short essay#1

Taylor Carter

Short Essay #1

2/16/16

The Beginning of the Philosopher King

            Book one has been discussed as the starting point of the Republic from which the rest of the book is just an expansion upon the thoughts and statements made in book one. This can be seen clearly through book one’s relation to Plato’s political philosophy from which book one clearly states Plato’s political philosophy. Plato’s political philosophy after book one can relate back to book one as it is just an expansion or thought experiment of his claims made early on through Plato’s Socrates initial conversations in book one with the interlockers. This can be best demonstrated through the Philosopher king of Plato’s book five of the Republic.

Plato’s primary Political philosophy is usually seen as he mentions in book five that he believes that philosopher kings should be the rulers of the just city.  Yet this was hinted at in book one in several ways in which Plato presents his position on political philosophy early on and does not change it throughout the dialogues but uses it as a foreword of his positions to come. Book one hints at or explicitly claims all of the political philosophic claims of Plato’s throughout the Republic. The primary focuses on political philosophy being mentioned in book one will be the forms of government, the philosopher king, and the willingness of individuals to rule.

The forms of government is first mentioned in book one around line 338 d to which this already hints at Plato’s famous political book of the Republic that discusses the forms of government. The state of justice in the forms of government is discussed as, “This, best of men, is what I mean: in every city the same thing is just, the advantage of the established ruling body,” (Bloom 16). This can be seen as an inversion of the discussion of the different forms of government in which the decaying process begins as the best man becomes less and less just or philosophic but rather building toward what would be the true just government or ruler in book one. Plato is making way in book one to show that the Philosopher king would be the better ruler for the non-philosophic leader forms a contradiction in justice, “Wasn’t it agreed that the rulers, when they command the ruled to do something, sometimes completely mistake what is best for themselves, while it is just for the ruled to do whatever the rulers command?” (Bloom 17). Plato starts with the forms of government that everyone knows in book one and shows how they make mistakes or lead to injustice for the purpose of allowing his political discussion and suggestion of the best form of government to come in later books.

The Philosopher King made its famous splash on the Republic in book five during the third wave of political philosophy in which Plato claims that philosopher kings would prove to be the best rulers. Book one hints at this in several different ways from parallels of the true pilot to how to get the philosopher king to rule it can all be read first in book one. Plato uses the forms of government in book one to show that a change in political reality needs to occur to allow for justice and the best rule to exist. The true pilot or stargazer of book six of the Republic hint of existence can be seen in book one from Plato’s Socrates conversations with Thrasymachus, “For it isn’t because of sailing that he is called a pilot but because of his art and his rule over sailors,” (Bloom 19). The true pilot in book six is seen as a story to resemble the philosopher king and his journey to rule and why the philosopher king should rule. In book one Plato’s Socrates gives that very answer stating that it is his ‘art and rule over sailors’ that makes him the true pilot even Plato’s Socrates adds later in the conversation, “then such a pilot and ruler will consider or command the benefit not of the pilot, but of the man who is a sailor and is ruled,” (Bloom 20). The philosopher king posses a form of art and command over the citizens that make him stand out as the ruler for his completeness of knowledge of the position and world surrounding him as he thinks of others not himself is what Plato hints at and later proves to be true.

Plato makes way for the form of government in which a philosopher king would rule and establishes why a philosopher king would be the best ruler over non-philosophers but their willingness to rule is left as a question posed in book one that Plato’s Socrates answers. Socrates poses the question to Thrasymachus, “Don’t you notice that no one whishes to rule voluntarily, but they demand wages as though the benefit from ruling were not fro them but for those who ruled?” (Bloom 23). This poses a very important question from which works through in book one that will Plato reiterates later in the Republic, why should the philosopher kings be willing to rule. Socrates first proves to Thrasymachus that, “it is plain by now that no art of kind of rule provides for its own benefit,” so there must be something more or different to convince the philosopher kings to rule (Bloom 24). Socrates, in book one, refers to the philosopher kings as the best man or the good for he says, “the good aren’t willing to rule for the sake of money or honor…Hence, necessity and a penalty must be there in addition for them, if they are going to be willing to rule,” (Bloom 25). This directly foreshadows what is to come in the Republic especially concerning the willingness of philosopher kings to rule as book one states first that, “the greatest of penalties is being ruled by a worse man if one is not willing to rule oneself,” (Bloom 25). This directly foreshadows the conversations what is later to come surrounding the willingness of the philosopher kings to rule for if they don’t they will be subjected to an inferior’s rule this threat or compulsion makes the philosopher king willing to rule.

Book one of the Republic foreshadows the entire journey of the philosopher king that is illustrated from book five to seven and even hints toward book eight of the Republic. Plato even shows in book one the foreshadowing of the problem that might come with the philosopher kings as stating,

For it is likely that if a city of good men came to be, there would be a fight over not ruling, just as there is now over ruling; and there it would become manifest that a true ruler really does not naturally consider his own advantage but rather that of the one who is ruled. (Bloom 25)

The philosopher kings would fight over not ruling in the just city that Plato is to create through books 2-4 for they would want to pursue knowledge and intellectual aims. A system would have to be created to solve for this problem but that these men where the men truly built to be the best leaders for they thought of others before themselves when making rules.

            Book one gives the short and vague messages across between Socrates, Thrasymachus and Glaucon surrounding justice and political philosophy. Book one in many ways serves as an outline or an introduction upon the ideas that will serve as the detailed points that Plato gets across for the rest of his work. The entirety of the philosopher king’s story from books five through seven can first be found vaguely discussed in book one. Book one prepares the reader for the ideas that are to come without explicitly stating them.