Political Philosophy

Philosophy response – political philosophy
‘Are we good enough for democracy?’ presented by Jonathon Wolff, an interesting question that is asked with a passage containing an argument against democracy. But first we must define what democracy is, it is particular form of government as quoted by Abraham Lincoln ‘democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people’. Wolff believes that this is wrong, that we cannot leave everything up to the people to decide on state matters as stated in his conclusion that democracy is utterly irrational. He uses Plato’s analogy of the republic as an appeal to authority, which is clearly used as a supporting factor in wolfs argument against democracy.
There are differing premises continued in the argument as Wolff uses the analogy of health. Premise one discusses a person with a severe arm pain who then decides if you would either go to the doctor for assistance or go to the local supermarket to conduct a vote by the shoppers to either treat your arm with drugs or amputate. Which lead to Wolff to the minor conclusion of when I seek advice we ask an expert. Wolff’s second premise states that the public do not have the knowledge to make such decisions on a serious matter such as public health. He then goes on to say that if one did to put these matters into the hands of the public it would be considered ‘an act of madness’. This can be related back to Plato’s argument of the ‘drunken – pleasure cruise’ that the people simply cannot make informed decisions. Wolf then states his last premise that the health of the state is no less important than the health of the individuals contained within the state which then can be lead to his major and ultimate conclusion that democracy is utterly unsound and irrational.
Jonathon wolfs argument including premises and minor and major conclusions are cogent and form a reasonable argument, that coherently makes sense within wolfs own opinions. However the concept that the... [continues]

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