On Tue, 19 May 2009 21:02:47 -0500, Tom Veatch wrote:

On Tue, 19 May 2009 19:04:23 -0500, Tim Daneliuk
wrote:

As is the general population at-large...


I wonder if a graduate thesis could be made out of research project to
determine whether the political process concentrates the incidence of
"greedy selfish ****ers" in that portion of the population know as
"politicians". IOW, is the percentage of "greedy selfish ****ers"
greater in the subset of the population who seek public office than it
is in the population as a whole.

I have my own ideas about that, but it's not based on any scientific
research.

Tom Veatch
Wichita, KS
USA




Inasmuch as philosophers only are able to grasp the eternal and
unchangeable, and those who wander in the region of the many and
variable are not philosophers, I must ask you which of the two classes
should be the rulers of our State?

And how can we rightly answer that question?

Whichever of the two are best able to guard the laws and
institutions of our State--let them be our guardians.

Very good.

Neither, I said, can there be any question that the guardian who is
to keep anything should have eyes rather than no eyes?

There can be no question of that.

And are not those who are verily and indeed wanting in the knowledge
of the true being of each thing, and who have in their souls no clear
pattern, and are unable as with a painter's eye to look at the
absolute truth and to that original to repair, and having perfect
vision of the other world to order the laws about beauty, goodness,
justice in this, if not already ordered, and to guard and preserve the
order of them--are not such persons, I ask, simply blind?

Truly, he replied, they are much in that condition.

And shall they be our guardians when there are others who, besides
being their equals in experience and falling short of them in no
particular of virtue, also know the very truth of each thing?

There can be no reason, he said, for rejecting those who have this
greatest of all great qualities; they must always have the first place
unless they fail in some other respect. Suppose, then, I said, that we
determine how far they can unite this and the other excellences.

By all means.

In the first place, as we began by observing, the nature of the
philosopher has to be ascertained. We must come to an understanding
about him, and, when we have done so, then, if I am not mistaken, we
shall also acknowledge that such a union of qualities is possible, and
that those in whom they are united, and those only, should be rulers
in the State.


Plato - The Republic






Regards,

Tom Watson
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/