This essay will discuss Plato and JS Mill’s outlook on their own political theories of the state and how these theories can be applied to the political concepts of both Authority and Democracy. This essay will give a brief historical outline of the tow theorists and will discuss their different opinions on how the state should be run.
Democracy is a word used by most yet is a term that if often misunderstood, the dictionary definition of democracy is “A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.” (Dictionary, n.d.)The word ‘democracy’ is said to come from the Greek term “demos” which roughly translates as “the people” thus meaning the power of the government …show more content…
Plato was a critic of democracy and his political philosophy was an attempt to describe the ideal state of a justice theory, his work was seen to have a large influence on European culture and Christianity. Plato had abandoned his preparation for a political career when the execution of Socrates took place, this lead him into the study of philosophy and opening the ‘Academy’. Plato uses the “Allegory of the Cave” to highlight his belief that the world we see isn’t as it may seem and our senses are just making a poor copy of real life (Kreis, 2012) .Plato explains the situation to be three prisoners, in a cave, chained to the rocks bound by arms, legs as unable to move their heads. These prisoners have been in the cave since birth so they don’t know any different there is a fire behind them in which depicts shadows of the objects that pass it into the wall in front of the prisoners. As every shadow that passes is new to the prisoners they are the objects they see as ‘real’, one prisoner is able to escape and leaves the cave to discover all is not what it may have seemed soon returning to the cave and trying to explain to the other two who just didn’t believe him. This suggests that those that are in the cave gain their knowledge from what they see and hear and that the shadows represent what they see as knowledge, the prisoner who escapes represents the philosopher, he is the who indulges on the journey of finding truth and wisdom. Due to this theory it supports Plato’s idea that the Philosopher Kings should be the one who hold the political power, they are too be the ones to run the state as they have gained the knowledge that is needed and emphasizes that the state should not be governed by those who are uneducated, the allegory of the cave portrays this. An advantage of this is that it delivers the message of not
Democracy is a word used by most yet is a term that if often misunderstood, the dictionary definition of democracy is “A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.” (Dictionary, n.d.)The word ‘democracy’ is said to come from the Greek term “demos” which roughly translates as “the people” thus meaning the power of the government …show more content…
Plato was a critic of democracy and his political philosophy was an attempt to describe the ideal state of a justice theory, his work was seen to have a large influence on European culture and Christianity. Plato had abandoned his preparation for a political career when the execution of Socrates took place, this lead him into the study of philosophy and opening the ‘Academy’. Plato uses the “Allegory of the Cave” to highlight his belief that the world we see isn’t as it may seem and our senses are just making a poor copy of real life (Kreis, 2012) .Plato explains the situation to be three prisoners, in a cave, chained to the rocks bound by arms, legs as unable to move their heads. These prisoners have been in the cave since birth so they don’t know any different there is a fire behind them in which depicts shadows of the objects that pass it into the wall in front of the prisoners. As every shadow that passes is new to the prisoners they are the objects they see as ‘real’, one prisoner is able to escape and leaves the cave to discover all is not what it may have seemed soon returning to the cave and trying to explain to the other two who just didn’t believe him. This suggests that those that are in the cave gain their knowledge from what they see and hear and that the shadows represent what they see as knowledge, the prisoner who escapes represents the philosopher, he is the who indulges on the journey of finding truth and wisdom. Due to this theory it supports Plato’s idea that the Philosopher Kings should be the one who hold the political power, they are too be the ones to run the state as they have gained the knowledge that is needed and emphasizes that the state should not be governed by those who are uneducated, the allegory of the cave portrays this. An advantage of this is that it delivers the message of not