A talk with Plato

'You can be Either Platonic or anti Platonic , you just cannot be non-Platonic . This statement comes up from one of the greatest critique of Plato, Karl Popper who in his criticism went to the extent of describing Plato as an enemy of open society. The latter part of the statement says,  you might end up having years of dialectics with Plato and his vision but ignoring his ideas is not just possible. From his ideas like Philosopher King , to communism of Wives and properties , we end up finding many reasons to believe the sanctity of the words he has written .  

In all the idealism and utopia Plato makes in his theory , imagine Plato coming in this present day world like Hitler comes in the Netflix series 'Look who is back'. The shock Hitler gets when he comes to know that German territory was given to Poland after his country's defeat , the pain Plato will get won't be less than Hitler when he will see the world getting governed by sophistic principles of Might is Right , of power being superior to ethics , harming someone becoming a principle of Justice , to counter all of which Plato wrote numerous texts and became the father of Political Philosophy , a reference point for the political theorists to write their theories. 

Perhaps this amusation from Plato takes me to the imagination of being one of the characters of Plato's dialogue . Given that Plato became a reference point for political theorists to come after , to sit with Plato in a modern day cafe alongside imported furniture and order sweet sounding dishes could result into my situation being even more worse than the late mughals treasure . Therefore calling him in a park with a famous Chinese Momos plate is all I can offer. To ask him whether he is a fascist , or a communist , or the first feminist won't take the time a fancy scripted television interview takes , nowadays . 

To talk to Plato can be interesting for many reasons . It will be interesting to know a person who wrote all his theories just to find the reason of his motherland's Athens defeat against Sparta in the famous Peloponnesian War . There have been been numerous wars after Plato and his times , history won't be able to state one person who took such an approach of knowing the reason of ones defeat like Plato did . 

Plato found that the sophistic tradition of education had made people run after money and power as true happiness . Therefore , Plato wrote his theory of knowledge to describe ethics and reason as knowledge and a source of true happiness. He opined that the sophistic idea of money and power as true source of happiness had made people corrupt mentally . It brought into them ignorance . This ignorance made them blind and distracted them not to follow the dialectic way of reason as a way to find the eternal answer of any widest possible question . Plato through his 'Allegory of cave' theory tries to firmly establish the sanctity of idea and it's influnce in one's life . He compares the Sun's light to Socrates and termes the shadow emitting light of bonfire as the Light of Illusion that engulfs within it ignorance and thereby restrict human minds in the chains of Ignorance. He says the only difference is that of idea . Only when all the people of the cave come in contact with the true light , the Sun , they come to know that the shadow of the bird just gave an illusion of how birds actually are , how they looked. Therefore he proposes Socratic values as a way to remove the ignorance and thereby reach to the reality of an idea , idea that passes through the dialectic way of reason and not appetite. 

Plato has a distinctive way of writing . He used to question the characters on several ideas and then put his theories in the questions he asked to them on what they believed. My situation taking to Plato won't be worse than Thrasymachus , Glaucon who would never convince Plato with their ideas . 

But to counter which , I have with me people like Sabine or Popper who destroyed all that Plato spoke to the world through his dialogues .

To tell about modern day principles of justice to a Man who wrote the classical political science bible Republic with the subtitle 'Concerning justice ' will be a difficult task  . Plato would request me to provide him Hemlock the poison which killed his tutor when he will come to know the prevalent individualist conception of harming someone to serve self interests also as justice.  All his theories of ideal state, his theory of idea , his idea of soul as divine , would go waste .

Plato can be proudly regarded as a person who talked about women education in his theory of communism of wives and properties. He believed that people irrespective of gender should be given power to develop in them critical reasoning so that ignorance can never strive over them. To talk about feminine values in the times so old is worth applaudable . When he wrote about feminine rights, French revolution and it's idea of bourgeois modern values were not even there . If we see Classical Political Philosophy, It is Mill in the 18th century who talked about subjugation of women after Plato. Within all these years , even the dialectical subject of Political science failed to create a discourse that would help women.

 With all these praises,  if we evaluate Plato , there is a lot to question him on. In the times where the claim of rising fascist tendencies is being popularised, Plato's theory also shows sign of totalitarian attitude. The way he uses history to prove his theories, his myth of racial superiority, his idea of obeying state over individual liberty,  giving no rights and asking for all duties , puts him as an enemy of open society by Popper. His theory of class segregates people as men of gold, copper and silver and thereby takes from an individual, his basic liberties. The type of state Plato wants to create by concentrating all the powers in a single person 'Philosopher King'  looks extremely dangerous. The idea of Philosopher king can be criticised for many other reason. Plato literally ended the Socratic way of dialectics by giving a Philosopher, the power to rule. By virtue of the philosopher becoming one after following a long 50 year examination looks to utopic to believe at the very first sight. The type of assumption he makes is no less than the assumption of democracy to provide just rulers by virtue of it being an elected system. The wise man Plato tries to find in his Philosopher King, is not as wise as his 'Wisest Man' - Socrates . The impact of a Philosopher having with him the sole power shows how Plato ignored the concept of 'Dynamics of Power' , the effect of which can be even more catastrophic for his motherland Athens than its defeat with the hands of Sparta. Even though separation of power failed to govern the society , the possible fear of a person having the soul power is much more than a failed separated , organs of government . 

Taking the side of Levinson, I believe, however Plato's idea do show possible threats of authoritarian and totalitarian fears but comparing Plato to modern fascist tendencies will be like comparing the uncomparable. Every philosopher is a child of his time hence Plato's ideas show this in all prospects, the effects of Athenian defeat in the war . With all this said and done , Speaking less , listening more and taking small steps , I would ask Plato to drop me till my hostel gate.