The Apology: The Antidemocratic Nature Of Democracy

Athens is known as the birthplace of modern democracy. It is within this context that some of the most renowned political thinkers engaged in prominent discourses regarding the nature of democracy. Counted among some of the city’s greatest thinkers Plato and Socrates, were often critical of the city’s defining contribution to humanity. They were even viewed by many as antidemocratic for their views that only qualified individuals should be allowed to lead the Athenian state. However, this interpretation misunderstands the democratic nature of the role that these qualified individuals would play in a democracy. Plato and Socrates in their critiques of the state of democracy are wholly democratic in their call for qualified individuals to lead the Athenian state. In The Gorgias, Plato, who is speaking as Socrates, argues that rhetoric, or speech
These concerns are addressed again in The Apology. First it is critical to recall that Plato, in the voice of Socrates, regards himself as the “physician of the State” and the “only Athenian living who practices the true art of politics” (Gorgias 521). So in The Apology when Socrates goes to the marketplace in search of answers, he surely sees himself practicing an art, and indeed sees himself as a philosopher. Plato writes, “those with the best reputations seemed to me nearly the most deficient, in my investigation in accordance with the god, while others with more paltry reputations seemed to be men more fit in regard to being prudent” (Apology 22a). Here Plato demonstrates exactly how he would expect a philosopher to behave, showing great deference to the common folk. In this sense Plato’s charge that philosophers should be the ones in charge can be seen as democratic because they are directly interacting with and accountable to the people of