"Almost all accounts of the history of political thinking begin with Plato. This is a paradox, because Plato’s political thought is Antipolitical. Readers of his Republic see that in the polis of Plato’s imagination, there is no politics, and are puzzled; but throughout European history there has been a current of thought that seeks the resolution of the conflicts that “ordinary politics” resolves in the creation of a such a degree of social harmony that the conflicts which everyday politics resolves have simply disappeared, and politics with them."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Alan Ryan, On Politics: A History of Political Thought: From Herodotus to the Present (2012), Ch. 2 : Plato and Antipolitics
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Republic_(Plato)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Republic (Plato)
87 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Republic (Plato) →
Related Quotes
"Once I was with the poet Sophocles when someone asked: 'How's your sex life, Sophocles? Are you still able to enjoy a…"
"So, Socrates, the cause of a person's attitude toward these desires is also the cause of his family's attitude toward…"
"If Polemarchus and I are making a mistake in our investigation it isn't intentional. If we were searching for gold, y…"
"Well, even you must know that cities are governed either as tyrannies, democracies, or aristocracies. Of course, I sa…"
"But tell me, this physician of whom you were just speaking, is he a moneymaker, an earner of fees, or a healer of the…"
"When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income."
"Tyranny is not a matter of minor theft and violence, but of wholesale plunder, sacred and profane, private or public.…"
"Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be the victims of it, and not because they shrink from committing it."
"τῆς δὲ ζημίας μεγίστη τὸ ὑπὸ πονηροτέρου ἄρχεσθαι, ἐὰν μὴ αὐτὸς ἐθέλῃ ἄρχειν"
"A few of us old fellows get together now and then, like regular birds of a feather. Most of us sit and cry about the …"