The Political Theory of Plato and Hobbes

By comparing and contrasting the requirements necessary for the appropriation of knowledge or wisdom in the examples of both Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan and Plato in The Republic an explanation will be given as to the relationship between nature and reason. In using this explanation it will illustrate the differing implications for each ruler in the aforementioned literature concluding that both rulers in each regime act as the guiding reason of the state.
In Plato's doctrine of wisdom it becomes clear that it resides outside of nature and is associated with the eternal and is thus permanent. According to Plato, knowledge is something to be strived for; it is a good that is an end to itself internally, for its own sake but it can't be obtained in this world. Plato contends that the only thing that provides concrete knowledge and wisdom of the world, and of the Good, is relied solely upon the transcendental forms from an internal natural aptitude.
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