Platoński ideał polityczny - niebezpieczna utopia czy wzniosły mit?

Abstract

All Plato’s works mark the stages in his political search and provide a beautiful description of the deep underlying purposefulness of educating citizens in arete. They combine love for music, mathematics, astronomy, athletics, and dialectics with the theological perspective affecting the concepts of authority and law. One can discern in Plato’s works an evolution of his views towards theology, leading him to the conclusion that God, perceived as the transcendent Idea of the Good, is the centre of everything and guarantor of a just political vision. The cosmos becomes a theological system and God becomes the “teacher of the entire world” Theology becomes the ultimate perception, the ultimate dialectics. The king is like a priest relaying to people what he has himself discovered by contemplating ideas. Plato’s ideal political system is characterised by theocratic dogmatism. Politics is the perception of ideas whose highest level consists in interacting with God. Perception of the original reason for everything, which is also the causative reason of everything good in the world, is the foundation and the objective of authority. The rule of God becomes more perfect when man - the entity who is, after all, a conscious being - supplements God’s logos. To Plato, this knowledge is not innate, but rather an act of mystical perception. The philosopher-politician becomes the founder of “God’s kingdom on Earth”, leads the society through political chaos, and organises its life on sound and reasonable grounds. Such life can only be achieved through perception of the eternal, divine rights governing the nature of the universe and the nature of man. He, who saw and understood God’s order, should teach people and have access to the authority. His leadership becomes justified before the society through transcendental perception. Therefore, one can conclude that the political concept contained in Plato’s works is theocratic in nature. Perception of the Idea of the Good (Only) by the philosopher-king gives him the unalienable right to manage the state and apply even the most rigid rules to individuals for the good of the entire society. On the one hand, the philosopher-politician dominated over the polis and did not need it. On the other hand, in Plato’s eyes he was the only one who could control the affairs of the state because his knowledge - constantly seeking confrontation with everyday life involved more than mere theoretical contemplation.