Socrates Ethos Plato Analysis

Congratulations, the votes are in, the numbers have been tallied and you are your country’s next great leader. Everything about the state when you come into rule is in top shape, you don’t have any immediate problems to fix. Yet, in the coming months you are faced with national issues, you are able to handle some well, but others very poorly with terrible results. Soon, the whole country is starting to crumble, people haven’t given up on you yet, but the challenge may prove far too difficult for you to control. Within a few months your country is in complete anarchy with the law and with each other creating a civil war and having skirmishes with outside forces as well. The nation has gone to ruin, but why, what was it in you as a leader that causes it to turn out this way? More importantly, what could you have done better, and what is needed in a ruler to ensure that political and economic

In anyone who is controlling the fate of many lives you obviously want to find someone who is sound of mind, but it is also critical to find someone who excels in that same manner. This is further explained in the sense of the forms and that a king needs to look out for the well being of his country for the time being, considering his effects into the long term future. According to Ficino and Farndell in their work ”When Philosophers Rule” a ruler must “be endowed with divine qualities, make every effort to turn the whole focus of their mind from the earthly to the celestial, from the moving to the still, and from what is perceived through the senses to that which transcends the senses.” This is all connected to Socrates full image of a philosopher-king, but the idea that a ruler will look out for the betterment of his people in not only an economical and political fashion, but in their mental, emotional, and psychological needs as