The rule of law can serve as a safeguard against tyranny, because just laws ensure that rulers do not become corrupt.īoth Plato and Aristotle lived in the democratic Greek city-state of Athens. The rule of law is the principle that no one is exempt from the law, even those who are in a position of power. In a tyrannical government, the ruler becomes corrupt and uses his power to further his own interests instead of working for the common good. Tyranny occurs when absolute power is granted to a ruler. Two of the many political subjects that these men wrote about were tyranny and the rule of law. Plato and Aristotle both developed important ideas about government and politics.
And they were grappling with many of the same political questions. Still, many of the framers at Philadelphia had studied and understood Plato’s and Aristotle’s political philosophies. The new American nation was quite different from the ancient Greek city-states. The framers wanted to create a national government free of tyranny, governed by the rule of law. Americans had overthrown what they considered a tyrannous British government. George Washington, James Madison, and the other framers of the Constitution were dedicated to constructing a just government. In Philadelphia some 2,000 years after Plato and Aristotle’s time, a group of men was trying to write a constitution. Aristotle concluded that “it is evident that the form of government is best in which every man, whoever he is, can act best and live happily.” Nearly 2,400 years ago, the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle explored political philosophy. The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom | Plato and Aristotle on Tyranny and the Rule of Law | Nigeria Plato and Aristotle on Tyranny and the Rule of Law
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