Episode 20, Plato's Political Philosophy (Part II)
The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast
Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane
4.8 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 25 June 2017
⏱️ 50 minutes
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Summary
Everything you could need is on www.thepanpsycast.com! Please tweet us your thoughts at www.twitter.com/thepanpsycast. This episode benchmarks the beginning of our mini-series on political philosophy. Plato provides a strong critique of democracy through his formulation of a utopian city-state. By attempting to find justice in the city, Plato prompts us to question whether or not democracy can promote the common good. In this episode we'll be asking questions like; What is justice? Is democracy worthless? and What can we learn from Plato today? Part I. Socratic Dialogues in Gorgias and The Republic (08:15), Part II. The Republic (31:35), Part III. Real World Application (00:10 - in Part II), Part IV. Further Analysis and Discussion (22:40 - in Part II). Make sure you've subscribed to us on iTunes to get new episodes as and when they're released! Thank you, we hope you enjoy the episode!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Part 3. Real World Application. |
| 0:16.9 | Our key inquiry question. |
| 0:18.6 | Talking about my application. |
| 0:21.4 | Right. |
| 0:21.8 | Are meristocracies a good system of government? |
| 0:25.2 | Just a quick definition then. |
| 0:26.6 | So a meritocracy is a state governed by the most qualified people to run it. |
| 0:33.6 | So what Plato is arguing through this entire section of the Republic, that you have, |
| 0:42.3 | Philosopher Kings, the wise people who actually can use their reason to dictate how things work. And he's turned into a giant dictionary. Should philosophers rule? Should philosophers rule? |
| 0:47.6 | I, on the surface... Let's quickly define philosophers there. What is it to rule, Jack? |
| 0:52.7 | Oh, okay. I'll just leave I'll just leave, shall I? |
| 0:56.7 | Should a philosopher's rule? Is that, that's a good question. Let's answer that one. |
| 1:00.0 | Yeah, I, on the surface, I like this idea that you have somebody who actually knows what on earth they're talking about to be able to say what's best for others. |
| 1:09.1 | Because so often, if you're not well-informed on the situation that you're going into, democracy is a mess. |
| 1:17.2 | You can go into a voting booth, tick a box, and have no idea about the person you're voting for, what they stand for, really, and then you live with the result. |
| 1:26.6 | And if that's the way democracy runs, |
| 1:29.1 | it's a little sad. Yeah, I'm really interested in this question. I really like the idea of |
| 1:34.2 | a meritocracy. I think it's really fascinating. I think the idea of someone who wants to be |
| 1:38.9 | prime minister or president, a little weird. I don't know why someone would want to do that job, because that |
| 1:45.2 | sounds like a really horrible job. Pride, honor. Yeah, pride on it. Yeah, I can understand, I guess, |
| 1:49.5 | why, but I just personally, for me, it's a job I would never want to do. And as much as I don't |
| 1:54.3 | really agree with monochism, I do quite like the idea of someone being raised to fulfill a job, |
... |
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