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PainlessEphemera wrote

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always viewed Plato’s Republic as an anti-statist work. For example, when he brings up the claim about how artistic works can corrupt, he mocks that tendency by having the guardians only allow hymns to gods and works about “good men” because beautiful poetry by Homer can make soldiers not want to fight or encourage young people to question authority or (gasp!) make people doubt that the gods are benevolent or have their best interests in mind.

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Ant OP wrote (edited )

I think that the book lends really well to a statist interpetation, but that Plato specifically wrote the book to be ambiguous

for example, he regularly has Socrates go to painstaking lengths to outline what sort of authorities would be acceptable
but in other places, he has Socrates sneak in the claim that those very authorities do not and cannot exist

In republic, Plato has Socrates set up the "city of pigs" - which is basically a borderline anarchist society. Then his interlocutors aren't into it because they want more fancy things, so Socrates says, well, that city is actually a good one but let's humour you guys and see what happens

and that's how they come up with the republic, which Socrates tries to cut back down to the shape of the 'city of pigs' as often as he can

It's weird to say in this day and age, but Plato is one of my favourite philosophers, more for his complex literary and dramatic techniques than anything else. probably more than any person in history he has gotten people seriously thinking about what it means to live an ethical life

I also happen to buy into the argument, roughly that it's better to be just and oppressed than unjust

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