Among themselves, the three great thinkers of ancient Greece espoused different ideas about forms of government, as well as the relative importance of empiricism versus epistemology.
In this cradle of democracy, it comes as something of a surprise that the three philosophers espoused every form of government but the pluralistic republican type Americans are so enamored of. It appears that Socrates believed in an intellectual aristocracy, where those who had more education and had proven themselves in sophistry – the “Socratic method” of exchange and analysis of ideas – as a path to all knowledge were elevated to the elite. The presumption, of course, is that only one’s intellectual betters know what is good for society at large.
As a pupil of Socrates, Plato logically enough believed that an intellectual aristocracy with absolute political power was ideal. In addition, however, he argued for achieving harmony by assigning citizens into two classes inferior to the aristocracy. He valued a middle class of soldiers for their discipline, martial spirit and will. To the bottom rung he assigned all others who needed their ethics and baser appetites controlled: farmers, craftsmen, merchants, etc.
For his part, Aristotle argued for a “polity” where power resided in a robust middle class better able to consider the welfare of the citizenry than a monarchy, oligarchy or mass-based democracy could. Since the Athenian middle class of the time was too puny to be influential, Aristotle developed the companion idea of government lending assistance to the economically disadvantaged so they could be self-sufficient and the middle class would grow in size and influence.
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NOTE: If a reference has more than three authors, give the first author’s name and “et al.” Example: Jones, Bob, et al.
Mehta, Pratap Bhanu. “Exploding Myths.” New Republic, 1998: 17-19.
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