philosophers and politics
philosophers and politicsPlato (Rep 473d) regarded good government as unattainable ‘unless either philosophers become kings in our cities or those whom we now call kings and rulers take to the pursuit of philosophy’. He already recognized, however, that philosophers would either be reluctant to leave the contemplation of truth for the task of governing any but an ideal city, or would be ridiculed and rejected if they tried (Rep 516d–, 517a;, 519e–, 521b).
Philosopher-leaders were rare in the ancient world: Cicero (De legibus 3. 14) named only Demetrius of Phalerum, the Peripatetic (Aristotelian) philosopher who ruled Athens from 317 to 307 BC, ignoring less respectable examples, like the Peripatetic Athenion and the Epicurean Aristion (see Epicurus) who ruled Athens for brief periods in his youth. The Romans themselves sent philosophers to rule Cilician...
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