John Wild

The most serious charge against Plato from a modern point
of view is that he is an enemy of democracy. This term is now used
in many ambiguous ways to cover a wide variety of meanings. Hence,
the refutation of such a charge is difficult, involving as it must, an
analysis of the meaning of the term democracy as now employed.
Those who accuse Plato of being antidemocratic seldom present such
an analysis. They begin by referring to passages in which Plato criti-
cizes certain political phenomena of late fifth- and early fourth-cen-
tury Athens under the name democracy. They then usually infer that
Plato was an enemy of his own home city, the Athenian Democracy,
as we call it, and finally conclude that he is a universal enemy of all
democracy, including the great democratic ideal of modern times.
Let us now examine these charges. Is it reasonable to believe that
Plato was an enemy of his own home city? Is his political philosophy
opposed to the modern ideal of democracy?

That Plato was opposed to early Greek democracy, especially
as he experienced it at Athens in the last years of the great war, and

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