Latest / The Philosophy Insights Collection / 32 - The Republic - Plato

Transcript

32 - The Republic - Plato · The Philosophy Insights Collection

• 0:00
  Book eight, Part four. But what is the next step. The ruin
• 0:06
  of oligarchy is the ruin of democracy, the same disease magnified and intensified by
• 0:12
  liberty overmasters democracy. The truth being that the excessive increase of anything often causes
• 0:18
  a reaction in the opposite direction. And this is the case not only in
• 0:22
  the seasons and in vegetable and animal life, but above all in forms of
• 0:26
  government. True, the excess of liberty, whether in states or individuals,
• 0:33
  seems only to pass into excess of slavery. Yes, the natural order,
• 0:38
  and so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of
• 0:43
  tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme form of liberty, as we might
• 0:48
  expect. That, however, was not, as I believe your question.
• 0:52
  You rather desire to know. What is that disorder which is generated alike in
• 0:57
  oligarchy and democracy, and is the ruin of both? Just so, he
• 1:02
  replied, Well, I said, I meant to refer to the class of
• 1:06
  idle spendthrifts, of whom the more courageous are the leaders, and the more
• 1:10
  timid the followers, the same whom we were comparing to drones some stinglers,
• 1:15
  and others having stings. A very just comparison, these two classes are the
• 1:23
  plagues of every city in which they are generated, being what phlegm and bile
• 1:26
  are to the body. And the good physician and lawgiver of the state ought,
• 1:32
  like the wise bee master, to keep them at a distance and prevent,
• 1:34
  if possible, their ever coming in. And if they have anyhow found
• 1:38
  a way in, then he should have them and their cells cut out,
• 1:42
  as speedily as possible. Yes, by all means, he said. Then,
• 1:49
  in order that we may see clearly what we are doing, let us
• 1:52
  imagine democracy to be divided, as indeed it is, into three classes.
• 1:57
  For in the first place, freedom creates rather more drones in the democratic than
• 2:00
  they were in the olycarcical state, that is true, and in the democracy
• 2:07
  they are certainly more intensified, how so, because in the olocarcical state they
• 2:14
  are disqualified and driven from office, and therefore they cannot train or gather strength,
• 2:20
  whereas in a democracy they are almost the entire ruling power. And while
• 2:23
  the Chino swort speak and act, the rest keep buzzing about the beamer,
• 2:28
  and do not suffer a word to be said on the other side. Hence,
• 2:30
  in democracies almost everything is managed by the drones. Very true, he
• 2:37
  said. Then there is another class which is always being severed from the mass.
• 2:42
  What is that? They are the orderly class, which in a nation
• 2:46
  of traders is sure to be the richest. Naturally so they are the most
• 2:51
  squeezable persons and yield the largest amount of honey to the drones. Why,
• 2:55
  he said, there's little to be squeezed out of people who have little,
• 3:00
  and this is called the wealthy class, and the drones feed upon them.
• 3:05
  That is pretty much the case, he said. The people are a third
• 3:08
  class, consisting of those who work with their own hands. They are not
• 3:13
  politicians and have not much to live upon. This when, as sampled,
• 3:16
  is the largest and most powerful class in democracy. True, he said,
• 3:23
  But then the multitude is seldom willing to congregate unless they get a little honey.
• 3:28
  And do they not share? I said? Do not their leaders deprive
• 3:31
  the rich of their estates and distribute them among the people, at the same
• 3:36
  time taking care to reserve the larger part of themselves. Why, yes,
• 3:40
  he said, to that extent, the people do share, and the persons
• 3:46
  whose property is taken from them are compelled to defend themselves before the people as
• 3:50
  best they can. What else can they do? And then, although they
• 3:54
  may have no desire of change, the others charge them with plausing against the
• 3:59
  people and being friends of oligarchy. True, and the end is that when
• 4:04
  they see the people not of their own accord, but through ignorance, and
• 4:08
  because they are deceived by informers seeking to do them wrong, then at last
• 4:12
  they are forced to become oligarchs. In reality they do not wish to be,
• 4:15
  but the sting of their drones torments them and breeds revolution in them.
• 4:20
  That is exactly the truth. Then come impeachments, and judgments and trials of
• 4:26
  one another. True, the people have always some champion whom they set over
• 4:31
  them and nurse into greatness. Yes, that is their way. This and
• 4:38
  no other is their root from which a tyrant springs. When he first appears
• 4:42
  above ground, he is a protector. Yes, that is quite clear.
• 4:47
  How then does a protector begin to change into a tyrant? Clearly when he
• 4:51
  does what the man is said to do in the tale of the Arcadian Temple
• 4:56
  of Lychey and Zeus. What tale. The tale is that he who has
• 5:00
  tasted the entrails of a single human victim, minced up with the entrails of
• 5:05
  other victims, is destined to become a wolf. Did you never hear it?
• 5:11
  Oh? Yes? And the protector of the people is like him,
• 5:15
  Having a mob entirely at his disposal, he is not restrained from shedding the
• 5:18
  blood of kinsmen by the favorite method of false accusation. He brings them into
• 5:23
  court and murders them, making the life of man to disappear, and with
• 5:28
  unholy tongue and lips tasting the blood of his fellow citizens. Some he kills,
• 5:31
  and others he banishes, at the same time, hinting at the abolition
• 5:35
  of debts and partition of lands. And after this, what will be his
• 5:40
  destiny? Must he not either perish at the hands of his enemies, or
• 5:44
  from being a man become a wolf. That is a tyrant. Inevitably,
• 5:49
  this I said, is he who begins to make a party against the rich
• 5:55
  the same after a while he is driven out, but comes back in spite
• 5:59
  of his enemies a tyrant full grown, that is clear. And if they
• 6:04
  are unable to expel him or to get him condemned to death by a public
• 6:09
  accusation, they conspire to assassinate him. Yes, he said, that is
• 6:15
  their usual way. Then comes the famous request for a bodyguard, which is
• 6:19
  the device of all those who have got thus far in their tyrannical career.
• 6:24
  Let not the people's friend, as they say, be lost to them.
• 6:28
  Exactly the people readily assent. All their fears are for him, they have
• 6:33
  none for themselves. Very true. And when a man who is wealthy and
• 6:39
  is also accused of being an enemy of the people sees this, then my
• 6:43
  friend, as the oracle said, decreases by pebbly Herm's sure, he flees
• 6:47
  and rests not and is not ashamed to be a coward. And quite right
• 6:53
  too, said he, for if he were, he would never be ashamed
• 6:57
  again. But if he is caught, he dies, of course, And
• 7:02
  he, the protector of whom we spoke, is to be seen not larding
• 7:06
  the plain with its bulk, but himself, the overthrower of many, standing
• 7:11
  up in a chariot of state with the reins in his hand. No longer
• 7:15
  protector but tyrant, absolutely no doubt, he said. And now let us
• 7:20
  consider the happiness of the man, and also of the state in which a
• 7:24
  creature like him is generated. Yes, he said, let us consider that
• 7:30
  at first, in the early days of his power, he is full of
• 7:31
  smiles, and he salutes every one whom he meets. He to be called
• 7:35
  a tyrant who is making promises in public and also in private, liberating debtors,
• 7:41
  and distributing land to the people, and as followers, and wanting to
• 7:44
  be so kind and good to every one. Of course, he said,
• 7:48
  But when he has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there
• 7:53
  is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war
• 7:57
  or other in order that the people may require a leader. To be sure,
• 8:01
  has he not also another object, which is that they may be improverished
• 8:05
  by payment of taxes, and thus compelled to devote themselves to their daily wants,
• 8:09
  and therefore less likely to conspire against him? Clearly, And if any
• 8:16
  of them are suspected by him of having notions of freedom and of resistance to
• 8:20
  his authority, he will have a good pretext for destroying them by placing them
• 8:24
  at the mercy of the enemy. And for all these reasons, the tyrant
• 8:28
  must be always getting up a war. He must now he begins to grow
• 8:33
  unpopular an necessary result. Then some of those who joined in setting him up,
• 8:39
  and who are in power, speak their minds to him and to one
• 8:41
  another, And the more courageous of them cast in his teeth what is being
• 8:46
  done. Yes, that may be expected, And the tyrant, if he
• 8:50
  means to rule, must get rid of them. He cannot stop while he
• 8:54
  has a friend or an enemy. He is good for anything. He cannot,
• 8:58
  And therefore he must look about him and see who is valiant, who
• 9:01
  is high minded, who is wise? Who is wealthy? Happy man?
• 9:05
  He is the enemy of them all, and must seek occasion against them,
• 9:09
  whether he will or no, until he has made a purgation of the state,
• 9:13
  yes, he said, and a rare purgation, yes, I said,
• 9:18
  not the sort of purgation which the physicians make of the body. For
• 9:22
  they take away the worse and leave the better part. But he does the
• 9:26
  reverse. If he is to rule. I suppose that he cannot help himself.
• 9:33
  What a blessed alternative, I said, to be compelled to dwell only
• 9:35
  with the many bard and to be by them hated, or not to live
• 9:39
  at all. Yes, that is the alternative, And the more detestable his
• 9:45
  actions are to the citizens, the more satellites, and the greater devotion in
• 9:48
  them will he require suddenly? And who are the devoted band? And where
• 9:54
  will he procure them? They will flock to him, he said, of
• 9:58
  their owner, coord if he pays them by the dog. I said,
• 10:03
  here are more drones of every sort and from every land. Yes, he
• 10:07
  said, there are. But will he not desire to get them on the
• 10:11
  spot? How do you mean he will rob the citizens of their slaves.
• 10:16
  He will then set them free and a roll them in his bodyguard. To
• 10:20
  be sure, he said, and he will be able to trust them best
• 10:22
  of all? What a blessed creature? I said, must this tyrant be?
• 10:28
  He has put to death the others and has these for his trusted friends.
• 10:31
  Yes, he said, They are quite of his sort. Yes,
• 10:35
  I said, And these are the new citizens whom he has called into existence,
• 10:39
  who admire him and are his companions, while the good hate and avoid
• 10:43
  him. Of course, verily, then, tragedy is a wise thing,
• 10:50
  and Euripides a great tragedian. Why so? Why because he is the author
• 10:56
  of the pregnant saying tyrants are wise by living with the wise, And he
• 11:01
  clearly meant to say that they are the wise whom the Tyrant makes his companions,
• 11:07
  Yes, he said, and he also praises tyranny as god like.
• 11:11
  And many other things of the same kind are said by him and by the
• 11:15
  other poets. And therefore I said to the tragic poets, being wise men,
• 11:20
  will forgive us and any others who live after our manner if we do
• 11:24
  not receive them into our state, because they are the eulogists of tyranny.
• 11:28
  Yes, he said, those who have the wit will doubtless forgive us.
• 11:33
  But they will continue to go to other cities and attract mobs and higher voices,
• 11:37
  fair and loud and persuasive, and draw the cities over to tyrannies and
• 11:43
  democracies. Very true. Moreover, they are paid for this and receive honor,
• 11:50
  the greatest honor as might be expected from tyrants, and the next greatest
• 11:54
  from democracies. But the higher they assent our constitution hill, the more the
• 11:58
  reputation fail, and seems unable from shortness of breath to proceed further. True,
• 12:05
  but we are wandering from the subject. Let us therefore return and inquire
• 12:11
  how the tyrant will maintain that fair and numerous and various and ever changing army
• 12:16
  of his If he said, there are sacred treasures in the city, he
• 12:22
  will confiscate and spend them. And in so far as the fortunes of attainted
• 12:26
  persons may suffice, he will be able to diminish the taxes which he would
• 12:31
  otherwise have to impose upon the people. And when these fail, why,
• 12:37
  clearly he said, then he and his boon companions, whether male or female,
• 12:43
  will be maintained out of his father's estate. You mean to say that
• 12:46
  the people from whom he has derived as being will maintain him and his companions.
• 12:52
  Yes, he said, they cannot help themselves. But what do the
• 12:58
  people fly into a pass? And of that? A grown up son ought
• 13:01
  not to be supported by his father, but that the father should be supported
• 13:05
  by the son. The father did not bring him into being or settle him
• 13:09
  in life, in order that when his son became a man, he should
• 13:13
  himself be the servant of his own servants, and should support him and his
• 13:16
  rabble of slaves and companions, but that his son should protect him, and
• 13:22
  that by his help he might be emancipated from the government of the rich and
• 13:24
  aristocratic, as they are termed. And so he bids him and his companions
• 13:30
  depart, just as any other father might drive out of the house a riot's
• 13:35
  son and his undesirable associates by heaven, he said. Then the parent will
• 13:41
  discover what a monstery has been fostering in his bosom, And when he wants
• 13:46
  to drive him out, he will find that he is weak and his son
• 13:48
  strong. Why you do not mean to say that the tyrant will use violence?
• 13:54
  What beat his father if he opposes him? Yes, he will,
• 14:00
  having first disarmed him. Then he is a parasite and a cruel guardian of
• 14:05
  an aged parent. And this is real tyranny, about which there can be
• 14:09
  no longer a mistake, as the saying is, the people who would escape
• 14:15
  this smoke which the slavery of freemen has fallen into the fire which the tyranny
• 14:20
  of slaves, Thus liberty getting out of all order and reason, passes into
• 14:26
  the harshest and bitterest form of slavery. True, he said, very well?
• 14:31
  And may we not rightly say that we have sufficiently discussed the nature of
• 14:35
  tyranny in the manner of transition from democracy to tyranny. Yes, quite enough,
• 14:41
  he said, end of Book eight