Platonic Conception of Democracy

In Book VIII of Plato's immortal treatise The Republic, we find Socrates explaining the nature of the four degenerative or "diseased" states: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and finally, tyranny (195). Each of these states represents a component of a cycle, with one corrupted state preceding the other in succession. In this, it is perhaps puzzling that Socrates anticipates that democracy will precede the formation of a tyrannical state, for these two states appear at first glance to be antithetical.

In the first, timocratic state, the "tricks and devices of war" are held "in high esteem, and the city spends all its time in making war" (198). Men will covet gold and riches, and do so in secret; hence, these will be used in private and to ill purpose; the city will forgo the arts in favor of physical training, and will nurture a "love of victory and of honors" above all else (199). When the private treasuries of successful men become swollen with riches, the constitution of the timocratic state will be in jeopardy, as rich men will "twist the laws" in order to allow them to spend their money on themselves. The masses, seeing the power in riches, will become "money-lovers and money-makers" (201): they will "praise and admire the wealthy man and appoint him to office while they disregard the poor man" (201). An oligarchy is thus born. In the oligarchy, where wealth becomes the prerequisite for power and the thing that men honor, two cities emerge from the one: "one of

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Category: Philosophy - P