Plato
Lecture 10 of Western Heritage: Socrates on Ethics and Plato on Democracy.
Stormfields
Christian Humanism in a Post-Modern World
Socratic Ethics and Platonic Democracy
Plato
Lecture 10 of Western Heritage: Socrates on Ethics and Plato on Democracy.
Stormfields 
As one of your students mentioned in the discussion about Plato giving the worst possible examples of democracy, I was reminded of your last lecture when you mentioned how philosophy functions similarly to pre-modern art. When those exaggerations in thinking and exemplification are presented, it serves to draw attention to the truth of matters or to shed greater light. That aspect of the discussion helped to flesh out your meaning when you talked about philosophy and its desire to approach the True, Good, and Beautiful in much the same way as art.
As one of your students mentioned in the discussion, she noted that Plato gave the worst possible way in which democracy can end. I was reminded of your last lecture when you mentioned how philosophy functions similarly to pre-modern art. In these, good and evil often are exaggerated to shed greater light and to try to approach the truth of things. That aspect of the discussion helped to flesh out your meaning when you talked about philosophy and its desire to approach the True, Good, and Beautiful in much the same way as art. Plus, I think Plato’s use of “the worst” operates as following the logical conclusion. And his use of the worst also represents his own thinking and your discussion about the fact that democracy only brings out the worst in us.