Plato (c. 428–348 BCE)
Athenian philosopher; student of Socrates; founder of the Academy; author of the dialogues; the deepest ancient source for the American New Right’s anti-democratic political theory, transmitted primarily through Leo Strauss’s readings and Costin Alamariu’s inversion
Who He Is
Plato is the philosopher whose work underlies virtually every strand of New Right political theory, whether the connection is acknowledged or not. His political philosophy — developed primarily in the Republic, Laws, Statesman, and Meno — provides the foundational arguments against democracy, for natural hierarchy, and for the philosopher’s claim to political authority that the New Right recycles in secularized form.
The New Right does not primarily read Plato directly. It reads him through:
- Leo Strauss, who made the Republic the center of modern political philosophy and argued it contains both an esoteric (philosopher’s) and exoteric (civic) teaching
- Allan Bloom, whose The Closing of the American Mind translates Republic Books VIII-IX into a critique of American higher education
- Costin Alamariu (BAP), whose Yale dissertation (“The Problem of Tyranny and Philosophy in the Thought of Plato and Nietzsche”) inverts the Straussian reading to valorize the tyrannical-erotic soul over the philosophic one
Key Political Arguments (from the Republic)
- Justice as natural hierarchy: Each class doing its proper work; meddling = injustice (Republic IV)
- Knowledge vs. opinion: The many opine; the few know; democratic elections measure doxa, not truth (Republic V-VI)
- The philosopher-king: “Until philosophers rule as kings, cities will have no rest from evils” (Republic V, 473c-d)
- The Cave: The philosopher escapes illusion; the demos see only shadows; the liberator is mocked or killed (Republic VII, 514a-520a)
- Democratic degeneration → tyranny: Freedom taken to excess destroys itself; “extreme freedom leads to extreme slavery” (Republic VIII, 564a)
- The Noble Lie: Political communities require founding myths about natural hierarchy (Republic III, 414b-415d)
- Divine reason imposed from without: Law is external reason for those who cannot rule themselves (Republic IX, 590d)
Cross-References
- Republic — the central political dialogue; full treatment of all key arguments
- Leo Strauss — the decisive New Right mediator of Plato
- Esotericism — Straussian reading method developed on Platonic texts
- Costin Alamariu — BAP’s Yale dissertation on Plato and Nietzsche; inverted reading
- Allan Bloom — The Closing of the American Mind as Platonic cultural critique
- West Coast Straussianism — the tradition that activates Platonic political philosophy for American conservatism
- Common Good Constitutionalism — Vermeule’s legal theory built on “divine reason imposed from without”
- Decisionism — Schmitt’s secularization of Platonic friend/enemy structure