Embrace your inner Sophos!
Feb. 10th, 2010 10:02 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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queensthiefIt's...... (drumroll, please)
Philosophy time!
My history class has been studying Plato off and on for a while now. He was an interesting guy, with lots of ideas that had a lot to do with history. But it took an offhand comment of evilhistoryteacher’s (who, if I haven’t already told you, isn’t really evil and is actually my favorite teacher – that’s just what I call him online) about Augustus of Rome to make me realize the connections between one of Plato’s ideas and QT.
That idea is the Philosopher King. In his “The Republic”, Plato talks about (among many, many other things), his ideal system of government. It’s very complicated, and involves lots of testing (you think the SAT is bad), but the underlying idea is Sophocracy: rule by the wise.
But what makes a person wise? Plato would probably tell you about the myth of the cave, an extended metaphor for a philosopher’s role in society. Greatly simplified this is it (if you notice a strange similarity to The Matrix, that’s on purpose. The Matrix was strongly based on Plato’s ideas): It starts with prisoners chained in a cave, facing the wall. Behind them are a variety of puppets and a fire, which cast shadows on the cave wall. The prisoners, because they have seen nothing but these shadows, assume that the shadows are real. But then! One of the prisoners is unchained, and sees the puppets and fire and all of that. He goes out of the cave, and sees the grass and flowers; the real world. He is eventually able to look up and see the moon and stars, and last of all the sun.
Each of the objects in the myth of the cave has a counterpart in Plato’s idea of the world. The prisoners are the everyday men and women, about their daily business, giving false importance to the physical world. The shadows are the things we see around us (i.e. a chair, a cat, a mountain). The fire and puppets are personal beliefs and opinions, which cast a subjective light on what we see. The outside world is (believe it or not), math. Algebra, specifically – the abstract forms are objective, and to Plato, absolute truths. The celestial bodies are the basic ideas that make up life, and the sun the ultimate awesome: truth, beauty, and goodness.
Plato believed the purpose of a philosopher was to figuratively leave the cave and see the truth, then attempt to bring it back to the people inside the cave (some people were downright unable to leave – Plato was pessimistic in that way). In most cases the philosopher was unsuccessful, but it was his duty to try. Plato likened himself in his efforts to bring others to the truth to a gadfly, futilely biting a lazy horse to get it to move.
Should the philosopher refuse to share his knowledge, he is as unfit to be called philosopher as any of the poor saps stuck in the cave. This man would live a pleasant life, but a useless one.
“He would either have to throw away his life without doing any good either to himself or others, he holds his peace, and goes his own way. He is like one who, in the storm of dust and sleet with the driving wind hurries along, retires on the shelter of a wall; and seeing the rest of mankind full of wickedness, he is content, if only he can live his own life and be pure from evil and unrighteousness, and depart in peace and good-will, with bright hopes.”
So the duty of the true philosopher is to give up the joys of personal study and growth, and help the common people. Through his trials, he is worthy to rule, and wise enough to do so. Through the circumstances of his life, he has never been temped by wealth or personal power:
“The worthy disciples of philosophy will be but a small remnant: perchance some noble and well-educated person, detained by exile in her service, who in the absence of corrupting influences remains devoted to her; or some lofty soul born in a mean city the politics of which he contemns and neglects….”
It would not be the Philosopher King’s choice to rule – in fact, Plato says the best leader is the one who wishes to lead the least. That sounds familiar…
My suggestion is that QT is moving towards an age of Philosopher Kings. Rulers such as Eugenides and Sophos (he even has the name for it – in Latin, Soph is wisdom, in Archaic, Sophos [“sophos at ere” means wisdom and love – Attolia tells us the meaning of “ere” and “at” is so short it just has to be a conjunction]) are taking power. Both of them have gone through trials to become king (or, at least, Gen has – Sophos has to wait a few more weeks), and neither wants to rule. Both are well-educated, and Sophos has a special interest in philosophy, as I remember.
Thoughts?
Philosophy time!
My history class has been studying Plato off and on for a while now. He was an interesting guy, with lots of ideas that had a lot to do with history. But it took an offhand comment of evilhistoryteacher’s (who, if I haven’t already told you, isn’t really evil and is actually my favorite teacher – that’s just what I call him online) about Augustus of Rome to make me realize the connections between one of Plato’s ideas and QT.
That idea is the Philosopher King. In his “The Republic”, Plato talks about (among many, many other things), his ideal system of government. It’s very complicated, and involves lots of testing (you think the SAT is bad), but the underlying idea is Sophocracy: rule by the wise.
But what makes a person wise? Plato would probably tell you about the myth of the cave, an extended metaphor for a philosopher’s role in society. Greatly simplified this is it (if you notice a strange similarity to The Matrix, that’s on purpose. The Matrix was strongly based on Plato’s ideas): It starts with prisoners chained in a cave, facing the wall. Behind them are a variety of puppets and a fire, which cast shadows on the cave wall. The prisoners, because they have seen nothing but these shadows, assume that the shadows are real. But then! One of the prisoners is unchained, and sees the puppets and fire and all of that. He goes out of the cave, and sees the grass and flowers; the real world. He is eventually able to look up and see the moon and stars, and last of all the sun.
Each of the objects in the myth of the cave has a counterpart in Plato’s idea of the world. The prisoners are the everyday men and women, about their daily business, giving false importance to the physical world. The shadows are the things we see around us (i.e. a chair, a cat, a mountain). The fire and puppets are personal beliefs and opinions, which cast a subjective light on what we see. The outside world is (believe it or not), math. Algebra, specifically – the abstract forms are objective, and to Plato, absolute truths. The celestial bodies are the basic ideas that make up life, and the sun the ultimate awesome: truth, beauty, and goodness.
Plato believed the purpose of a philosopher was to figuratively leave the cave and see the truth, then attempt to bring it back to the people inside the cave (some people were downright unable to leave – Plato was pessimistic in that way). In most cases the philosopher was unsuccessful, but it was his duty to try. Plato likened himself in his efforts to bring others to the truth to a gadfly, futilely biting a lazy horse to get it to move.
Should the philosopher refuse to share his knowledge, he is as unfit to be called philosopher as any of the poor saps stuck in the cave. This man would live a pleasant life, but a useless one.
“He would either have to throw away his life without doing any good either to himself or others, he holds his peace, and goes his own way. He is like one who, in the storm of dust and sleet with the driving wind hurries along, retires on the shelter of a wall; and seeing the rest of mankind full of wickedness, he is content, if only he can live his own life and be pure from evil and unrighteousness, and depart in peace and good-will, with bright hopes.”
So the duty of the true philosopher is to give up the joys of personal study and growth, and help the common people. Through his trials, he is worthy to rule, and wise enough to do so. Through the circumstances of his life, he has never been temped by wealth or personal power:
“The worthy disciples of philosophy will be but a small remnant: perchance some noble and well-educated person, detained by exile in her service, who in the absence of corrupting influences remains devoted to her; or some lofty soul born in a mean city the politics of which he contemns and neglects….”
It would not be the Philosopher King’s choice to rule – in fact, Plato says the best leader is the one who wishes to lead the least. That sounds familiar…
My suggestion is that QT is moving towards an age of Philosopher Kings. Rulers such as Eugenides and Sophos (he even has the name for it – in Latin, Soph is wisdom, in Archaic, Sophos [“sophos at ere” means wisdom and love – Attolia tells us the meaning of “ere” and “at” is so short it just has to be a conjunction]) are taking power. Both of them have gone through trials to become king (or, at least, Gen has – Sophos has to wait a few more weeks), and neither wants to rule. Both are well-educated, and Sophos has a special interest in philosophy, as I remember.
Thoughts?
