Leo Strauss on Plato's 'The Republic'

[PillPuppetPoet]

For a look at a philosopher completely different to Stefan Molyneux, take a look here at Jewish emigre and late Chicago University Professor Leo Strauss' essay on Plato's 'The Republic' plus my own commentary and additions. Contains a thorough analysis of justice, happiness and different regimes, with many insights still relevant to today. Note the resemblance between Plato's 'healthy city' and Stefan Molyneux's own proposals. Also note that according to Plato, tyranny is the natural successor to democracy. 

https://madnessaformoflove.blogspot.com/2018/08/leo-strauss-on-platos-republic-plus.html

 

 

 

[RichardY]

@PillPuppetPoet

I started reading Plato's Republic a while a go, only read a few pages into it. Stopped reading it, as if you follow the logic, he basically says  the notion of the state is absurd, but lets have one anyway. 2000 years + and you'd think in a sane world that point would be more prominent. Bit like watching the moive the 6th sense and realisng Bruce Willis is dead in the first 5 minutes of the movie.

Listened to some of the Socratic Dialogues didn't particularly like the language in the later dialogues.

Where as Aristotle has the state based on blood.... relations. Hills have eyes and Coneheads.

But as Stefans said recently, trillions of dollars are tied up in the state. "Welfare", Military, "Education", "Charities", The Church etc. If the I.Q of Ancient Greece was 120+, how is a non state going to happen.

Was listening to David Humes "a treatise on Human understanding" today,  thought it interesting that justice is classified by him as an artificial virtue based on scarcity. Personally think an Aristocratic Republic would be ace, just have the state in and seen to be in the domain of force. Better would be no state, but if the mirage is real to many and still real despite reason and logic.... Well I guess Plato's argument perhaps.