The concept of freedom in Plato’s Republic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_19_2Keywords:
Freedom, positive freedom, negative freedom, democracy, moral psychologyAbstract
There is a broad scholarly consensus that Plato sup-ports a positive conception of freedom understood as rational self-mastery. According to this approach, individual freedom consists in having one’s rational desires govern the irrational and the determination of action according to rational desire. Similarly, a city is free when the rational part governs over the irrational and determines its social and political life. In this essay I argues that this conception does not fit with the treat-ment of freedom (eleutheria) found in the Republic. Although Plato uses the word in various senses, including that of rational self-mastery, I will argue that in the Republic freedom is defined as the capacity of citizens of a city to realize the desires that are characteristic of the class to which they belong. An individual or city is free if the different parts of which they are composed are able to satisfy their respective desires. The ideal city can be considered to be the one with the most freedom compared to other cities because it affords the greatest possibility to each class for the satisfaction of its characteristic desires. While this conception does not coincide with the liberal notion of negative freedom, it is less restrictive than the conception of freedom as rational self-mastery and more in line with the moral psy-chology found in the Republic, which recognizes the diversity of desires found both within the city and the individual.
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