Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Until philosophers rule as kings, or those now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophise, cities will have no rest from evils.”
Plato · Platonism · Ancient · c. 375 BCE
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that cities stay badly ruled while power and knowledge of the good remain apart, so Plato joins them in the philosopher-king. A competing reading takes the proposal as a provocation, or as a picture of the just soul written in political paint, not as a constitution he wanted enacted. The sentence is the famous turning point of Republic V, inside a long argument about justice, and it is not a campaign line. The city he then describes is severe, and later liberals reject it.
Did Plato really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. A close translation of a famous sentence in the Republic. It is spoken inside a long argument about the just city, not as a campaign slogan.
Where it comes from
Plato, Republic 473c–d
Approximate date: c. 375 BCE.
How to use it
When a residents' association hands the leak fund to the loudest voice, ask what that person is in a position to see: the invoices, the roof, the neighbours who cannot pay. Force is not the competence Plato is asking for. Authority over a budget, a rota, or a child has the same gap.
A mindset reading
The line is easy to hear as 'experts should run everything'. That hearing skips the question of whether there is a real good to know, which Plato assumes and which you may not. Use the sentence as a problem about power and knowledge, not as a permission slip.
Understand the philosophy
Plato is answering why actual cities are full of evils even when strong people rule them. The philosopher, in this book, is the person who has turned toward the Form of the Good, his term for what makes knowledge and value possible. The proposal depends on that metaphysics. Without it, the politics is only a claim that the educated should command.
- justice
- power
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that cities stay badly ruled while power and knowledge of the good remain apart, so Plato joins them in the philosopher-king. A competing reading takes the proposal as a provocation, or as a picture of the just soul written in political paint, not as a constitution he wanted enacted. The sentence is the famous turning point of Republic V, inside a long argument about justice, and it is not a campaign line. The city he then describes is severe, and later liberals reject it.
Did Plato really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. A close translation of a famous sentence in the Republic. It is spoken inside a long argument about the just city, not as a campaign slogan.
Which work is it in?
Plato, Republic 473c–d Approximate date: c. 375 BCE.