{"id":{"repo_id":"guelph","oai_identifier":"oai:atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca:10214/28675"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/guelph/oai:atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca:10214/28675","repository":{"repo_id":"guelph","name":"University of Guelph","base_url":"https://atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"What Freedom Needs: Democracy and Philosophy in Plato's Republic","abstract":"Plato's Republic is traditionally thought to present an anti-democratic position. However, I provide an interpretation that, instead, argues that the Republic defends democracy in an important sense. My thesis is that, although offering serious criticisms of democracy and condemning the democratic soul for its appetitive indulgence, the Republic nonetheless locates in democracy the unique possibility of the essential transformation to philosophy that is highlighted in the story of the cave in Book VII, which Socrates refers to as “the turning of a soul”: the turning from an uncritical, habituated disposition to a disposition that is freely oriented towards being. I argue that, unlike the timocratic and oligarchic regimes’ conception of their good, the democratic regime’s interpretation of its good as freedom, conceived of in terms of eleutheria, offers an environment that is distinctly supportive of the transformation of the soul depicted in the story of the cave.","abstract_html":"Plato's Republic is traditionally thought to present an anti-democratic position. However, I provide an interpretation that, instead, argues that the Republic defends democracy in an important sense. My thesis is that, although offering serious criticisms of democracy and condemning the democratic soul for its appetitive indulgence, the Republic nonetheless locates in democracy the unique possibility of the essential transformation to philosophy that is highlighted in the story of the cave in Book VII, which Socrates refers to as “the turning of a soul”: the turning from an uncritical, habituated disposition to a disposition that is freely oriented towards being. I argue that, unlike the timocratic and oligarchic regimes’ conception of their good, the democratic regime’s interpretation of its good as freedom, conceived of in terms of eleutheria, offers an environment that is distinctly supportive of the transformation of the soul depicted in the story of the cave.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Craig, Matthew"],"institution":"University of Guelph","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Russon, John"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":null,"date_issued":"","date_published":null,"updated_at":"2026-08-21T16:45:07Z","subjects":["democracy","philosophy","Plato's Republic"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Attribution 4.0 International"],"rights_urls":["http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/10214/28675","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"source_record":{"url":"https://atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Aatrium.lib.uoguelph.ca%3A10214%2F28675","prefix":"dim"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Russon, John"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Craig, Matthew"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2024-09-19T19:57:52Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2024-09-19T19:57:52Z"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Guelph"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["democracy","philosophy","Plato's Republic"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Attribution 4.0 International"]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/10214/28675"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Plato's Republic is traditionally thought to present an anti-democratic position. However, I provide an interpretation that, instead, argues that the Republic defends democracy in an important sense. My thesis is that, although offering serious criticisms of democracy and condemning the democratic soul for its appetitive indulgence, the Republic nonetheless locates in democracy the unique possibility of the essential transformation to philosophy that is highlighted in the story of the cave in Book VII, which Socrates refers to as “the turning of a soul”: the turning from an uncritical, habituated disposition to a disposition that is freely oriented towards being. 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My thesis is that, although offering serious criticisms of democracy and condemning the democratic soul for its appetitive indulgence, the Republic nonetheless locates in democracy the unique possibility of the essential transformation to philosophy that is highlighted in the story of the cave in Book VII, which Socrates refers to as “the turning of a soul”: the turning from an uncritical, habituated disposition to a disposition that is freely oriented towards being. 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