Statesman | Page 3

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This etext was prepared by Sue Asscher

STATESMAN
by
Plato
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS.
In the Phaedrus, the Republic, the Philebus, the Parmenides, and the
Sophist, we may observe the tendency of Plato to combine two or more
subjects or different aspects of the same subject in a single dialogue. In
the Sophist and Statesman especially we note that the discussion is
partly regarded as an illustration of method, and that analogies are
brought from afar which throw light on the main subject. And in his
later writings generally we further remark a decline of style, and of
dramatic power; the characters excite little or no interest, and the
digressions are apt to overlay the main thesis; there is not the 'callida
junctura' of an artistic whole. Both the serious discussions and the jests
are sometimes out of place. The invincible Socrates is withdrawn from
view; and new foes begin to appear under old names. Plato is now
chiefly concerned, not with the original Sophist, but with the sophistry
of the schools of philosophy, which are making reasoning impossible;
and is driven by them out of the regions of transcendental speculation
back into the path of common sense. A logical or psychological phase
takes the place of the doctrine of Ideas in his mind. He is constantly
dwelling on the importance of regular classification, and of not putting
words in the place of things. He has banished the poets, and is
beginning to use a technical language. He is bitter and satirical, and
seems to be sadly conscious of the realities of human life. Yet the ideal
glory of the Platonic philosophy is not extinguished. He is still looking
for a city in which kings are either philosophers or gods (compare
Laws).

The Statesman has lost the grace and beauty of the earlier dialogues.
The mind of the writer seems to be so overpowered in the effort of
thought as to impair his style; at least his gift of expression does not
keep up with the increasing difficulty of his theme. The idea of the king
or statesman and the illustration of method are connected, not like the
love and rhetoric of the Phaedrus, by 'little invisible pegs,' but in a
confused and inartistic manner, which fails to produce any impression
of a whole on the mind of the reader. Plato apologizes for his
tediousness, and acknowledges that the improvement of his audience
has been his only aim in some of his digressions. His own image may
be used as a motto of his style: like an inexpert statuary he has made
the figure or outline too large, and is unable to give the proper colours
or proportions to his work. He makes mistakes only to correct
them--this seems to be his way of drawing attention to common
dialectical errors. The Eleatic stranger, here, as in the Sophist, has no
appropriate character, and appears only as the expositor of a political
ideal, in the delineation of which he is frequently