The Ockham Society (Friday - Week 8, MT21)

Plato is rightly taken to be a vehement critic of democracy and this critique is most often understood in terms of a dislike of freedom (ἐλευθερία) tout court. According to this story, the concept of freedom simply has no positive connotations for Plato--at least in the Republic. It is the argument of this essay that the textual evidence does not bear this out. Rather, Plato clearly recognizes a positive function for ἐλευθερία in the ideal city and a proper reconstruction of the criticism of democratic ἐλευθερία in Rep.VIII.555b2-561e6 and 562b-564a shows that Plato is critical only of the democratic interpretation of the concept. This, then, is the main thesis this essay seeks to defend: Plato's criticism of democratic freedom is a criticism of a view of freedom that is really anarchic and dysfunctional insofar as it allows for the imitation of craft-roles that leads to an inferior and unjust city and, ultimately, to a descent into tyranny. I will attempt then, to sketch Plato's "kingly" concept of freedom understood in terms of self-control (σωφροσύνη). 

 

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_{Ockham Society Convenors: Lara Scheibli and Kimon Sourlas - Kotzamanis | Ockham Society Website}