“Democracy Provides the Most Just and Efficient Form of Political Rule” Asses Whether Plato Has Shown His Claim to Be False.

“Democracy provides the most just and efficient form of political rule” Asses whether Plato has shown his claim to be false. Plato believes that the ideal ruler of the state should be a philosopher. He states that a king concerned with the pursuit of wisdom would undoubtedly be better than a lover of power, wealth or status. To have the majority vote for what is best would be irrelevant as they do not understand what is real and Philosophers are the only ones who can do this and fully understand the forms. Plato agrees that Philosophers in Athenian society can be dangerous, but he then counters they can only become a danger when they’re corrupted by society. He uses the simile of the ship to explain that because democratic society has no use for philosophers, they have no alternative but to stand aside from the corruption of political life. The simile of the ship denotes each feature to a part of Athenian society. The ship represents the basis of a Democratic Athenian Society and the Captains plays the electorate. He is big and strong, yet deaf and short sighted which shows the blindness of the citizens who in the long run cannot see what is good for them. The crew represents the politicians who are each quarrelling among themselves and constantly wanting control of the captain. They form groups, much like political parties, and try to manipulate the captain in order to overthrow him and if one of these groups were to take control the ships journey would become a drunken pleasure cruise. As a whole the crew members do not believe that navigational skills are needed to bring the ship into port. The Navigator symbolizes the philosopher. One who knows how to bring the ship to its port through using his knowledge of the stars and the changing seasons. This represents the philosopher’s ability to bring the state and its people to its final destination through him knowledge of the forms. However, to counter act the Simile of the ship it can be noted that whilst the masses may not be experts in long term economics, it can be said that they do know what is good for them, what makes them happy and what creates a comfortable and fulfilling existence. It may be that a drunken pleasure cruise fits the majority’s criteria for a good life and therefor it is not such a bad path to take. On the other hand, this simile does effectively describe the role of people and politicians in the state. Politicians do manipulate the voters and their ethics can change in accordance to the opinion of the masses. They do persuade people to vote them into power and the majority are powerful in democracy. For example, protestors can force politicians to take a particular force of action. Another objection would be that the simile of the ship is not a strong enough basis for the argument to rest on. It has a hypothetical existence and therefore cannot provide enough evidence into how the society is run. To describe the electorates Plato uses the simile of the beast. This criticises the democratic electorate and positions them as large and powerful animals, thus the electorate is represented by a beats. The sophists are symbolised as a trainer who do not know what is good or bad for the beats. The trainer simply panders to what it likes and doesn’t like. Therefore the sophist is viewed as weak and pathetic who cannot do best on behalf of the beast. To go against this it can be said that large and powerful animals are invariably dangerous things. Combining this with the fact that such animals are ruled by their instinctive appetites for food and sex, it is possible to interpret Plato’s simile as an Ad Hominem attack on the normal citizens of a democratic state. It is not fair for Plato to suggest that we are all beasts as we are not all the same. However, democracy can be dangerous as the simile implies and for this to happen a dangerous leader would have to be voted in, like Hitler. This suggests that the electorate are beasts as with the Hitler example, the electorate voted a monster as their leader and obeyed to follow him and his actions. From Plato’s simile it seems that he would prefer a resolute leader who would be able to impose what he knows to be good on the beast irrespective of whether it soothed or enraged the beast, rather than responding to the beast and letting the animals reaction dictate what he says. A further objection states that Plato’s insistence that a political leader should impose on the beast what is good for it is problematic. For example, although nobody would maintain that it is good to smoke cigarettes, Plato seems to be arguing that the government should have the right to make it illegal for anyone to smoke, as it is bad for you. However, the right for an individual to have self-determination must be respected is far more desirable and important than the government imposing a better decision on the individuals behalf. Responsibility results in a better growth for individuals. Allowing individuals to have self-determination however is not worthwhile as the majority of people will inevitably make feckless decisions.