Plato: the Statesman
and the Laws
Adaney Escobedo
María Fernanda Vélez
BARMEDICE FEAST:
A feast where there is nothing to eat; any illusion
HINTS:
Indirect ideas.
BALLOT:
A ballot is a device (originally a small ball—see blackball) used
to record choices made by voters
INTRODUCTION
• Plato´s political philosophy can be found in his
works “Republic”, “Statesman” and in “Laws”.
• Statesman and Laws were written years after
the Republic. The former two contain a
marked contrast with the latter, and together
they present the final results of Plato´s
reflection upon the problems of the city-state.
THE READMISSION OF LAW
• In the Republic, Plato yielded a theory in
which everything was subordinated to the
ideal of the philosopher-king. This theory
excluded law altogether from the ideal state.
• This ran contrary to the deepest conviction of
the Greeks about the moral value of freedom
under the law and of the participation by the
citizens in self-government
• The Laws was written in an attempt to restore
law to the place which it occupied in the
moral estimation of the Greeks.
• The fundamental difference between these
two works is the core of the ideal state: by
specially chosen and trained men in the first;
and by a government in which law is supreme
in the second one.
THE GOLDEN CORD OF THE LAW
In the Statesman, Plato includes a
classification of states more elaborate than in
the Republic
Classification of States in the Republic
Ideal State
Timocracy
Oligarchy
Democracy
Tyranny
Classification of States in the Stateman
LAWLESS FORM
LAW-ABIDING FORM
Monarchy
Tyranny
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Moderate Democracy
Extreme Democracy
• “ […]these inward affections of ours, like sinews
or cords, drag us along and, being opposed to
each other, pull one against the other to opposite
actions; and herein lies the dividing line between
goodness and badness. For […] there ir one of
these pulling forces which every man should
always follow and nohow leave hold of,
counteracting thereby the pull of the other
sinews: it is the leading string, golden and holy, of
`calculation´, entitled the public law of the State
and whereas the other cords are hard and steely
and of every possible shape and semblance, this
one is flexible and uniform, since ìt is of gold […] “
THE MIXED STATE
• Plato “discovered” the principle of `mixed state´,
which is designed to achieve harmony by a
balance of forces, or by a combination of diverse
principles of different tendency in a way that they
shall offset each other. Stability is a resultant of
opposite political strains.
• In the Laws, the mixed state is the combination of
the monarchic principle of wisdom with the
democratic principle of freedom.
-The most significant institutions in the Plato`s view is the ownership
and use of property, and the education in the first place, equal
education for women and sharing in military and other civic duties.-In
the Laws, communism is the ideal arragement but too good for human
nature.
-Property in land is therefore equalized, the cultivation of the land is to
be done by slaves, or possibly a more descriptive word would be serfs,
who pay a rental in the form of a share of the produce.
-Plato would prohibit to any citizen the ownership of personal
property in excess of four times the value of a lot of land, to esclude
differences between rich and poor
The state is to have only a token-currency, the citizen`s “ownership” of
his property is made by every restriction that Plato can think of strictly
a Barmecide feast.
-There was a division of labor in the Laws, but in the
Republic where:
agriculture is set down as the special function of the
slaves, trade and industry of a class of freemen who are
not citizens, but the problem was of participation like
Pericles mentioned at the Funeral Oration, that mass of
men can attend to private affairs and find the way to have
a hand too in public business.
-Plato stated that the citizenship was for privileged
persons and the job of earning a living to slaves and
foreigners, and he prefers the kind of privilege of security
rather than wealth.
MAIN KINDS OF INSTITUTIONS:
Town-meeting, council, and magistrates.
In the mixed constitution the magistrates “guardians of the law” are
by election.
It`s a group of 37 chosen bya threefod election, nomination a ballow
where 300 are selected, a second ballot where a 100 are selected from
the 300 and a final ballot where 37 are selected. At this electoral
machiney the council of 360 is chosen.
-the citizens are divided in four classes from the Athenian constitution
by Solon.
the lowest classes where composed of those whose personal property
does not exceed the value of their land, the next above this amount
byt not exceeding twice the value of their land. And so on.
There was a chamber of deputies to three groups each of
which paid one-third of the taxes., and there was a penalty
for non-voting but not apply to the lowest property
classes.
There was one concession to democracy: the number of
persons elected is double the number of places to be filled
and the final choice is made by lot.
-Plato: property of classes: a combination of monarchy
and democracy, and the concession to democracy was “on
account of the discontent of the masses”
-Aristotle: in the Laws, “it is nothing but
oligarchy and democracy, leaning rather to
oligarchy”he suggested the middle-class state.
Plato in the Republic: plan of education, poets, literature and art, the
education of women equally with men remains an important part of
the plan.
Publicly regulated schools with paid teachers to provide a fully course,
elementary and secondary grades. Magistrate in charge of the schools
was the chief of all the magistrates.
-Religion: Plato forbits any kind of private religious exercises, and rites
only in public temples and by authorized priests, the religious belief is
closely related to moral behavior.
-3 kinds of atheism: denial of the existence of the gods, denial that
they concern themselves with human conduct, and belief that they
are easily placated for a sin commited., imprisonment and death are
the penalties attached to atheism.
-Nocturnal Council; body composed of the en eldest of the 37
guardians, the director of education, and certain priests chosen
specially for their virtue., quite outside the law and is given power to
contro and have the knowledge
Republic: analysis of the most general principles underlying society,
its nature as mutual exchange of services in which human capacity
developed equally
to the end of personal satisfaction and of
achieving the highest tpe of social life.
Knowledge was conceived upon the analogy of the exact, deductive
procedure of mathematics, and the relation between rulers and
subjects as the learned and the ingnorant, eliminating law form the
state.
Laws: suggested the principle of balance, of a mutual adjustment of
claims and interest.
Aristotle, sought to provide a consistent body of ogical principles to
explain and justify the procedure which he followed.
QUESTIONS
1.- what was the Plato`s reflection about these phyloshophies?
2. In the Republic everything was subordinated to…
3. What is the fundamental difference between the two works?
4. Describe the clasification of states.
5. What was the mixed state?
6. Which are the property classes?
7. How the magistrates where elected?
8. What are the 3 kinds of atheism?
9. What is the Nocturnal Council?
10. What was the analysis of the Republic?