Plato’s Statesman
Plato’s Statesman – Horizons Course
What is a Statesman?
Who fulfils this role and what qualities do they possess?
What is their nature and what knowledge do they have?
In order to distinguish the qualities of the statesman and what his nature may be, Plato goes back the most fundamental forms of collective management, and he considers the division of types and skills.
Building understanding from these basic intuitions, he proceeds to find the ‘art of measurement’ and of ‘distinction’. Knowledge and understanding of this art endows an innate ability to discriminate kind from kind, and to encompass all in the unity of the whole.
This, he finds may be the fundamental characteristic of the statesman, and of political science and the true form of government, which he calls the kingly or royal science.
“When an individual truly possessing knowledge rules, his name will surely be the same (a Philosopher King/Statesman) – he will be called a king; and thus, the previously assumed five types of government, as they are now reckoned, become one”.
The other assumed forms of government were merely imitations (of the best), and in the one true science, imitation does not figure!
Join this study and begin to discover for yourself the innate quality of true individual self-government, and of collective government; become your own Statesman.
This is one of the courses in the Saturday Horizons series. New students are welcome: no previous knowledge is required.
About the Tutor
Brendan Crehan has been a student and member of the Philosophy Faculty at the School of Economic Science, London, for 39 years. The School seeks particularly to make traditional philosophy a practical means of living in the modern world today. It takes its inspiration from the great philosophers of the past, both eastern and western, and from modern sages and exponents of the Tradition.
Brendan has a keen interest in the Philosophy of Plato and teaches courses both to new students and to those with some experience of applied philosophy and Plato. He studies Plato with a like-minded group of philosophers and scholars seeking always to get to the heart of Platonic understanding.