Abstract:

Everyone knows that Plato opposed democracy, and that Aristotle to some extent inherited his teacher's stance. But it is not obvious why Plato thought democracy was problematic, and thus why and how Aristotle was influenced in the way that he was. I identify and analyze Plato's arguments against democracy in Republic , Gorgias , and Statesman and evaluate their force. Among the charges: democracies pursue the perceived self-interest of the majority at the expense of the public interest; the standards of majority-rule and selection by lot are not the right standards for political decisions; and democracies pursue the dominant end of liberty at the expense of the true end of politics, human flourishing. Further, democracies neglect political knowledge, as indicated in what I call the 'epistemic argument': the best city is ruled by political knowledge; most people don't and can't have such knowledge; therefore most people can't rule the best city. After outlining the Platonic critique of democracy in all of its aspects, I turn to Aristotle's reception of and response to it in his Politics . I conclude that Aristotle's thinking on democracy, although more nuanced and pragmatic than Plato's in many respects, is coherently and fundamentally antidemocratic.