Hello everyone, I'm Stephen West. This is philosophize this.

Just want to thank the people who subscribe on Patreon to make this show possible.

I could never do this without you. Today's episodes on the work of one of the best political theorists of

the 20th century, Hana Arrent. I hope you love the show today. So a long time ago on this podcast,

we told a story about a guy named Socrates who was sentenced to death in ancient Greece.

Classic story from the history of philosophy. He was accused of corrupting the youth,

denied the gods of the state. He was found guilty, forced to drink hemlock, died in around 399 BC.

Now, one of the people who witnessed the trial of Socrates in first person, what's his student,

Plato? And Plato, famously, right after Socrates is put to death, leaves the city of Athens for years,

and goes on a bit of a world tour. Travels all over the place, maybe as far as North Africa,

based on some people's accounts. See, Plato had had enough at the time. He was angry that Socrates

had been put to death. He had grown disillusioned with the political climate in Athens,

something he thought the Athenians took foolish pride. And when you consider the fact that his

friend and mentor was put to death under what he thought were false premises, you could start

to understand why he felt this way. Well, Hana Arrent would say that it was this moment in history

that may have single-handedly led to a mistake in the thinking of philosophers for the next 24-hundred

years. Because, he would say, when Plato leaves Athens and is so upset with the realm of the political,

that event had massive effects on his thinking. He returns back to Athens years later,

starts his school, the Academy. And when he does, there is a distinct turn in his philosophy inward

towards the realm of ideas. So, for example, in the allegory of the cave, the external world,

the thoughts of the public are compared to shadows on a cave wall. He talks about eventually,

through the process of philosophy emerging from that cave, and witnessing the sun, which represented

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