THE FEAR OF GOD

THE FEAR OF GOD PLATO (428-348 B.C) is regarded as one of the three great philosophers of ancient Greece, the other two being Socrates and Aristotle. The book, for which Plato is best remembered, titled The Republic and written in the form of a dialogue, is on the subject of the Ideal State. In Plato’s view, Unless philosophers bear kingly rule... or those who are now called kings and princes become genuine and adequate philosophers, there will be no respite from evil. Throughout the ages, many individuals who came to be known as philosopher-kings (or queens) have assumed power; for example, the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, the Russian Queen, Catherine II, King Frederick II of Prussia, the Macedonian King Demetrius and the contemporary ruler of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. But none has measured up to the standard of the good ruler as presented by Plato. Only the fear of God will right the wrongs of this world. There were certain pupils of the Greek philosophers who attained kingship. For example, Alexander the Great was taught by Aristotle, and Demetrius was trained in Aristotle’s school of thought. Yet, these philosopher-rulers were no better than others. As Peter Green puts it: What happened was, nothing happened... Power, it appeared, could corrupt even philosophers. Time Magazine, May 13, 1991 According to Karl Marx’s theory, the root of all evil is the economic system based on ownership; in which, those who were owners exploited those who were not, in very much the same way a despot would oppress his subjects. It was thought that if the system of individual ownership were to be replaced by that of collective ownership, all kinds of oppression and exploitation could be uprooted. There would then be neither the owner nor the owned, and no group or individual would be able to exploit any other group or individual.