Plato’s Critique of Democracy

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Arman Erfanfar Professor Jacovides Phil 110 14 April 2010 Plato’s Critique of Democracy Government is arguably the most influential part of any society. It is the organization in which a political unit exercises authority of its subjects. Government began when the first civilizations were formed. It was meant to give order to a society by means of instantiating laws and regulations and keeping the peace. Over time civilizations have adopted different types of government. During Plato’s time, the Athenian form of government was a democracy. However, the Athenian’s democracy differed from many democracies that exist today. During Plato’s time, he was living in a direct democracy. A direct democracy is form of government in which the citizens have a say in how their government runs. Plato views were very against this form of government for a variety of reasons. After reading Plato’s ideas, I have come to agree that a direct democracy is a foolish and irrational form of government. Government should be run by few intelligent and knowledgeable individuals. Plato’s most outstanding argument of why democracy is flawed is his reasoning that man himself is also flawed. One of Plato’s great defenses to his claim comes in the form of an analogy in which he compares a democracy to a ship. “Imagine, then, that the following sort of thing happens either on ship or on many. The shipowner is taller and stronger than everyone else on board. But he is hard of hearing, he is a bit shortsighted, and his knowledge of seafaring is correspondingly deficient.”1 From the analogy, Plato explains that when a person has more control or wields the most power, he has authority over everyone else, regardless of whether is he truly the most appropriate person to take such a position. Another point Plato makes from his analogy regards a person’s will to be heard when he thinks he has
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