A Mendacious Beginning

I’m told that Plato, in his role as an instructor of youth, occasionally had his pupils engage in mock debates. He would dream up a controversial subject and assign his pupils the task of defending first one side of the argument then the other. The philosopher was not at all pleased that one of his pupils, the irrepressible Alcibiades, would win every time, no matter which side he was called upon to defend. Plato’s dismay was amplified by the fact that Alcibiades was not winning because he used the most convincing argument, but rather because of his personal attractiveness. The boy had charm. Plato thought to himself that somewhere there must be a form of logic or a body of truth so impregnable that not even Alcibiades could win if that line were used against him.

Plato tried to define such a device but all he came up with was his so-called theory of forms. Even though he regarded the theory as the truth, he recognized right off that it was not the sort of truth that would make believers of those who heard it. Alcibiades would still win because his charisma was more easily seen, and thus more persuasive than the theory of forms.

So, when Plato sat down to write The Republic he gave in to the “Alcibiades effect.” In his perfect government he concentrated the knowledge of the forms (and other truths) in a small body of philosopher-kings. Using their knowledge of the truth, the philosopher-kings would privately frame the direction they intended the state to take. But knowing that the common people would never be able to grasp the reasoning behind the right course of action, Plato decided that the kings would not reveal their reasoning to the people, perhaps not even a general outline of the plans for the people’s future. Instead, the philosopher-kings would rule by charm and rhetoric, much as Alcibiades had done in winning the debates. Plato’s openness about the deceitfulness of the kings is perhaps the reason The Republic has never been visibly implemented by any nation, city, or state.

[Disclaimer: This story is certainly apocryphal, since it is virtually impossible that Alcibiades could have been Plato's pupil.]