Saturday, February 4, 2012
What about different views?
Plato envisioned that in a perfect society philosophers would rule and ultimately govern over the less intelligent and reasonable people. These philosopher kings were supposed to be lovers of wisdom who would not ,because of their knowledge and reasoning, give in to temptation. We would hope that all of these philosopher kings would come from different backgrounds and there fore have different ideas and opinions on problems. But Plato is a little vague on how exactly these kings would work together. For instance what if the philosopher kings disagree on how to solve a problem? Who is supposed to decide which is correct? When addressing this idea the book says: "Plato hopes to use rational argument... But when someone thinks they know the ultimate truth about such questions of value and policy, they may be intolerant of anyone who disagrees, and may feel justified in forcing their view on others" (86). If all of these kings are supposed to have an ultimate understanding of things and reason has brought them to that very conclusion there is no one to decide which of the king's has the best solution and which truth should be accepted by all. This is one of the fatal flaws in Plato's plans that he seems to neglect to acknowledge or solve.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment