and philosophers who were encouraged to think and answer the why freely. Although it was called a democratic system, only male citizens had the opportunity to participate. In this essay, I will discuss how the Athenian democratic system was developed, why, and the efforts of the Greek thinkers in developing the Athenian democracy. Additionally, we will have the chance to examine if it was truly democratic.

Around 5th Century B.C.E. in the city-state of Athens, Greece a governing body was formed that is credited today for the way many modern civilizations govern themselves today. This governing body came to be known in history as the world’s first known democracy. Although this was the city-states’ first attempt at starting a democracy, it was known to be one of the world’s most extraordinary systems of government. However, in Plato’s Republic it’s obvious that Plato feel passionately toward a different form of government being the better choice to govern a society. Plato criticizes the Athenian Democracy because of his own personal beliefs that an aristocracy was the best regime, democracy indulges poor desires, and that philosophers

Democracy is the type of government that allows the citizens to partake in the discussion or activities that will affect their daily life. In Democracy,

Democracy is a strange word that means a system of government by the whole or all the eligible members of a state now that might not make that much sense but that basically means that the government is controlled by the people of the state i'm going to talk about democracy if you haven't figured that out yet.

Plato recommends that democratic is not best for the state on the grounds that it doesn't convey information to the cutting edge, yet rather, the most well-known government official or best speaker. In this belief system the state is not being administered by the most qualified but rather by the individual with the best picture. Plato has a privilege to be baffled with Athenian vote based system on the grounds that Socrates was killed by a component of that administering body.[11] In Plato's eyes majority rule government is not a sound government in light of the fact that the administration is not looking for information. The leaders of the city-state are looking for riches and renown and not putting the needs of the group over their own. Ogochukwu

Democracy is unstable as foreshadowed by Plato in The Republic. The people in a democratic government exceed their means. Another hazard with democracy is that the voters get tired of their elected official and rebel by electing someone who is unqualified, in their feeble attempt to regain control of it government. The final downfall is the lack of checks and balance of our existing laws due to the laziness of officials and society to enforce official to act in their best interest.

Furthermore, for the individual to find justice within themselves one must look at the polis to gain such justice. The justice of the individual and the polis in which they are part of should be the same. In “the Oresteia” all the individuals are complex characters with individual desires and appetites. Like Plato’s concept of a democratic polis. Plato views democracy as a disorder unleashed by tragedy. His perfect polis exemplifies the virtuous soul. His perception of a democratic polis “is full of freedom and freedom of speech”; where each individual is able to “arrange his own life in whatever manner pleases him” (557b). Thus they are unjust and promote individuals to “distribute a sort of equality to both equals and unequals alike”(558c).

‘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.

Socrates – put to death – If the people are stupid they impact everyone (mob rule)

1. Explain Plato’s views on democracy that he presents specifically in Book VI of the Republic, and discuss whether or not you feel his arguments regarding democracy are valid or not. Defend your answer! (200 Words)

In Plato’s The Republic, the theory of appointing a ruling class is a major aspect in his political theory of a just state. As communicated through Socrates, Plato believed in the appointment of only a few citizens of the just city that possess a soul that craves all truth, knowledge, wisdom, and through proper education are competent enough to rule the just state and to decide on legislative policies. In my paper, I will be arguing against Plato’s political theory of who is best fit to be chosen as leaders to rule the just state. I will argue that Plato places too much confidence in the morals of citizens and that the soul is naturally rational and those who are chosen to lead will not necessarily uphold justice and make the right decisions. Placing the powers of democracy in the hands of the masses is more secure rather than designating power to only a selected few because the masses know what they want and know more for what is best for themselves. Although Plato was correct in requiring that leaders must be knowledgeable, but the best way to approach this problem is to not exclude people but that all people should be given the right to decide what is the greater good for their own societies. Citizens should have the right to appoint their own rulers based on their own knowledge. I will also argue that Plato’s political theory of the just state is ideal and not practical because it has not yet existed.