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A quote about philosophers and political power

2 points by barce ↗ HN
“The human race will have no respite from evils until those who are really philosophers acquire political power or until, through some divine dispensation, those who rule and have political authority in the cities become real philosophers” (Republic, Plato, 326a-326b).

3 comments

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AnimalMuppet
Lenin and Stalin are what you get when you take Hegel's philosophy, filter it through Marx, and have a leader believe the result.

That is: Spare us philosophers with political power, or at least those who believe such appallingly misguided philosophies.

meteteme
AnimalMuppet, I was going to respond. But then it doesn't matter since you're an idiot
sweet456
From HN's approach to comments:

"The most important principle on HN, though, is to make thoughtful comments. Thoughtful in both senses: both civil and substantial.

The test for substance is a lot like it is for links. Does your comment teach us anything? There are two ways to do that: by pointing out some consideration that hadn't previously been mentioned, and by giving more information about the topic, perhaps from personal experience."

"What we especially discourage are comments that are empty and negative—comments that are mere name-calling."

Might you consider elaborating?