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Volume 3: A blow of destiny, the king appears Chapter 82: Autocracy, open society and its enemies

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    According to Socrates, a philosophical mind should have reason, will, and virtuous desires.

    A philosopher should have a proper love for wisdom and courage, and use wisdom as the basis for their actions.  Wisdom is the knowledge of virtue, or the right attitude toward all things in existence.

    Plato also made interesting arguments about states and rulers.  For example, he posed the question: Which is more ideal, a flawed democracy or a country ruled by a tyrant?

    He argued that it would be better to be ruled by a bad tyrant (because only one person can do bad things) than by a flawed democracy (because everyone can do that).

    According to Socrates, a country is made up of many different souls and will naturally transform from aristocracy to class politics, then to oligarchy, then to democracy, and finally to politics.

    Perhaps what Socrates was trying to warn future generations is that a country will be ruled by many unrestrained souls, and those with wisdom should try to advise or moderate those who are passionate about power, money, fame, and fame.

    Plato attempted to make heavenly science a department of mathematics.  He believes that astronomy, like geometry, can be studied by raising and solving problems, regardless of the stars in the sky.

    It is believed that the universe began as chaos without distinction.  The opening of this chaos was the result of the activity of a supernatural god.

    According to Plato, the most important feature of the universe changing from chaos to order is that the Creator formulated a rational plan for the world; the mechanical process of putting this plan into effect is a natural event that is taken for granted.

    Plato¡¯s cosmology is basically a mathematical cosmology.  He imagined that the universe began with two kinds of right triangles, one half a square and the other half an equilateral triangle.

    From these triangles four regular polyhedra are reasonably generated.  This makes up the particles of the four elements.  Fire particles are regular tetrahedrons, air particles are regular octahedrons, water particles are regular icosahedrons, and earth particles are cubes.

    The fifth type of regular polyhedron is the dodecahedron formed by regular pentagons. This is the fifth element that makes up the matter in the sky, called ether.

    The entire universe is a sphere, because the sphere is symmetrical and perfect, and any point on the sphere is the same.  The universe is also alive and moving.  There is a soul that fills all space.

    The motion of the universe is a circular motion, because circular motion is the most perfect and does not require hands or feet to push it.

    The quantity of each of the four elements in the universe is as follows: the ratio of fire to air is equal to the ratio of air to water and the ratio of water to earth.

    Everything can be named by a number, and this number expresses the proportion of the elements they contain.

    Plato's ideas are often contrasted with those of his most famous student, Aristotle, whose reputation was completely overshadowed by Plato's in the early Middle Ages.

    Plato¡¯s original works have been lost in the West for thousands of years.  That was until they were removed from the city a century before the fall of Constantinople.

    Medieval scholars studied Plato¡¯s works through Latin translations. At that time, those Latin translations were still second-hand translations from Greek to Arabic and Persian translations by Arab scholars.

    Arab scholars not only translated ancient Greek works, but also wrote many commentaries and explanations of the original works of Plato and Aristotle (such as Avicenna, Avihou). At this time, Aristotle's reputation began to exceed  Plato.

    It was only during the Renaissance, when the Western world's interest in classical civilization began to revive, that Plato's philosophy began to receive widespread attention again.

    The Renaissance was facilitated by many early modern scientists and artists who broke away from scholasticism and regarded Plato's philosophy as the basis for progress in art and science.  By the 19th century.  Plato's reputation was restored, at least as good as Aristotle's.

    Since then, many Western philosophers have also based their theories on Plato's works.  Plato's influence is particularly great in the world of mathematics and science, especially Gottlob, Frege and his students such as Kurt, G?del and Alonzo Church.

    Albert and Einstein also adopted Plato¡¯s proposition that there is an eternal and unchanging reality.  Opposed to the physical universe proposed by Niels and Bohr and his interpretation of quantum mechanics.

    By contrast, philosophers who depart from theoretical models and moral ideals often criticize Platonism from a variety of other viewpoints.

    ¡°For example, Nietzsche attacked Plato for dividing the world into two parts, and Martin??Heidegger criticized Plato for blurring the quality of human life.  Karl and Popper, in their book "The Open Society and Its Enemies" (1945), criticized the form of government proposed by Plato in "The Republic" as a typical totalitarian regime.

    Leo Strauss is considered by some to be the major philosopher who restored Plato's influence in moral philosophy, albeit in a less metaphysical form.

    but.  Influenced by Nietzsche and Heidegger, Strauss did not agree with their condemnation of Plato, but focused on looking for possible answers to Plato's criticisms in the dialogues.

    Note: "The Open Society and Its Enemies" examines the origin and development of historical determinism from the tradition of Western philosophy.

    From Plato and Aristotle of ancient Greece to Fichte and Hegel of German idealism, they are all described as the founders of historical determinism.

    "Historical determinism is also regarded as an ideology of a closed society and is incompatible with the rational and critical spirit that an open society relies on.

    ?????????? Therefore all historical finalists are enemies of open societies.  In particular, he criticized the historical theories of Plato, Hegel and Marx, saying that they were all wrong prophets.

    The first volume of the book is subtitled Plato¡¯s Spells and the second volume is Prophecy: Hegel, Marx and Their Consequences.

    From this we can see the author¡¯s ambition, hoping to use materials from the history of philosophy to fight against historical determinism.  Criticize Plato's Republic as a totalitarian model and a restoration of aristocracy.

    He believes that the Utopia is a utopian project based on fear of change.

    Plato divided people into three levels and standardized each person's position in the whole. The author believes that this is a closed society, while an open society encourages competition, and people's status is earned through their own efforts.

    Although Hegel established the most complete system in the history of philosophy, he was also ruthlessly attacked.  The author believes that Hegel's philosophy was valued because it met the Prussian king's need to establish hegemony and became the official philosophy.

    The core of Hegel¡¯s historical determinism is the supremacy of the state, or more precisely, the supremacy of the Prussian state.

    Hegel believes that what governs the movement of world spirituality is the law of history. According to the law of history, the world spirit has gone through three stages: Eastern countries, Greek and Roman countries, and Germanic countries.

    The highest form of the Germanic state was the Prussian state.  At this time, world history also reached its peak, so Hegel's works are full of fanatical worship of the state.  Hegel's nationalism was inherited by later fascism and became an important ideological basis.

    The author then pointed the finger at Marxism. He described fascism and Marxism as the right and left sides of Hegel's philosophy.

    In Marx¡¯s eyes, the laws of history are no longer the laws of the world¡¯s spirit, but the laws of material production.  History develops according to the law of interaction between productive forces and production relations, and has experienced primitive communist society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society and socialist society.

    The author believes that Marx¡¯s historical determinism is a kind of economic historical determinism, that is, Marx¡¯s historical materialism believes that social existence determines social consciousness, and the economic substructure determines the political, legal and other superstructures.

    The author acknowledges the importance of economy in social development, but opposes economic determinism.  He said: It is not economic power that dominates political power; on the contrary, it is political power that controls and subdues economic power.

    The reason why the author emphasizes the role of politics on the economy is to use reformist plans to falsify Marx¡¯s violent revolution and class struggle.

    Pointing out that Marxism¡¯s criticism of the ills of the liberal capitalist period is indeed spot-on, but through political means, state intervention in economic activities has greatly eased social conflicts, making Marx¡¯s theory seem outdated.

    This kind of political means does not come from the utopian social project of comprehensive transformation planned by historical determinism, but from the so-called detailed social project of gradual, incremental and titration.

    The advantage of this kind of social engineering lies in its experimental nature. There is no need to destroy everything and rebuild again. Instead, it adopts a gentle reform method and can be adjusted and revised based on the facts at any time to avoid the huge price of social unrest.

    "The Open Society and Its Enemies" is not a rigorous academic work, but a product of its era.

    The author said: "The Poverty of Historical Finalism" and "The Open Society and Its Enemies" are my efforts for the war.  I think freedom will become a central issue under the influence of the resurgent Marxism and the idea of ??large-scale planning.  These books thus represent a fight against totalitarianism and ideologicalism in defense of freedom, as well as a review of history.Warning about the dangers of ideological superstition.
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