HOPT Lecture 1 Plato and Aristotle Flashcards
WHO SHOULD RULE?
- The people
- They constitute to state, nobody needs revolt, fair
- The elderly
- Expereinced, safe guard tradition, thought risk averse
- The King/ Queen
- Constitutes the state, decisive, birth right, divine right /tradition, simple mechanisms
- The elected / elect (president / cabinet)
- Excludes imcopetent / impopular gives a choice to the people or religious, minimizes coordination costs
- The party
- On the side of history, decisive and organized around common
- The algorithm
- Impartial, efficient and programmable etc.
Classicial Typology
When Aristotle and Polybius talk about democracy they refer to ruling by the people not elections
Brief Interlude on Athens
- so- called direct or pop. Democracy, people rule without representatives. Limited to free mail citizens excluded women and children(30 k aprox.)
-important/ urgent matters there was. A council of 500 citizens. Many magistrates were also chosen by lot, served them for 1 year
The council set the agenda for assembly oversaw Athenian bureaucracy. It was the main jury/ judges in trials -> unitary state
The ship of state
In a democracy the ship owner = the people
So the unruly sailors are ambitious politicians generally drawn from upper classes.
The unruly sailors take over the ship from the captain assuming that is what people want
Platonic criticisms of popular democracy
Democracy = dissensus
Self rule generates over confidence
Most ambitious would be rulers lack expertise / skill and deny the very existence of political expertise / skill
They threaten or kill anybody who claims intellectual superiority (the people with influence)
The desire of the ambitious to rule
murderous conflict
The elites incite (oligarcich) revos. And steal property
With the demagogues in control there is much rudderless pleasure
The masses elites call demagogues “skilled”
Some evaluative comments (on democracy and plato)
Direct democracy generates dissensus bc everyone has voice and the ambitious will use the people to enrich themselves
- everyone wants to be in control is implausible
- even so socrates needs for the analogy to work is that rich people want to be in control (seems plausible)
- As an side:
- As an side: Plato seems to have thought that the practice of direct democracy revealed the fact of value-pluralism
Value pluralism:
existence of conflicting and incompatible values
Max weber
thinks value pluralism. Is a product / effect of modernity, especially advanced division of labor which generates conflicting interests
On demagouges and direct democracy
The rich who shape public opinion deny the very existence of political expertise
The masses or elites call demagogues “skilled”
Demagouges: leader of the demos/ people
A demagouge can persuade masses that his fake political craft is the real thing
Rejection of political expertise is bad enough but the embrace of the demagouges fake skill as the real thing- presumably undermining trust and by generating confusion of what is the idea of political expertise
True skill of a demagouge consists in overturning political opinions
Platos critique of pop. Democracy
relies on some empirical facts and predicitions on how d direct democracy and its social leaders behave
- Articulates in “Republic”
- Explains political consequences in Republic and can rely on readers knowledge of Athenian history
(PLATO?) Presupposes some important narrative commitments:
- A politically we should aim at order / unity
- B politically we ought to pursue truthful politics
In politics we should push the good (truth) which can be known by expertise
Experts should rule (natural aristocracy)
Terminological note: normative claims are value judgement. Often signaled by words like should / shouldn’t and better or worse
