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Plato: Political Philosophy (Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought)

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Plato: Political Philosophy (Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought) Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought PLATO FOUNDERS OF MODERN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL THOUGHT SERIES EDITOR Mark Philp Oriel College, University of Oxford The Founders series presents critical examinations of the work of major political philosophers and social theorists, assessing both their initial contribution and their continuing relevance to politics and society. Each volume provides a clear, accessible, historically informed account of a thinker’s work, focusing on a reassessment of the central ideas and arguments. The series encourages scholars and students to link their study of classic texts to current debates in political philosophy and social theory. Also available: john finnis: Aquinas richard kraut: Aristotle gianfranco poggi: Durkheim maurizio viroli: Machiavelli cheryl welch: De Tocqueville PLATO Political Philosophy Malcolm Schofield 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Malcolm Schofield 2006 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Schofield, Malcolm. Plato : political philosophy / Malcolm Schofield. p. cm. —(Founders of modern political and social thought) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978–0–19–924946–6 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0–19–924946–6 (alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978–0–19–924961–9 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0–19–924961–X (alk. paper) 1. Plato—Political and social views. I. Title. II. Series. JC71.P62S36 2006 321.07—dc22 2006016279 Typeset by Laserwords Private Limited, Chennai, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., King’s Lynn, Norfolk ISBN 0–19–924961–X 978–0–19–924961–9 ISBN 0–19–924946–6 (Pbk.) 978–0–19–924946–6 (Pbk.) 13579108642 For Matthew This page intentionally left blank Preface This book had its origin (I believe) in a suggestion from Myles Burnyeat to Mark Philp, general editor of the Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought series. Serious thinking began in response to an invitation to deliver Carlyle Seminars on the Republic in Oxford in Trinity Term 2000. The philosophers, historians and political theorists who participated gave my ideas a warm and argumentative reception. Through the good offices of Myles Burnyeat I was privileged to enjoy the hospitality of the Warden and Fellows of All Souls during my visits. Serious writing was made possible by a year’s sabbatical in 2003–04.I thank my colleagues in the Faculty of Classics at Cambridge for shouldering burdens in my absence. Another leave in Lent Term 2005 and the honour and stimulus of the John and Penelope Biggs Residency at Washington University, St Louis, set me up for the final push. I am most grateful for the challenging week I enjoyed in St Louis as a guest of the university and its classics department. I was showered with generous hospitality: I hope it will not be too invidious if I thank Bob Lamberton and Eric Brown above all for their many kindnesses. I have profited from the observations and criticisms of col- leagues on numerous occasions, both when I have delivered versions of particular chapters as talks in various parts of the world and in innumerable private conversations. A whistle-stop lecture tour in March 2004, taking in Northwestern, Brown and Princeton Universities and the University of Toronto, was particularly helpful; and I returned with a draft of Chapter 5 from an unforgettable stay in May of that year at the Fonda- tion Hardt—itself a sort of utopia. A number of friends gave me extensive written comments on the first draft of the whole book: Christopher Gill, Melissa Lane, Geoffrey Lloyd, David Sedley and Christopher Taylor. It is much the better for their varied input, both in detail and in its broader horizons. Two anonym- ous readers for the Press wrote encouragingly about the draft and the project as a whole, and were again very helpful in high- lighting things to work on further. Finally, Mark Philp for the series and Peter Momtchiloff for the Press have been the most PREFACE relaxed and kindly of editors. When Mark finally got a full draft, he sent me one of the most searching and beautifully nuanced set of responses I’ve ever had to anything I’ve written, at once supportive and delicately quizzical. My thanks also go to Jenni Craig, Helen Gray, and Andrew Hawkey in the editorial team for their friendly efficiency. The book attempts both to ground an analytic account of Plato’s political philosophy in its historical context, and to suggest some of the resonances it finds or might find in more con- temporary concerns and more recent political thought. I don’t suppose I could have conceived that ambition or worked out a strategy for carrying it through without the different sorts of examples set by three scholars in particular: Moses Fin- ley, Quentin Skinner and Josh Ober—whose advantages over me include being proper historians. Learning to read Plato is a continuing adventure. I am particularly indebted to colleagues in Cambridge, who have frequently returned to Plato in our Thursday evening reading group, and above all to Myles Burnyeat, for all we have learned from him, especially during his time as Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy. In the years through which this book was in the making I had as always the unassuming loving support of my wife Elizabeth. She died at the end of July 2005, trying to complete the massive, hugely demanding, and often lonely archaeological writing project on which she had been working for a decade and a half. viii Contents Introduction 1 1.TheRepublic: Contexts and Projects 7 1. The Centrepiece 7 2. Some Dubious Platonic Autobiography 13 3. Socrates: Engagement and Detachment 19 4. The Projects of the Republic 30 5. Education, Sparta and the Politeia Tradition 35 2. Athens, Democracy and Freedom 51 1. Democratic Entanglements 51 2. Democracy and Rhetoric 63 3.TheLaws on Democracy and Freedom 74 4. Conclusion 88 3. Problematizing Democracy 100 1. From Polarity to Complexity 100 2. Democracy, Equality and Freedom 107 3. Democracy and Pluralism 112 4. Democracy and Anarchy 117 5. Democracy and Knowledge 121 6. Conclusion 130 4. The Rule of Knowledge 136 1. Philosophy or Political Expertise? 136 2. Mill and Jowett on Plato 138 3. Architectonic Knowledge 144 4. Philosopher Rulers 155 5. Architectonic Knowledge Revisited 164 6. The Limitations of Management 173 7. Conclusion 182 5.Utopia 194 1. Against Utopia 194 2. A Question of Seriousness 197 3. A Future for Utopianism 199 4. Plato’s Utopian Realism 203 CONTENTS 5. The Idea of Community 212 6. Epilogue: The Question of Fantasy 234 6. Money and the Soul 250 1. The Ethics and Politics of Money 250 2. The Analogy of City and Soul 253 3. The Psychology of Money 258 4. Greed, Power and Injustice 265 5. Taming the Beast Within 270 7. Ideology 282 1. Ideology and Religion 282 2. The Noble Lie 284 3. Law and Religion 309 4. Conclusion 325 Conclusion 332 Bibliography 334 Index of Passages 361 General Index 373 x Introduction Is Plato our contemporary? Well, yes and no. When he philosoph- ized about politics, he was thinking of the long-vanished Greek polis or ‘city-state’ of ancient Athens and Sparta. Democracy for him meant the direct participation of all adult male citizens in the decision-making processes of the popular assembly and the courts of justice, not the representative systems of today. The intensity of his obsession with political rhetoric as an inbred democratic disease is intelligible only against the background of an interpretation of fifth-century Athenian imperialism and its downfall in the Peloponnesian War that he probably borrowed (not without twists of his own) from the historian Thucydides. One particular event dominated Plato’s conception of politics: the trial and execution of Socrates in 399 bc. So this book will begin by immersing the reader in the historical contexts of Plato’s writing; and there will be recurrent re-immersions. When Nietzsche spoke with enthusiasm of Plato’s ‘genuine, resolute, ‘‘honest’’ lie’ (he had in mind the Noble Lie of Book 3 of the Republic), however, he was thinking about general questions to do with morality, and more specifically of a contrast with the ‘dishonest’ lying—as he took it to be—of Christian morality.1 Similarly Hegel thought ‘the Idea’ of Plato’s Republic contained ‘as a universal principle a wrong against the person, inasmuch as the person is forbidden to own private property’.
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