Resumen
Resumen de El político
Para quién es
For readers who love watching an argument take shape, and anyone curious about expertise, law and who should rule.
De qué trata este libro
Statesman is a dialogue by Plato, written in the fourth century BC, in the years of his mature work in Athens. It follows the Sophist and carries on the same conversation. Socrates is present but mostly silent. The talking is led by a visitor from the Italian city of Elea, whom the dialogue calls the Eleatic Stranger. His partner is a young mathematician who shares a name with Socrates. The question is plain and still sharp: what is the knowledge that a true ruler would need, and who has it?
Plato does not answer in a straight line. He tests a method of sorting things into kinds, tells a strange myth about a world that runs backward, uses weaving as a model, and weighs written law against the judgment of a wise person. Along the way he sorts the forms of government and asks why we obey rules at all. You will hear the main steps in order, with the reasoning behind each. The first step is the method itself, because Plato wants you to see how a definition is built before he shows you what it builds.
En este resumen
- 1A ruler's skill is a kind of knowledgeFree
- 2Good division cuts along real joints
- 3No divine shepherd rules us now
- 4Weaving is the model for the ruler
- 5Law is second best to wise judgment
- 6The statesman weaves opposed natures together
Idea clave 1 de 6
A ruler's skill is a kind of knowledge
The dialogue opens with a plan. Having tried to define the sophist, the speakers now want to define the statesman, and later the philosopher. The old mathematician Theodorus hands the young Socrates over to the Stranger, and the Stranger asks him to answer questions as they go.
The first move is bold. The Stranger says that a king, a statesman and a household master share one kind of knowledge. All of them know how to direct others, and the size of the group is not the point. A large household is a small city, and a small city is a large household. So the skill of ruling is a form of knowledge, and not merely a matter of power or birth.
Next the Stranger sorts knowledge into two sorts. One sort is purely about knowing, like arithmetic. The other sort is about making or doing things. The ruler's knowledge belongs to the first sort, since it judges and commands, and it does not make objects with its hands. Then he divides again, between judging a thing and ordering it done. The ruler is one who commands.
The claim underneath it matters. If ruling is a real kind of knowledge, then it can be done well or badly, and some people can know it better than others. Plato wants his reader to carry that idea through the rest of the dialogue, because every later question about law and politics depends on it.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Who’s who
- Eleatic Stranger
- A visitor from Elea, he leads young Socrates through the inquiry into the knowledge required of a ruler.
- young Socrates
- A young mathematician sharing Socrates' name, he answers the Eleatic Stranger's questions about ruling and classification.
- Socrates
- The philosopher is present among the speakers but leaves the main discussion to the Stranger and his young namesake.
- Theodorus
- An established mathematician, he introduces young Socrates as the Eleatic Stranger's partner for the discussion.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 40,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 2 h 40 min
- Listening time4 h 30 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 10 other languages