Plato On Political Obligation

Abstract

Whitehead's description of philosophy suggests that an appropriate preface to further inquiry is an understanding of the Platonic teaching. The continuing controversy over that teaching totalitarian or democratic? testifies to Plato's relevance to contemporary problems.2 Therefore this essay is devoted to an analysis of Plato's political philosophy as it bears on the problem of obligation. It will be helpful if two questions are distinguished: can dissent be justified? and, can disobedience of the law be justified? They are related questions, but they are not the same question. They are related in Plato in a concrete way Socrates disobeys the Athenian laws (or is accused of disobeying them) by dissenting. They are also related in some Platonic texts in an abstract way the arguments he uses to deny justification for dissent are used to deny justification for acts of disobedience of the law. Nevertheless, the democrat needs to distinguish the two questions lest he reject the whole of Plato's theory of obligation because that theory justifies punishment for the expression of dissent. The democrat, of course, must reject a denial of freedom of speech. This essay assumes that, whatever Plato's conclusions, Platonic premises, stated and suppressed, may suggest a more satisfactory approach to the problem of political obligation. There are two clearly distinguishable doctrines concerning freedom of speech in the Platonic texts. One is found in the Apology, the other in the Republic, the Statesman, and the Laws. In the Apology, Socrates anticipates the argument of Mill's On Liberty. He asserts that there is an individual and a social interest in freedom of speech. First, it is a condition for the ethical self-development of the individual. Some men, and Socrates makes himself the example, find it necessary to question conventional wisdom if life is to be worth living. One cannot care for one's soul without questioning. Secondly, it is a condition for the acquisition of truth by a society. Unless some gadfly impels others to question what they accept