Philosopher, King, Legislation

While the best-known portion of Republic VII is the complicated figurative scene at its outset, later Plato presents a simple prosaic statement of purpose.  At 519-20, he asserts that the Philosopher has a civic duty to apply a "vision of the good", via "law", to "harmonizing" the Polis, i. e. to become a Philosopher-King.  So, he goes beyond even Marx, in defining Philosophizing as not merely interpreting or even changing the world, but ruling it.  However, at this juncture, Plato is himself still a Philosopher but not a King, offering definitions, even if Practical.  So, it is in the Laws, when he himself begins to Legislate, that, on the basis of his vision of the Good, he rules as well.