In Plato's Republic, Socrates contends that philosophers make
the best rulers because only they behold with their mind's eye the
eternal and purely intelligible Forms of the Just, the Noble, and
the Good. When, in addition, these men and women are endowed with a
vast array of moral, intellectual, and personal virtues and are
appropriately educated, surely no one could doubt the wisdom of
entrusting to them the governance of cities. Although it is widely
and reasonably assumed that all the Republic s philosophers are the
same, Roslyn Weiss argues in this boldly original book that the
Republic actually contains two distinct and irreconcilable
portrayals of the philosopher.
According to Weiss, Plato s two paradigms of the philosopher are
the "philosopher by nature" and the "philosopher by design."
Philosophers by design, as the allegory of the Cave vividly shows,
must be forcibly dragged from the material world of pleasure to the
sublime realm of the intellect, and from there back down again to
the Cave to rule the beautiful city envisioned by Socrates and his
interlocutors. Yet philosophers by nature, described earlier in the
Republic, are distinguished by their natural yearning to encounter
the transcendent realm of pure Forms, as well as by a willingness
to serve others at least under appropriate circumstances. In
contrast to both sets of philosophers stands Socrates, who
represents a third paradigm, one, however, that is no more than
hinted at in the Republic. As a man who not only loves what is but
is also utterly devoted to the justice of others even at great
personal cost Socrates surpasses both the philosophers by design
and the philosophers by nature. By shedding light on an aspect of
the Republic that has escaped notice, Weiss s new interpretation
will challenge Plato scholars to revisit their assumptions about
Plato s moral and political philosophy."
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