What if some Ancient Greek city actually managed to implement the reforms Plato laid out in his Republic? How well would it do, and how long would it last?
WI: Plato's Republic actually set up?
- Thread starter Fabius Maximus
- Start date
Like any other 'ideal' form of government, this theoretical platonic republic would almost certainly end up failing to deliver on its promise of utopia. I'd have to go reread my copy to give you more detailed analysis of the specific ways it will fail.
Didn't Plato basically coach and assist Dion to take over in Syracuse basically as an experiment on how his system would work?
Approximately a week, being optimistic.
There are modern commentators that read the Republic as somewhat of a cautionary tale, never meant to be implemented. In the dialogue itself, Socrates comes close to say that much (whitout actually getting there).
However, if something like that is put into practice in a Greek polis of the time, it is almost guaranteed to fail miserably, very quickly, and probably very bloodily.
Not really.
The Iranian Republic, as far as I can tell, finds any sort of eugenics abhorrent, and certainly does not pursue anything like that as official policy. Just to mark one of the most significant among the many very big differences between the two.
It's unclear AFAIK. Plato did try to implement some of his political ideals in Sicily, indeed in connection with a Syracusan ruler.
However, most scholars think that the Republic, in the form we have it, was composed after these attempts (almost certainly after the first one). The dialogue, if taken at face value, might reflect a reconsideration by Plato after the failed Sicilian experiments.
Some scholars however think that, even if the final composition is probably later, many core ideas in it reflect what Plato thought about the ideal polity from a relatively early period, so that the Sicilian episodes might actually have involved a notional attempt to put something close the outline of the Republic into practice. If it is the case, it did not work.
It is even questionable that it was envisioned like a utopia at the time, although certainly it was read as such later.
Plato does discuss the "how to" part very cursorily, but his suggestions on the topic are very radical, involving for example the complete removal of the adult population from the city to raise the children as the citizens under the "utopian" systems. This is something that is almost guaranteed to be resisted to the bitter end by any group of Hellenic citizens.
I know this doesn't help as a literal example, but the Tao from 40k are partly based on 40k. Their head of government is even called (or at least was when I was last up to date on the lore) the Philosopher King.
Whilst it IS a sci-fi society, it is still a fairly credible one. Just imagine an extensive caste system where people are brought up to the extremes of their caste (i.e. the warrior caste resembling spartans) ruled by a philosopher class at the top.
I cant think of any POD that could create that though... I mean beyond feudalism Europe has never really been into full on caste systems.
Whilst it IS a sci-fi society, it is still a fairly credible one. Just imagine an extensive caste system where people are brought up to the extremes of their caste (i.e. the warrior caste resembling spartans) ruled by a philosopher class at the top.
I cant think of any POD that could create that though... I mean beyond feudalism Europe has never really been into full on caste systems.