Marcus Aurelius: philosopher king

[Peter1469]

Plato said, "There will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed of humanity itself, until philosophers become kings in this world, or until those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers."

It is really the concept of the benevolent despot. It can work with one ruler, but you are playing craps with his off-spring.


Unfortunately, written ancient material on Marcus Aurelius is scattered among several sources or of dubious quality. Much like the history of his immediate predecessors, the history of Cassius Dio for this period is very fragmentary. The account in the Historia Augusta is extant but long debated for its accuracy and even the origin of its authorship. Later writings of Christian authors Tertullian, Eusebius and Orosius do provide additional and important information (though perhaps biased from a perspective of Christian persecution and martyrdom) along with the correspondence of Marcus' teacher Fronto. Of course, the emperor's own work "Meditations" provides intricate detail into the philosophy of the man but is less useful as a history of events.

[Green Arrow]

Marcus Aurelius leads me to accept that Plato may have been right.

[Germanicus]

Plato said, "There will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed of humanity itself, until philosophers become kings in this world, or until those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers."

It is really the concept of the benevolent despot. It can work with one ruler, but you are playing craps with his off-spring.

God knows I dont have time to know everything. I have been meaning to read in detail about this Philosopher King stuff since I came across that school that pumped them out.

Plato ran it right?

edit- like wasnt he training guys to be rulers. And sending them out to rule or something?

Hitler was a bit of a Philosopher King hey.


Hitler - Philosopher King


“you can easily understand how that within a few years Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived. He had in him the stuff of which legends are made.” - J.F Kennedy, 35th President of the United States






http://hitlerphilosophy.blogspot.com.au/

HA! Go JFK!

edit- some people rule. Like me. Some people never will. No matter how they are trained. You are born to rule. Or not. In my opinion. And I fucking rule. (:

edit- A time will come when I reach out to the heavens. I will make them an offer. I will offer the loyalty of western masses to one God.

Just a heads up to the Gods. You guys work out which God is to rule for the next thousand years and let me know? Ok? (:

[Max Rockatansky]

Marcus Aurelius leads me to accept that Plato may have been right.

Plato was right, but he was also a man of his times when Kings were common. We have better systems now, but those systems require assets and resources unavailable in a society at Plato's technological level.

As Peter pointed out, a benevolent dictator can be good, but when Junior grows up and takes over, there are no guarantees the niceness will continue. That's why we need rights, a Constitution or some other system to protect the citizenry from tyranny.

[Peter1469]

Plato was right, but he was also a man of his times when Kings were common. We have better systems now, but those systems require assets and resources unavailable in a society at Plato's technological level.

As Peter pointed out, a benevolent dictator can be good, but when Junior grows up and takes over, there are no guarantees the niceness will continue. That's why we need rights, a Constitution or some other system to protect the citizenry from tyranny.

Right. What if junior is a dolt like Ransom? He would piss away the country for some useless foreign adventure.

[Max Rockatansky]

Right. What if junior is a dolt like Ransom? He would piss away the country for some useless foreign adventure.

Exactly my point. If not Junior then "the Third" or some other descendant. At some point even the most benign dictatorship falls to human nature. In this case, "power corrupts". Without some form of restraint, a dictator will dictate to his/her own whim. We saw it with the Romans after Caesar turned it from a Republic into a dictatorship. We saw it in 1930s Germany.

The only way a "good" government remains good is for it to have checks and balances to keep it from being diverted off course. A dictatorship has no such checks and balances.