Plato’s Defense of Athens

summary:

This paper argues that in the Statesman Plato recognizes a complementary relationship between democracy and law. Reinventing the metaphors involving physicians and pilots, Plato brings the issue of trust back to his theoretical agenda. This radical thought experiment has anti-intellectual implications: the people should put their trust in the body of law drawn up by themselves rather than following the professionals, whose motivations are not always pure. The Statesman incorporates Plato’s experience of post-Socratic Athens. It presents a unique defense of democracy; its anti-intellectual elements do not appear in Plato’s other discussions of democracy, the Protagoras and the Laws.