In this chapter I return to a trio of topics that are prominent in the Republic and a number of other works of Plato. They are connected in ways that should interest philosophers and are not much found in other thinkers.

What is the connection between politics and art? Today many people think of it mainly in terms of funding mechanisms and their availability. In earlier eras those who managed the state took art more seriously than that; and the artists were more interested in the deep channels of thought and social activity that provided the context for their productions and performances. Art expressed the spirit of society, and society, especially its leaders, accorded appropriate value to the artists themselves. What is the connection between these two and the fate of our souls? As recently as Kant it was argued that the care of the soul in preparation for life after death was a proper concern of the state; and art has ventured where science cannot, into the territory of this future condition. Socratic concern for achieving the best knowledge of the nurture of our souls required Plato to put these topics firmly on his agenda.

POLITICS

As we have seen, the Republic examines not only the best state but also inferior adaptations of it. Plato's work here is the precursor of the examinations of empirical politics that Aristotle conducted. The world of Greek city states contained many power systems or “constitutions”; Aristotle described 157 of them, of which only the Constitution of the Athenians has survived. This empirical, entirely descriptive work also informed Aristotle’s more theoretical approach in the Politics, where he analysed and evaluated the varieties of constitution.