What is the political art in Plato's philosophy? - Consideration on the method of leading citizens in the community

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26885095
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Politics
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Oki Mai (須賀麻衣) 早稲田大学, 政治経済学術院, 助手 (40732714)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-08-29 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 政治思想史 / 政治哲学 / 西洋古典学 / プラトン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research project, I addressed the question what “politics” or “political art” for Plato is and what kind of “politics” he sees as the ideal one. As the achievement of this project, I reached the following point. The politics which Plato envisages consists of two elements. One element is the education. Plato tries to educate the citizens’ emotions concerning pleasure and suffer, using musical elements, namely rhythm and harmony, and words (especially story and myth). The other element of the politics is the persuasion. He attempts to persuade the citizens to live justly. The goal of the politics is that each one in the political community is able to live in a good life.

Free Research Field

政治学