Plato's Republic, Book 8: How Democracy becomes Tyranny

There is very little that is happening in the world today that is not contained already in the pages of Plato’s Republic. Particularly, in book eight. In book eight, Plato deals with decline of democracy into tyranny…

In this lecture, we will meet the five regimes: aristocracy (love of wisdom), timocracy (love of honor), oligarchy (love of money), democracy (love of freedom), and tyranny (love of gain). We will meet the five characters that both create and are created by these various regimes and depict the psychological portraits of their decline.

Chapters:00:00 Welcome and Setup00:16 Back to Republics Main Question02:28 Five Regimes and Characters04:46 Aristocracy Ideal State05:39 Nuptial Number Mystery07:11 Timocracy Honor and War08:43 Timocratic Character10:27 Oligarchy12:07 Oligarchic Soul Split13:15 Democracy14:14 Democratic Decadence and Desire15:19 Necessary vs Unnecessary Desires18:48 From Democracy to Tyranny19:29 Making a Tyrant20:52 Wrap up

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