Platono "Valstybininkas": draminiai aspektai ir filosofinis mitas ; The myth of Plato's "Statesman"

Abstract

The Statesman is Plato's neglected political work. Due to the difficulties of the Statesman, the dialogue suffers from the disparity in the number of its translations, commentaries, and research studies on it. This dialogue is Plato's neglected political work, but it is crucial for the understanding of the development of his political thinking as well as of Republic and Laws. So, this article is arranged as follows: at the beginning, there are presented the analysis of the myth as an example of political philosophy, also, there is an emphasis on the analysis of how the myth as part of literature becomes an opposition of philosophical discourse. In a confused way, literature is the fictive institution which allows one to say everything, in every way, and sometimes it reveals the truth, becomes the only way to tell about the true nature of the things. Most likely in this way the myth of the Statesman works. In the second part of this publication, the translated part of the dialogue, the so-called Myth of the Statesman is presented. The text is presentend with its own notes and commentaries below the text for the extended reading of the dialogue. In addition, the original Greek text has been inserted as a necessity for a comparison and analysis of the translated text. The dialogue itself likewise contains a central section on the paradigm and measure, which affects the passage between the statesman as a shepherd and the statesman as a weaver. It is ostensibly an attempt to arrive at the definition of the statesman as a ruler who has a political power called for a specialized knowledge. Those two passages of definitions are both divided and united by the great myth of Statesman (268–274e), for this reason the myth becomes the part of great importance of a dialogue and political thinking of Plato.