The Philosopher and the Politician: Competing or Compatible Ways of Life?

The Republic's political project is especially innovative in the so called "third wave", which provides the conjugation of political and philosophical life. Yet, these are two traditionally opposite models, since, in the "polis" of those times, politics excluded and restraint the true philosopher's role, who, on his part, shies away from political life. First of all, one needs to establish who this is, an operation Plato undergoes between Book V and VI of the "Republic", pointing out prerogatives for the philosopher of a cognitive and behavioural kind. In the current picture, though, he appears eccentric, if not evil: "philosophia" is only one of the elements from the curriculum to be conveyed to young people. The "Republic" intends to bridge the gap between philosophical and political life. The most important condition, though at the same time the most difficult to achieve, is a new political constitution - the "kallipolis"- in which the union of wisdom and political power can be realized.