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.

Good, World-Soul, Organic Unity

One similarity between Plato and Moore is that the former offers no definition of 'Good', while the latter asserts that it is indefinable.  A second is the former's concept of a World-Soul, and the latter's of Organic Unity.  Finally, a third is the lack of connection between, on the one hand Good and World-Soul, and on the other, Good and Organic Unity.  So, unexplored are, on the one hand, if the Idea of the Good is that of the World-Soul, and, on the other, if the indefininability of the Good is that of the distinction between the sum of the Parts and their Whole.  Not similar is their respective concepts of Nature, so that if Plato conceives the World-Soul as 'Natural' it would serve as no indication of whether or not the distinction between the sum of the Parts and the Whole is for Moore likewise 'Natural', with the implication that the Good is indeed 'Natural', contrary to another of his prominent principles.

Shadows, Sun, Evil

While for many, the main function of Sense-Experience is Cognition, and, hence, is a topic in Epistemology, for others, it is also a factor in behavior, and, hence, a topic in Psychology and Ethics.  Now, when considered in its entirety, as well as in its general context, the scenario at the beginning of book VII of the Republic is plainly a representation of a corrupt Polis--Sophists manipulating Citizenry by pandering to their prejudices--as relevant today as ever.  So, if shadows do indeed represent Sense-Experience, as the medium of manipulation, it is qua behavioral, not qua cognitive.  Accordingly, the structural significance of a shadow, as opposed to that of mere copies such as an echo or a reflection, is derived from the meaning of the Sun in the passage.  That is, if the Sun is the Idea of Good, and a shadow is the result of a blocking of the Sun, then a shadow represents Evil, an interpretation that coheres with the classification of Sense-Experience as Psychological and Ethical, but not Epistemological.

Sense-Experience and Shadows

Plato's likening, in book VII of the Republic, of Sense-Experience to shadows, is less than a sound basis for the prototype of a repudiation of Empiricism that it has been taken by many to be over the centuries.  For, to begin with, a shadow is not like Sense-Experience; it is a Sense-Experience.  Second, unlike a hallucination, an after-image, or a Secondary Quality, a shadow does not inhere in the percipient.  Finally, unlike an echo or a reflection, a shadow is no mere copy of an original.  Instead, the cognitive flaw that is the focus of passage is that a shadow is taken to be a self-subsistent entity.  But, that is an error of interpretation, and, hence, an intellectual error.  So, regardless of Plato's intention, what the passage illustrates is a misuse of Sense-Experience, not its Ontological inferiority.

Platonism and Esotericism

If, as some assert, there is an esoteric Platonism that remains veiled in the Republic, it can only be the system developed in the Timaeus, beginning with the principle of a World-Soul.  On that basis, a Polis-Soul is part of the World-Soul, and a Person-Soul is part of the Polis-Soul.  But, if the Whole is prior to the Part, Harmony is pre-established, and, so, any inquiry into the nature of Justice must begin by explaining how 'Injustice' is even possible.  Now, there seems to be two general approachs to such an explanation.  First, 'Injustice' is an irreal product of a partial, i. e. incomplete, cognition.  Second, the Parts of a Whole have the capacity for limited scope of free exercise, on the basis of which real uncoordination between Parts can arise.  Accordingly, the role of the Philosopher in the first case is to educate, e. g. via illuminating dialogue, and, in the second, to guide the Polis on the basis of a vision of the Whole.  Now, which of these, if either, might be Platonist Esotericism is unclear.  But less unclear is that those who classify it as an Inegalitarianism, coincidentally similar to their own, lack a full grasp of the scope of the issue.

Platonic Irony, Language, Thought

The term 'Socratic Irony' is dubious in two respects.  First, the passages from which it originates usually involve a fictional Socrates, and, so, 'Platonic Irony' would be more accurate.  Second, Socrates' professions of ignorance in these passages, may, contrary to the standard interpretation of them, in fact be true, as an expression of his rigorous standards of Knowledge, and, hence, are not ironic.  Now, better evidenced, though more complicated, alternative examples of Platonic Irony are those in which he asserts the inadequacy of Language to Thought.  The first level of Irony in these passages is that he is using Language to deprecate Language.  But, then, a second level emerges--such assertions cannot be the content of mere Thought, since the possibility of Language exceeds Thought.  In other words, the second level of Irony is that such assertions entail, inversely, the subordination of Thought to Language, a thesis explored notably by Derrida.

Political Philosophy and Harmony

The primary aim of a Political Philosophy is to define the best Polity, which, even if not actual, serves to evaluate systems that are.  Accordingly, what Plato presents in the Republic is an analysis of what many agree constitutes the best Polity--a condition of universal Harmony.  On his analysis, the fundamental feature of that condition is a one-to-one correspondence between what is liked and what is needed, mediated by his observation that, anticipating Aristotle, personal Happiness consists in the exercise of one's natural abilities.  So, universal Harmony obtains when the Division of Labor that is needed is commensurate with the available talents.  That Plato presents that model patently in the text refutes the interpretation of some that the Republic is not to be taken at face value, since, rather, his true doctrine is esoteric, and just happens to coincide with their self-serving political agenda.  Advocates of that interpretation seem to not understand what the primary aim of Political Philosophy is, instead attributing to Plato a smaller-minded ulterior ambition.