Russell starts his five chapters on Plato by discussing the sources of his opinions.
Plato was a well-to-do aristocrat, related to various people who were involved with the regime of the Thirty Tyrants. He was a young man when Athens was defeated by Sparta and probably attributed the defeat, and also the death of Socrates, to democracy. Therefore it was perhaps not surprising that his political leanings were pro-Spartan and anti-democratic. Russell sets up the case that he was an advocate of totalitarianism.
Russell suggests that his philosophical influences where as follows. Firstly Pythagoras, from whom he derived much of his mixture of intellect and mysticism. Parmenides, from whom he derived his belief that reality is eternal and timeless and that change is illusory. Heraclitus, who influenced his negative doctrine that there is nothing permanent in the sensible world, which combined with Parmenides led him to conclude that knowledge is to be derived from the intellect rather than the senses. And finally Socrates from whom he learnt his preoccupation with ethical problems, rather than science.
Russell then outlines the reasons that he thinks these influences are connected to Plato's authoritarian politics.
Russell then discusses how Plato's conception of wisdom connects with his politics. Russell suggests that Plato argues that wisdom consists in knowledge of the good, that people who know what is good will inevitably do what is right and that these people should therefore rule.Russell questions whether this view of wisdom is realistic and, even if it is, how a constitution might ensure that the wise will rule. There is no group in society that has a clear monopoly on wisdom. Even if the wise are to be trained the same problem exists, how do we decide on the training or the trainers? This, Russell argues, is why democracy is essential.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Sparta
Russell includes a chapter giving a brief introduction to Sparta as it influenced later philosophy from Plato through to Rousseau, Nietzsche and National Socialism to name but a few.
In simplistic terms, Sparta is representative of the closed, utopian, totalitarian strand of Western political philosophy where the purpose of the individual is to serve the needs of the state. Athenian society in some senses can be seen as representative of the open, democratic and liberal strand. Of course the reality is somewhat more complicated than this but it is certainly possible to regard Western political history as a struggle between these competing views of society. It is important to realise that although many of the major philosophical figures of the golden age of Greek philosophy were Athenians many of them were sympathetic to Sparta. They lived in a period when Athens was involved in struggles with Sparta and at times Sparta seemed to be the more successful. Plato in particular was an admirer of Spartan society.
There are of course many modern resonances and historical threads in this. It has become conventional thinking to regard Western culture as somehow essentially individualistic, democratic and liberal. This argument is often made by totalitarian regimes such as the CCP in China when arguing that democracy is culturally specific to Western societies. The reality is that western political philosophy also has a deeply totalitarian thread and European civilisation has indeed produced some of the most anti-individualistic, undemocratic societies in human history, from Nazi Germany to Stalinist Russia. Although liberal democracies have become the dominant political system in Western countries in recent years this has come out of a long struggle with authoritarian trends in Western thinking. The totalitarian communism of the Chinese Communist Party (or its current incarnation as a totalitarian capitalist state), for example, is no less 'Western' than liberal democracy.
The particular attraction for intellectuals of closed, utopian solutions has also been a recurrent problem in the history of political philosophy. Russell argues that, particularly through the influence of the writing of Plutarch, Sparta has been an important influence on this trend.
In simplistic terms, Sparta is representative of the closed, utopian, totalitarian strand of Western political philosophy where the purpose of the individual is to serve the needs of the state. Athenian society in some senses can be seen as representative of the open, democratic and liberal strand. Of course the reality is somewhat more complicated than this but it is certainly possible to regard Western political history as a struggle between these competing views of society. It is important to realise that although many of the major philosophical figures of the golden age of Greek philosophy were Athenians many of them were sympathetic to Sparta. They lived in a period when Athens was involved in struggles with Sparta and at times Sparta seemed to be the more successful. Plato in particular was an admirer of Spartan society.
There are of course many modern resonances and historical threads in this. It has become conventional thinking to regard Western culture as somehow essentially individualistic, democratic and liberal. This argument is often made by totalitarian regimes such as the CCP in China when arguing that democracy is culturally specific to Western societies. The reality is that western political philosophy also has a deeply totalitarian thread and European civilisation has indeed produced some of the most anti-individualistic, undemocratic societies in human history, from Nazi Germany to Stalinist Russia. Although liberal democracies have become the dominant political system in Western countries in recent years this has come out of a long struggle with authoritarian trends in Western thinking. The totalitarian communism of the Chinese Communist Party (or its current incarnation as a totalitarian capitalist state), for example, is no less 'Western' than liberal democracy.
The particular attraction for intellectuals of closed, utopian solutions has also been a recurrent problem in the history of political philosophy. Russell argues that, particularly through the influence of the writing of Plutarch, Sparta has been an important influence on this trend.
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