Philosopher King/queen In Plato’s Republic

Philosopher king/queen in Plato’s Republic.

One of the most important philosophical question in not only Classical period of philosophy, but also in contemporary times, is about ruling and leading the masses. It is an important question to think about because the elected leader should distinguish oneself in a variety of features and virtues. One of the most famous Greek philosopher Plato in his work “Republic” pays a lot of attention to this question and states the idea, that the ones who rule should be so-called “Philosopher-kings”. In this essay, I will try to analyse how those kings are defined and will analyse some historical examples of them.

After proposing the design of an ideal city as a model for how to order the individual soul in Book IV, Plato turns to identify who should be the king of this city. And the answer is quite intuitive – philosopher.