25th Apr 2018 3:30pm-5:00pm
Edward Street, 103
My lecture will address the so-called “three waves” depicted by Plato in his Republic. The three waves, as the name ‘wave’ suggests, point to a radical renewal of the political system of Athens in the fourth century BCE. In order to establish a ‘right’ politics, citizens must organize themselves on the base of these waves or principles: 1st: same education for men and women; 2nd: community of the property, that means the abolition of the private property for the ruling class; 3rd: the philosophers-kings, that is the government of the city assigned to philosophers. I will discuss the strengths, as well as the weaknesses, of the political program of Plato. Despite I will point out the risks that such a governmental policy could lead to, especially as regards the criteria by which the society is divided – that resorts to the eugenics –, I will try to show that the revolutionary intentions of Plato are really distant from the National Socialism that some thinkers have seen in his political project; Karl Popper, for example. Particular attention will be given to the 'first wave’, whose argument takes into account the role of women and that exhibits an impressive and trailblazing viewpoint for what concerns human agency.
