Political philosophy is the study of the city state. That is it is the study of how people should be governed. Ethics plays a big role within political philosophy because of the nature of the human itself. (Inet Enc. Section 1) Human’s, at least to ourselves, are seen in this day and age as beings who have a certain natural right to life, liberty, and property. This natural right brings up enormous questions when it comes to how a people should be governed. Should there be a compromise between the people and the city state? Should people relinquish power to the city state for its protection without hesitation? These are just two questions that political philosophies try to answer. To understand where, what, and why us human’s govern the way we do today, it is important to look at prominent political philosophers such as Plato, Thomas Aquinas, and John Locke.

Plato, through his Republic, reasoned that people could not be trusted to find a suitable ruler (this could be juxtaposed to how Plato did not trust the minds perception of things because what we perceive is not the true form). Because of this, Plato did not trust the ideals of a democracy where it was left to the people to vote on a ruler. Instead he proposed a philosopher king. To find the philosopher king that lived up to the duties that were required to rule, Plato proposed a long series of tests that would weed out those unfit to rule. He stated that any promising toddler would be taken by the state and for the first ten years be trained physically. The next ten years math, science, and music would be added to the routine. And after that there would come a point known as the great elimination where the person is subject to hard testing, rigorous study, pain, troubles, and conflicts. This assured the weakest would be weeded out and the strongest left behind. Once the person passed all these tests they were granted the permission to study philosophy.

Plato believed philosophy was the strongest weapon within the philosopher-king’s arsenal and would only teach it to those who were worthy. When the person was done mastering the art of philosophy he was brought back to isolation. This series of rigorous tests guaranteed to weed out the weakest candidates and leave the strongest. Only when one can complete these tests were they ready to become philosopher king. This ruler ruled unconditionally. They were trained in the art of making the hard decisions as well as the best decisions. (Mitchell, 356-359) However, the only way for this ideal to pan out appropriately would be if the state was not corrupt. A corrupt state could corrupt the philosopher-king and then corrupt the entire system. So although Plato formulated a world where a just ruler could be born, it was within a utopia that does not and cannot live within the modern values of today. (Brown, Section 2.1) Plato works to protect human’s against them selves since our perception of reality is skewed. Since reality is skewed, a group of people have no hope of finding a proper ruler, however, that is within a utopia where the state is not subject to human error. (Kelsey, 369b-372e)

Lecture on the Philosopher King:

A Difficult Unity