The 'Republic's Third Wave and the Paradox of Political Philosophy
1998; Philosophy Education Society Inc.; Volume: 51; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2154-1302
Autores Tópico(s)Classical Philosophy and Thought
ResumoUnless, I said, philosophers rule as kings or those now called kings and chiefs genuinely and adequately philosophize, and political power and philosophy coincide in the same place, while the many natures now making their way to either apart from the other are by necessity excluded, there no rest from ills for the cities, my dear Glaucon, nor I think for human kind, nor will the regime we have now described in speech ever come forth from nature, insofar as possible, and see the light of the sun. This what for so long was causing my hesitation to speak, seeing how paradoxical it would be to say.(1) So goes what socrates describes as the biggest and most difficult of the three waves of paradox set forth in book 5 of the Republic (472a4). While he not pause to justify the latter description when he introduces the third wave, there can be little doubt that this wave indeed both big or important and difficult. As for its difficulty, Socrates mentions no less than four times his hesitancy to state that philosophers must rule or rulers philosophize (472a, 473e, 499a-b, 503b). Moreover, a more subtle, yet perhaps no less telling indication of the importance of the third wave provided by the fact that it breaks at the exact of the text as measured by Stephanus pages--a fact that commentators on the Republic seem hardly even to have noticed.(2) There are several reasons to believe that the centrality of the third wave may prove to be a philosophically important detail. First, the general structure of the Republic seems to place special emphasis on its central books. One scholar, Eva Brann, begins her interpretation of the Republic with the observation that this dialogue is composed on the plan of concentric rings.(3) There are furthermore other dialogues in which Plato has evidently calculated the of the text quite precisely, and has done so with the intention of indirectly underscoring the fundamental importance of a philosophical conception, argument, or issue. The most striking example of Plates use of this literary device to be found in the Statesman, in which the Eleatic Stranger introduces the notion of measurement in accordance with the nonarithmetical mean--a notion that crucial to his account of statesmanship--at the arithmetically-determined midpoint of the dialogue.(4) So too, Plato seems to call special attention to the significance of the Eleatic Stranger's philosophical parricide of his teacher Parmenides by placing that dramatic event at the midpoint of the Sophist.(5) While each of the passages cited above requires careful consideration in its own right,(6) these examples perhaps suffice to show that the placement of the third wave at the exact of the Republic unlikely to be incidental to our understanding of its significance within the dialogue as a whole. The of a text an appropriate place to hide that which especially questionable as well as to emphasize that which especially important; in certain cases where the author not wish to be understood by every reader, these intentions may overlap. In writing on Plato, Leo Strauss took pains to identify the central item in a list as well as the subjects treated at the of a section or book.(7) Sometimes, he suggested, the to be understood as a place of honor suited to that which most important; on other occasions, what at the questionable in a way that casts doubt upon that which stands at the periphery.(8) Both of these uses, we may note, are confirmed by ancient authors.(9) Both, moreover, coincide in certain texts, especially where the author has reason to write esoterically. A notable example of this coincidence to be found in Alfarabi's Summary of Plato's Laws, where, Strauss observes, at the very center of the Summary and at the beginning of the fifth chapter (which literally the central chapter) Alfarabi does exactly the same thing he did at the end of the fourth chapter: he drops Plato's repeated and unambiguous reference to the gods. …
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