Plato's 'Republic' on Democracy

"In her review of "Plato Goes to China" by Shadi Bartsch (Bookshelf, Feb. 27), Martha Bayles rightly defends Leo Strauss against the charge that the professor was an antidemocrat who would have favored the sort of government based on (ig)noble lies by totalitarian rulers such as in China. But she errs, as do the classicists she cites, by failing to distinguish between Plato's teaching in his dialogues, including "The Republic," and the views expressed by the usual protagonist of those dialogues, Socrates.

Far from viewing "The Republic" as a model for political life, Strauss portrayed it as a Socratic attempt to tame the extreme passions of two young, antidemocratic gentlemen, aiming partly to lead them beyond political ambition in the direction of philosophy for its own sake. Strauss stressed that despite Socrates' purposely exaggerated critique of democracy's lawlessness, Socrates indicates that democracy is also the only regime that, by virtue of its freedom, provides an environment in which philosophy may be pursued with relative safety -- as Socrates did in Athens for 70 years.

Apologists for tyranny hardly needed Strauss to show how a superficial reading of "The Republic" could be used to justify the denial of freedom. And far from justifying ideological-based tyranny, Strauss warns in the introduction to his 1964 book "The City and Man," in which he discusses "The Republic," that "the victory of Communism" would entail "the victory of the most extreme form of Eastern despotism."" [1]

“Socrates was killed by democracy. He was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and sentenced to death. Choosing not to flee, he spent his final days in the company of his friends before drinking the executioner's cup of poisonous hemlock. Aristotle also was forced to flee. No wonder Plato was not a fan of democracy. No safety for philosophy in democracy.”

1. Misreading Plato's 'Republic' on Democracy
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 07 Mar 2023: A.14.