I think there is a good deal to be said for the interpretation according to which many of the features of the “ideal” city Socrates describes in Republic are intended to work on the biases of Glaucon and Adeimantus (and those like them) and not intended to actually represent an ideal city. Admittedly, Laws does seem to be intended to describe how Plato thinks a city should be run, so it seems that Plato had some pretty terrible political ideas (at least at the end; Laws is his last work, and I prefer to think his mind was starting to go), but nonetheless it’s not at all safe to assume that all the questionable ideas raised by Socrates in Republic are seriously endorsed by Plato.
I completely agree that Brave New World seems unhelpful in evaluating utilitarianism.
it’s not at all safe to assume that all the questionable ideas raised by Socrates in Republic are seriously endorsed by Plato.
Which is I think the fundamental problem with this kind of political fiction. It allows people to present ideas and implications without committing to them or providing evidence (or alternately, making it clear that this is an opposing view that they are not endorsing). But then at a later stage they go on to treat the things that happened in their fiction as things they’d proven.
I think there is a good deal to be said for the interpretation according to which many of the features of the “ideal” city Socrates describes in Republic are intended to work on the biases of Glaucon and Adeimantus (and those like them) and not intended to actually represent an ideal city. Admittedly, Laws does seem to be intended to describe how Plato thinks a city should be run, so it seems that Plato had some pretty terrible political ideas (at least at the end; Laws is his last work, and I prefer to think his mind was starting to go), but nonetheless it’s not at all safe to assume that all the questionable ideas raised by Socrates in Republic are seriously endorsed by Plato.
I completely agree that Brave New World seems unhelpful in evaluating utilitarianism.
Which is I think the fundamental problem with this kind of political fiction. It allows people to present ideas and implications without committing to them or providing evidence (or alternately, making it clear that this is an opposing view that they are not endorsing). But then at a later stage they go on to treat the things that happened in their fiction as things they’d proven.