The Big Ideas podcast: Plato's 'just society'

Benjamen Walker

The Big Ideas podcast: Plato's 'just society'

Why every government should keep an empty seat for a philosopher king

Plato was right: the ideal society needs truth-seekers as rulers – but with a twist

Link to this audio

It may rank as the most notorious single claim in the history of philosophy. "Until philosophers rule as kings in their cities," Socrates casually tells his young friend Glaucon, "or those who are nowadays called kings and leading men become genuine and adequate philosophers ... cities will have no rest from evils."

Platon:
- A czy nie powiesz,
że szkodnictwo największe,
skierowane przeciw własnemu
państwu, to niesprawiedliwość?
- Jakżeby nie?

(Platon Państwo, Księga IV str.189
Wydawnictwo ANTYK Kęty 1997)

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