HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT

WEEK 1:
SOCRATES, PLATO AND ARISTOTLE
 SOCRATES (469-399 BC) & PLATO (429-
347)
• The basis for modern Western Civilization
• Athenian politics
• Political tensions & social and economic developments
• development of commerce and the creation of exchange
economy; failure of aristocracy
• A new commercial class (middle class) emerged in the city-
states which began to seek political power.
• If noble blood was not the source of political skills (as argued
by aristocrats), then how could such skills be gained?

EDUCATION
• Who were to be educators?
• sophists vs. philosophers

SOPHISTS
• The professional educators who traveled from one city-state to
another to teach for a fee.
• Their students were mostly the sons of the new middle class.
• Teachings of sophists were varied; no uniform curriculum.
• Common points:
• They claimed that they thought political virtue.
• They considered ‘rhetoric’ to be the preeminent science .
• Why did they teach rhetoric  importance of persuasion in
democracy
• Our understanding of sophists mostly come from the writings of Plato.
(one of the main opponents)
• For Plato, Sophists were the representatives of Athenian culture and
politics;
• Sophists were willing to change their arguments to better conform
to the dictates and tastes of the market.
• Alternative to sophistic education was the philosophical education.

SOCRATES (469 BC -399 BC)

• One of the most influential philosophers of Western civilization and
political thought.
• He never wrote; all we know about him is second-hand.
SOCRATES
- He was tried in Athens and executed for impiety and the corruption
of the youth. He was empoisoned.
- He wanted to establish an ethical system based on human reason.
 our choices were motivated by the desire for happiness, and the
wisdom comes from introspection.

Some quotes:
- I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.
- The unexamined life is not worth living.
- One thing only I know is that I know nothing.
- The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
• Socrates attempted to discover the right way to live.
• Philosophy is the search for truth.
• The virtuous life is the life of philosophy
• challenged the authority o the political life  if he is correct, politics
is not the highest calling therefore, it cannot demand from humanity
its deepest loyalties.
• Loyalty to the regime is surpassed by loyalty to truth.
• Socratic problem: Different representations of Socrates in different
sources.

• Platon’s dialogues do not draw a clear distinction between

arguments original to Plato and Socrates.

• Socratic method: revealing contradictions, background beliefs, feelings

of individuals by asking them questions.  Thus, helping him find out
truth himself.
• Asking questions to make him refute his arguments.
PLATO (427 BC-347 BC)

• He was born to an aristocratic family.

• He was a student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle.

• The trial and execution of Socrates had significant influence on Plato’s

development of his ideas.

• In response to that, Plato wrote that all existing states are badly
governed. But ills of human race will end when those who are sincere
and true lovers of wisdom came into political power. OR, when the
rulers learn true philosophy.
• Without knowledge of justice, a political society cannot be just.
• Athens  ignorant of justice; they made a huge mistake. They declared
philosophy as the enemy of political order.
• He analyzed the reasons why the Athenians made such a mistake (in
Gorgias and Republic).

Gorgias
• Plato attempted to analyze the spiritual and political ignorance that
made Athens to turn against the insights of Socratic philosophy.
• It is a debate between two educators: Socrates and Gorgias.
• They are competing for the right to educate the next generation of Athenian
political leaders.

• Gorgias represent sophists who teach rhetoric.

• Starts by explaining what he teaches  rhetoric is the power to persuade
others regarding political affairs.

• Socrates: persuasion can attempt to change one’s beliefs or what one

knows. If it is the latter, the rhetorician must have knowledge about
what they speak about. In the case of politics, they must know justice.
• Rhetorician seek to gain the approval of the people through pleasing
speeches. Their ability to do this does not mean that they have a
knowledge of what is good.

• Distinction between art and a knack

art concerned with the good of the object they work with
• Medicine and gymnastic  they both seek to promote the true
health of the body
• Knack ex. Cookery and cosmetics. They are concerned with
pleasure and appearance rather than true health.
• Rhetoric is a knack philosophy is an art.

• He is also making an analogy between doctor/patient and

politician/Athenians.

• Just as the sick would not turn over the care of their bodies to
one who is ignorant of the principles of medical health, so too
should the Athenians avoid being ruled by those politicians who
do not possess the knowledge of justice.

• Philosophers are the legitimate rulers.

Republic
• About how the state should be governed.
• It consists of dialogues among different individuals. One of
them is Socrates.
• Starts with a discussion on what justice is.  is it a tool or an
end in itself?
• Sophistic argument: people practice justice because they cannot
bear the results of someone else’s injustice.  it is pursued because
it is beneficial.
• Socrates: justice is good and desirable by its nature.
• Good state is the one with justice.
• Justice: natural division of labor. There is harmony within the state
among different classes.

• Three classes in the ideal state:

• Guardians or rulers(symbolizes reason and wisdom)
• Auxiliaries (symbolizes courage)(warriors defending the city from invaders; enforce convictions of guardians
and ensure that producers obey)

• Producers (symbolizes desire)

Justice within this state means harmony among these classes under the
leadership of the ruler.
Particular attention is paid to guardians
• They are selected from talented kids.
• Education and training of this class is particularly important.
• To equip them with necessary virtues and qualities.  “spiritual
development”
• If they are to rule well, they must first be good people.
• Education is also to make sure that they do not become self-serving
elite!
• Education is not enough to guarantee it! Institutional
reinforcements they will not have a family and a private wealth.
They should share a community of women, children, and property.
• Guardians who fail to master the necessary skills stay in the
auxiliaries' class which is to protect and defend the city; ensure
that producers obey.

Guardians and auxiliaries

https://prezi.com/gx8enbfhm33s/guardians-and-auxiliaries/
• Natural class-based society
• It is not strict: the class is not determined by wealth, social status, by birth (up
to a point).
• Those who are by nature wise and capable of benefiting from a philosophical
education are placed in the guardian class.
• If a child’s nature is unsuitable for philosophy, he will be removed from the
guardian class even if he was born to guardian parents.

PLATO’s society and justice are NOT egalitarian!

‘Myth of metals’ (Foundational Myth) –> to help guardians to make
people obey.
rulers (leaders) are made of gold, auxiliaries are made of silver, and
producers/farmers are made of bronze and iron.
• Justice demands that this difference is reflected in the political
structure.
Who should rule? PHILOSOPHER KING
• Distinction between knowledge and opinion.
• Philosophers are lovers of truth, they have the knowledge.
• Others have love of appearance,  opinion.

• Why is Plato called Idealist?

• Realities of the visible world (realm of senses) ; realities of purely intelligible
world (realm of intelligible)

• Reality resides in the ‘intelligible world.’

• Ideas can be known through thought and reasoning.
• The object of our deepest knowledge is the knowledge of the intelligible realm.
• Forms are ideas, the perfected expression of things; they are the ideas against
which all concrete things are to be measured; they are immutable, they do not
change.
Allegory of Cave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69F7GhASOdM

What do
the cave,
chained people,
chains,
shadows on the wall,
the outside world
represent?
ARISTOTLE (384 BC-322BC)
• He was a student of Plato. Remained in his academy for 20 years
until Plato’s death in 347 BC.
• After his death, he established his own academy.
• Plato the first political philosopher; Aristotle  the first
political scientist.
• Very much different than Plato’s school, Aristotle’s academy
(Lyceum) focused on empirical sciences such as biology and
history.
• He rejected Plato’s theory of forms.
• He had a different approach to the study of political reality.
• Classification of constitutional systems

Who benefits
Right Perverted

One rule Monarchy Tyranny

Who rules

Few Rulers Aristocracy Oligarchy

Many Rulers Polity Democracy

• Political realm district reality which can be studies in its own
terms.
• Focused directly upon it and examine its internal structure rather
than locating it within the order of the cosmos.
• Plato one form of human excellence  philosophers.
• Aristotle  two forms of human excellence:
• the excellence of the person of theory (the philosopher)
• the excellence of the person of practice (mature man)

• Each has its own exclusive area thus each has its own excellence.
The person of theory
• Possession of intellectual virtues (it is realm is the school)
The person of practice
• Possession of the moral virtues (its realm is the city)

• the elements of the political can be understood in their own terms

without examining the needs and achievements of the theoretical
order.  the first separation between theory and practice!
• The concerns of the realm of practice are different than the
concerns of theory.
• The political person needs to know only for the sake of action.
• The concern is to act rightly; the need to know is limited by the
concern.

• Different than Plato, he does not make a discussion of whether justice

is good. He is concerned with addressing students who already believe
that justice is good.
• Proving an opinion as justice is good is the concern of the
philosopher.
• As far as politics is concerned, what really necessary is that the political
leaders believe that it is good to be just and act justly.
• Their inability to undertake a theoretical examination of justice
does not diminish their excellence as political leaders.
He makes distinction between; theory and practice; the school and the
city; the intellectual and moral virtues; and the philosopher and the
mature man.
• Unlike Plato, (who often contrasted opinions of the average person to the
knowledge of the philosopher) Aristotle refers to popular opinions as a
guide to and check upon his own speculations.
• Aristotle: there is a certain prudential wisdom in the most common and
reasonable opinions which is a product of experience rather than
schooling.
• Three types (levels) of life Each has its own purpose and own standard
of excellence.
• Life of nutrition & growth (shared with animal and vegetative world) 
does not constitute a peculiar excellence proper to people alone.

• Life of sense perception (shared by humans and animals) 

experiencing pleasure and pain. It does not constitute humankind’s
proper and peculiar function.

• Life of reason that makes human form of excellence within the world.
• Unlike vegetative and animal realms, the human sphere includes the
possibility of a level of excellence which goes beyond that of health
and pleasure.
• The greatest happiness will be found at the rational life.
• Gaining happiness = acquiring virtue
• Any characteristic which allows the soul to perform its functions well.

• Humans must learn to take pleasure in the right things, at the right
times, and in the right manner.
• To succeed in it, they must acquire moral virtues.
• They are acquired through a process of imitation  presence of
good models and encouragement of appropriate habits.
• It also depends on good legislation.  a society establishes its
pattern of shared expectations, preferred behavior, and favored
habits through its laws.
• Without good laws, inculcation of moral virtue is impossible.
• Intellectual virtues  unlike moral virtues, they arise from teaching.

The relationship between the realm of intellectual and the realm of

moral:
• Aristotle rejects Socratic unity of knowledge and virtue but does not
separate them from each other totally. (virtue is not totally
independent from knowledge)
• Happy life  in conformity with virtue. Two forms of virtue: moral and
intellectual
• Moral virtue associated with the exercise of practical wisdom
• Intellectual virtue is expressed in the excellence of theoretical
wisdom.
•
• True happiness in conformity with the highest virtue, the intellectual
virtue.
• This kind of life will be the most continuous, the most self-sufficient,
the most pleasurable, and concerned with the highest objects of
knowledge.

• the life of practical has its own excellence; moral virtues are still virtues
(even if they are not the highest form of wisdom)
• Practical wisdom is required for the good functioning of the city.
• Philosophers demonstrate the teaching that justice is good.

• the city needs philosophers for the moral excellence of its citizens 
their laws must teach them to act justly.
• This is philosophers’ contribution to moral realms
Political Association
• It exists for good life.
• We are political animals  we need the services of the city and its
good laws for the development of moral and intellectual virtues 
which make the life good or the life of reason possible.

Justice, acting justly are very important in the city.

• Just citizens are those who feel the right amount of pleasure, at the
right time, and in the right manner when they acquire that profit which
is their right.
• How does one determine what is his right?
• Aristotle: Justice demands that equals be treated equally.
• Two types of equality: proportionate and numerical
• Proportionate: distribution of the city’s common goods. In
distributing honors, offices, and goods among its citizens, the state
should give more to those who have given more to the city.
• In those civil transactions, exchanges among citizens, justice
demands numerical equality.
• Justice will be best served by balancing the interests of various
classes. He accepts particular claims of various classes and
seeks to order them by a balance rather than ranking.
Who should rule?
• Five forms of rule: the people at large, the wealthy, the best citizens,
the one best citizen or a tyrant.
• Each option has its own limitations and disadvantages.

• He considers rule of law to be the best in general.

• Rule of law based upon a large middle class; thus such a society
would avoid the extreme actions, and there would be moderation.