7 - The Wise and Sovereign People

Summary

The philosopher king, both as a paradox and a promise, challenges all regimes by introducing wisdom as the new, preeminent qualification for rule. But this new source of authority is especially problematic for democracy, understood in its most general signification as the regime where the people are sovereign. The democratic principle of equality presumes parity in wisdom and judgement, justifying the sovereignty of all. Consequently, the democratic presumption that no one person is sufficiently wise to warrant sole rule makes the people wary and suspicious of any attempts to do so, regarding claims in the name of wisdom as in effect concealed oligarchic or tyrannical attempts at usurping democratic rule. Indeed, the modern democratic impulse, as we have seen, tends to disperse power to increase participation, rather than focusing and concentrating authority. It would therefore seem that democracy is the regime most opposed to the philosopher king so that the increasing contemporary authority of democracy portends the end of the modern philosopher king as a practical, if not theoretical, possibility.

Upon closer inspection, however, we see a more complicated picture of democracy's response to the philosopher king and, more generally, the relationship between philosophy and democracy, characterised by two divergent impulses that vie for authority. The first, as we will see, is an attempt to accommodate philosophy within the regime of popular sovereignty by locating and securing it within specific institutions overseen by larger representative structures. This solution is to be contrasted with the more ambitious democratic alternative, which claims that appropriate deliberative settings will allow ‘the people’ to become philosophers and sovereign, conclusively resolving the potential tensions between wisdom and power. Both approaches suggest that democracy provides the conclusive solution to the problem of philosopher king, not by rejecting wisdom but by democratising it by dispersing philosopher kings, either by locating them within institutions or by regarding the people together as the philosopher king. The success of these measures and their implications for both philosophy and politics is the core theme of this chapter.