Philosophie et pouvoir royal dans la pensée d’Isocrate et de Platon. Le règne de l’expert politique

Abstract

In the first part of this article, we aim to study the emergence, during the Athenian democracy of the first half of the fourth century, of a unique corpus of texts dedicated to the figure of the political expert. We argue that in treatises such as the Republic and the Statesman of Plato, the Cypriot Discourses of Isocrates (To Nicocles, Nicocles, Evagoras) and the Cyropaedia and the Agesilas of Xenophon, the fulfilment of the outstanding political expert is related to a specific political system : kingship. In the second part, we argue that Plato and Isocrates engaged in an intellectual dialogue which reveals, on the one hand, their common conception of the relationship between philosophy and royal power and, on the other hand, their profound disagreement on the practical aspect of political art. We focus on texts where the true statesman, who embodies an ideal type of power manages to put into practice his political knowledge to administrate the city : The Republic and the Statesman of Plato, on the one hand, and the Cypriot Discourses of Isocrates, on the other. It is in these texts that the most profound disagreements between Isocrates and Plato appear.