Would we be better off with philosophers as our elected representatives rather than politicians.

This idea was origionally proposed by Plato so does go back a while.

My proposal rests partly on the idea that we would actually get some thinkers into our ruling system rather than the partisan, right wing v not so right wing but always capitalist choices we have now.

And if we did so then it would encourage people to think more instead of letting the media do it for them.

There are so many schools of phiosophical though in the west that have emerged out of the Greek traditions and others worldwide.

Personally I would far rather listen to a stoic argueing with a cynic (of the Helenic school, not using the present day interpretation of the word) than the growling bear pit we get today.

Of course followers of Diogenes would not attend. Far to busy outside masturbating in a barrel.

Though seriously. as politicians have let most people in our countries down. Isn't it time to give someone else a try?

Incidentally I am not suggesting Plato's ideas as any kind of working model. His proposal is far to elitist for my taste. I do not think that any but the most rabid would fancy that kind of risky drift into the politics of totalitarianism.

I do not think much of the modern philosophers.
Who do you have in mind and in which position would you like him to be?

Gurdjieff, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Osho, Krishnamurti....Yes...

Keith Harris and Orville, Nooky Bear, Hector....No...

Sartre? Haha, you are joking! The spoiled brat could not keep together his household let alone a country.
There is experience of guys like Isaac Newton and G W Leibnitz as politicians.
That was in the times when philosophy, sciences and politics were still not separated.
As I understand, the great minds did quite well in the circumstances.
Nietsche was well liked and selectively quoted by the Nazis.
I cannot imagine anybody running a state with Krishnamurti's teachings, no matter how much I like his writings. He died in 1986.

What about the philosophers of today?
How would Daniel Dennett get the act of the US of A together?
Could David Chalmers make it rain in Australia?

Who is there, somebody still alive who I do not know about who'd have the brain and the guts to use power to benefit us all? I am open to all suggestions, as long as they are real, living persons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA

Tubby.....thanks for the info on Krishnamurti.....more hours of blubber research....most helpful.

"Isn't it time to give someone else a try?"

Visit the philosophy department of the average British university, and you'll quickly see why that wouldn't be such a good idea.

We can't have philosophers as elected representatives. If they have to be elected then, by definition, they'll be politicians. So if you insist on philosophers you will have to have - not necessarily totalitarianism, but certainly dictatorships.

It worked for ancient Rome, under the Emperors - for a while. But I don't think that philosophers are, on the whole, any more sensible than anyone else.

There isn't much common sense in Universities full stop.
Very clever people in their own fields, but when it comes to sorting out every day practicalities such as wiring a plug - zero!
Plus their comfortable middle class lifestyles insulate them from realities anyway.

Well, there's something to be said for an ability to see the bigger picture. What philosophers learn, or should learn, is primarily the ability to reason. Something recent govts could certainly have done with...

As for 'middle class lifestyles': I think the average lecturer is far nearer to the common man than the average Tory MP.

Compared to the average Tory MP I suppose they would be nearer to the average man or woman,
A lot of Uni lecturers cycle into work and so forth to prove their green credentials and can't understand why the rest of the population dont do the same,
When I told one of them that the last thing I wanted to do after a 12 hr shift at Sainsbury's driving, was jump on my bike and cycle 15 miles home, he just looked at me and said do less hours then!
Difficult when you're a lorry driver and the average working day is nearer 12 hours than their 8!
Nice people on the whole, but hopelessly out of touch with a lot of things.

Well as I say (and my Mum and brother are lecturers actually, not that I necessarily disagree because of that!), there's something to be said for seeing the bigger picture. I doubt whether Churchill or Lloyd George were much at wiring plugs, but they led the country pretty well even so.

It's one of the biggest problems with our political culture that most people can't see further than the end of their noses.

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[Deleted by the author on 19 Aug 2012 07:55:07 BDT]

Much as i would like Plato to be right (I'm a philosopher myself), I think the Republic is a polemic against Athens due to Her murder of Plato's mentor. Some of the systems which Athens in the C5th BCE used have been taken up sporadically ever since, and often seem to be a better way of doing things. I'm talking mainly about the use of the lottery.
While it wasn't a law that every citizen (in Athens, that was males over the age of 30 with 2 Athenian parents, but we've come some way since then) had to enter public office, it was a social more that most followed. Thus you would put yourself forward for several committees, and then those people who had done so would be put to a lottery.
Take your random person on the street they might do better than the current and previous incumbents. It would be hard to imagine them doing worse, and they wouldn't be the craven, power-grubbing, anal-retentive sociopaths that usually manage to battle their way through the political system to reach office.
Which is why it will never happen - we may not live in a complete totalitarian state, but for practical purposes, it is a hegemony.

How do you know you're a philosopher?

Well, perhaps I'm not; whose definition are you using? Tell me yours and I'll tell you if I fit.

"(I'm a philosopher myself)"

Quick, put this genius in charge!

Do you earn a living publishing philosophical works?

"Good point, well spotted there gille."

That's the type of thing a philsophical training can do for you. ;)

"Perhaps we might be better off if they'd just take the PE degree instead."

Ha, good one; and likely as not we would be. There'll always be a need for someone to tell people to run round a field...

The fount does not believe in labels....however the fount does love combining being with knowledge...

That's very nice, but neither of those things is philosophy.

See what I mean Molly?

Philosophy means (in dictionary terms)...love of knowledge.

No, that's the derivation of the word - not its current meaning.

'Forum' meant a place where Romans went to sell sheep - so what?

(Actually, even then: didn't 'sophe' mean thought rather than knowledge?)