Abstract
The Republic's account of the relation between talking about politics and doing politics illuminates the nature of political action. Plato's Socrates argues that those who ought to govern are those who know about politics and who know what politics is about, since political things are images of ideas. Socrates' alternative to democracy is thus an academic rather than an aristocratic elite-an elite of those who know. Yet the academic elite Plato imagined does not dispute the right of the people to decide between it, the aristocrats, and the men of the people.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 247-259 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Political Research Quarterly |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2011 |
Keywords
- Heidegger
- John Austin
- Karl Popper
- Plato
- Republic
- Wittgenstein
- aristocracy
- democracy
- education
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Sociology and Political Science