The Evil that Always Returns: Decline and Illness of History in Books VIII and IX of Plato’s Republic
Keywords:
Plato, Republic, philosophy of history, utopia, decline, political evils, irrationality, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, tyrannyAbstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze the main aspects of the interpretation of history offered in Books VIII and IX of the Republic. According to the history of evil presented there, the political utopia previously proposed in the dialogue irremediably degenerates into a series of political regimes—timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny—which successively deteriorate until reaching the highest degree of irrationality and political evil. This ideal of political unity—that is, justice, equality, and concord—guides the construction of a theoretical philosophy of history that plays an important role in the overall purpose of the Republic.
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