Proposal Assignment Essays - Ancient Greek Philosophy, Philosophy

Proposal Assignment Plato's theory against democracy is explained in Richard D. Parry's, "The Craft of Ruling in Plato's Euthydemus and Republic." Plato's theory against democracy is based on "craft". Plato doesn't believe that the general public should matter in making decisions, he believes that no matter which craft we do, it is the opinion of the experts in such craft that matter. On the topic of democracy, politics is a craft therefore not everyone can be a leader, you need experience and certain traits that qualify you to be a successful leader. However, Plato's theory is that "an expert with the skill of ruling will not be elected because citizens tend to vote for the most popular candidate" (Class Notes). When he mentions the most popular candidate, he is referring to a candidate that has good personal skills, says what people want to hear, true knowledge of the economy, etc. Parry states in his article that "craft analogy implies that craft is an instrumental good, not good in itself. Since Soc rates holds that virtue is good in itself, his account of virtue - in this case wisdom - in terms of craft is inconsistent" (2). This is basically explaining that Socrates had his virtue is good and that he had good wisdom but that his performance in his craft was inconsistent. The source I used to explain craft analogy is credible because it is an academic journal that was written by an author who received his Ph.D. and is a professor who's teaching and scholarly interests included the history of ancient Greek philosophy, philosophy of Plato, philosophy of Aristotle, medieval philosophy, and contemporary analytic philosophy. It is relevant to my proposal because it explain Plato's craft of ruling in depth. To object to Plato's theory, Dr. Kazuya Fukuoka explains why democracy works in his article "What Makes Democracy Work?". This is a credible source because it is written by a professor who received his Ph.D. and teaches "Introduction to Comparative Politics" at Saint Joseph's University. This helps my proposal because it is explaining why Democracy works which goes against Plato's theory of "craft ruling". He explains that democracy "is a system of government implemented with the intent that no one branch or department of government can ever gain too much power. There are limitations of power placed on each part of the government, thus forcing each department to work together, ensuring that the best interest of the people is maintained". This goes against Plato because Plato wants experts to make decisions and not the best interest of the people. He also states that "Democracy is also institutionalized through the voting process. Democracies are denoted by having free and fair electi ons (Linz and Stepan 1996, 15). This means that the voting process is for the most part untainted. Those running for offices are to run clean campaigns. No one person should have a monopoly of the media during their campaign. Each person should have the same ability to get there name and beliefs out there for the public to know". This also helps me go against Plato because this is the complete opposite of what Plato believed in and despised the idea of everybody having the same ability of becoming a leader. This can help me write my paper because it gives me an idea of why democracy works. It educates me on the functionality of democracy and how it works. So when comparing this to Plato's idea to democracy, it is very useful. These ideas presented in this article are all facts and don't involve any opinion to them so it is a credible source to use.