Statesman

Continuing the conversation of the Sophist, the stranger from Elea and a young man also named Socrates try to define the true statesman. Along the way they tell a great myth of a cosmos that turns first one way and then the other, with a golden age under the gods, and compare the ruler to a shepherd, a doctor and a weaver who weaves the brave and the gentle temperaments of citizens into one cloth. The best ruler, they argue, would be a wise man above the law; failing him, law must rule.

Written in Plato's later years, the dialogue stands between the idealism of the Republic and the practical Laws. Benjamin Jowett made the translation used here. Readers who enjoy it often go on to Sophist.

Plato (c. 428–348 BC) was born into an aristocratic family in Athens and became the devoted student of Socrates. After his teacher's trial and execution in 399 BC, he travelled, returned to Athens and founded the Academy, a school that lasted for centuries and counted Aristotle among its students.

Almost all his writings are dialogues in which Socrates questions his fellow citizens about justice, love, knowledge and the soul, from the Apology to the Symposium and the Republic. Known to Arab philosophers as Aflatun, he was read closely by al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd, and Western philosophy has been called a series of footnotes to him.