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QUESTION Philosopher Kings or Democracy?

According to Plato's "The Republic", he suggests that a Philosopher King would be a better leader than a leader chosen in a democracy. Do you agree?

42Belvedere 4 Apr 11
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14 comments

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0

Philosopher Kings.

Democracy is the tyranny of the unwashed masses, and the breeding ground for oligarchs and plutocrats.

0

Sounds like Machiavelli's "enlightened monarch". Drivel.

1

I genuinely appreciate the input I have received about this question. Although I see some very valid points about democracy being a better form of governance, I think it's important to keep in mind that the philosopher king, as described by Plato, lived a very simple and spartan life. In other words, this leader would not be surrounded by sycophants and a setting of opulence. As to the other aspects of Plato's proposals - such as his ideas on breeding - I think we could probably scrap many of them, as being impractical or just in violation of personal liberties.

1

Democracy where we include philosophy, logic, ethics and general knowledge in our curriculum to raise citizens with the skills of philosopher kings.

1

At this point, I am ready for anarchy with charismatic leader that come up "organically and change very often. Pipe dream, I know.

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He believed in some weird from of genetics. The were to pretend to create a sexual Lottery, but really they would break the game to make sure flop servers only had sex with other philosophers. Soldiers would only have sex with other Soldier class it was all a Noble lie to tell the masses. Yeah, I'm sure that would just work out fine.

Democracy is a pretty inefficient system. It has serious problem. It's just the best bad idea we have so far.

JeffB Level 6 Apr 12, 2018
2

No, but Plato was describing what we have learned to call a Utopia. He used it as a pedagogical model to discuss some of his main philosophical considerations such as the determination of what is meant by Justice.

cava Level 7 Apr 12, 2018
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Based on what the US is going through now, I might be tempted to say Philosopher King, but once one looks through History, I will stick with Democracy.

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No thanks - democracy is giving at least some power to a collective of people people who understand how democracy is supposed to work defend it - if a King became senile or corrupt it would be his closest guards that would take over .

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Yes I do actually, a benevolent dictator would be awesome.
In a democracy we suffer from the tyranny of the gullible.
(I am being polite).

0

Sure. If it's a robot.

2

Wouldn't it would depend on his philosophy? Also, the world is a lot more complicated than during the time of Plato.

0

I think that first you must ask what makes a leader 'better'? If it's representing the interests of the people, then an elected leader would be better, and a direct democracy would be better still.

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