Plato's Republic and Socrate's Theory Of Apolitical Citizenship DOC

Title	Plato's Republic and Socrate's Theory Of Apolitical Citizenship
Author	Mykolas Gudelis
Pages	23
File Size	94.5 KB
File Type	DOC
Total Downloads	390
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Mykolas Gudelis The New School for Social Research March 19, 2012 (Manuscript only) Socrates’ Theory of Apolitical Citizenship in Plato’s Republic Socrates: But perhaps you would say that it does not harmonize with our constitution, because there is no twofold or manifold person among us, since each...

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Mykolas Gudelis The New School for Social Research March 19, 2012 (Manuscript only) Socrates' Theory of Apolitical Citizenship in Plato's Republic Socrates: But perhaps you would say that it does not harmonize with our constitution, because there is no twofold or manifold person among us, since each does only one job. Adeimantus: Indeed, it does not harmonize with it. Socrates: And isn't it the reason that it is only in a city like ours that we will find a shoemaker who is a shoemaker, not a ship's captain who also makes shoes; and a farmer who is a farmer, not a juror who also farms; and a soldier, not a moneymaker who also soldiers, and so on? Adeimantus: True, it is.1 The historical and epistemological development of democratic theory is inseparable from critiques of democracy. It is precisely systematically developed critiques of democracy rather than theoretical elaborations of democratic thought itself in the history of political theory that provides us with insights into the concept of democracy and its ontologies. We learn about democracy from its very first critiques. These critiques reach back to the very beginnings of democratic political practice itself - Athens of the 4th and 5th century B.C. Famously, Plato and later Aristotle elaborated the first systematic critiques of democracy with certain implicit and sometimes explicit references in their texts to the actual political culture of Athens at the time. If today theories of radical 1 Plato, The Republic, book 3, 397e (5), trans. C. D. C. Reeve (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2004), 73. 1...