Philosophy of democracy, shaping city in ancient Greece by Plato and Aristotle

Abstract

The philosophy of democracy is the building of a good and stable city, and the mental paradigm has been set to express democratic theory, and all philosophies of democracy so far have been marginal on those two ancient theories. And yet all societies seek to establish democracy by invoking these two fundamental philosophical ideas. Democracy is the product of the city and this phenomenon is base of urbanization. In the history of city, with the establishment of city-state, a miracle took place that eventually led to the emergence of Greek civilization that created its own specific historical period. Philosophy was started with defining city and the rights of citizens. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle have presented their philosophical, epistemological and historical research about the essence of city. They have also presented their analysis about the way of progress, expansion and democracy and their protection in the cities. Plato and especially Aristotle have also explained the physical face and features and its parts and portion for the people. They have also presented their critical appreciation about exact relationship between ethics, behavior, desires of the citizens and religion and constitution in the formation of city. They have also explained many institutions and government agencies of the city-state and demeanor and character of the ruling personality. They have mentioned different forms of city-state and they analyzed the ways and method of governance and presented in form of special formulas. They have claimed and hold that city-state is blend of democracy, autocracy, monarchy and elitism and government of dominant minority and such combination is always in state of change. Their theories have been rejected and criticized by many researches however; their impact is clearly visible on thoughts about modern city formation; particularly, the thoughts of Plato about the composition of democracy, elitism and aristocracy have pivotal place in the formation of city in center of thoughts and researches of construction of modern city. This paradigm and ideology as a basic political wisdom in Western philosophy and Islamic philosophy from the Middle-Ages to the modern period has been strengthened. In the twenty-first century people aspire to democracy as the best way of government. Question is this that whether experience of ancient Greek about construction of cities on the basis of democracy is a kind of human experience for every time and place or it is only related to a historical event in the past. As a result, model of Greek democracy reflects a kind of political capacity of man for the change and reformation always takes place in the city and democracy, being a proper revolution is useful for construction of city and start of democratic relations on the basis of justice and for the progress of civilization and culture.