Abstract

This dissertation explores the Socratic-Platonic notion of political life, which was arguably presented to the Athenians as a worthy way of life. The Socratic-Platonic political life at first sounds oxymoronic or unorthodox, because dominant interpretation of Socrates and Plato holds the view that both Socrates and Plato endorsed philosophical life. Contrary to the traditional view, I argued that Socrates and Plato were deeply involved in developing a positive meaning of political life, a way of life especially as a solution to the seemingly insurmountable tension between politics and philosophy. ;The tension between politics and philosophy symbolized by the fate of Socrates does not seem to be a modern problem, since we tend to believe that politics and philosophy belong to separate realms and thus they do not coincide. One of the objects of this study is to rethink the modern belief that it is unequivocally better for philosophy to be dissociated from politics as much as possible in order to avoid unnecessary conflicts with each other. ;For refreshing the meaning of political life, in particular in the light of the tension between politics and philosophy, it is first necessary to revive the rightly chosen tension. To do so, I examined Plato's Apology of Socrates to reveal that the Socratic tension between politics and philosophy is the genuine origin of the tension. Then, I turned to two Platonic dialogues, the Gorgias, and the Republic, to articulate Platonic way of inheriting the Socratic tension, which eventually formulates the essence of the Platonic political philosophy. ;Through reading closely the three Platonic works, this dissertation is aimed at attaining two goals: first is to emphasize a less noted aspect of the Platonic political philosophy, which leads to a new interpretation of Plato's view to the political life based on the persistent tension between politics and philosophy; second is to suggest a reconfiguration of our politics, what I call, the politics of soul-care, as a solution to the modern predicaments of political life