POL 2107 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Philosopher King, Sophist, Moral Relativism

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POL 2107
• Professor: Sophie Bourgault

Document Summary

Plato"s the repu(cid:271)li(cid:272) books vi, vii, viii. The philosopher: justifying his entitlement to rule a(cid:374)d e(cid:454)plai(cid:374)i(cid:374)g wh(cid:455) he does (cid:374)ot rule i(cid:374) e(cid:454)isti(cid:374)g cities: the image of the ship. Looks useless, but he is in fact the most useful individual if he was listened to: 489c, it is up to the majority to ask the philosopher to come rule. Socrates states that the philosophers that appear in politics are not true philosophers: may once have had virtue but were led astray at some point either by a flaw in their education or in their environment. 491e, great potential can turn either into great good or great evil (gold may be worse than iron: culture, education, and environment matter a great deal, temptations never go away, life of justice is a never ending battle. 514a, image will capture the effect of education and the lack of it on our nature.