more from Plato

Single Idea 4115

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / f. Übermensch]

Full Idea

For Plato, the problem of making the ethical into a force was the problem of making society embody rational justification, and that problem could only have an authoritarian solution.

Gist of Idea

Plato found that he could only enforce rational moral justification by creating an authoritarian society

Source

comment on Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE]) by Bernard Williams - Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy Ch. 2

Book Reference

Williams,Bernard: 'Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy' [Fontana 1985], p.27


A Reaction

Plato's citizens were largely illiterate. We can be more carrot and less stick.