Plato’s description of the change from champion of the people to tyrant, from accepted rule to tyranny, is no less accurate today than it was over 2000 years ago when Plato first wrote it. Plato was the greatest metaphysical genius whom the world has seen; and in him, more than in any other ancient thinker, the germs of future knowledge are contained.
Could there be a more clear sign of genius than the ability to create what has timeless value? To create timeless knowledge, a philosopher has to reach out to the absolute truth, for only truth does never change, and thus never looses it’s value. That’s what constitutes the main difference between a philosopher and a mere ideologist, the "truths" of the ideologist have constantly to be re-adjusted whenever they come in contact with reality, the unchanging object of knowledge, or whenever time went by and changed the external appearances, the ever changing object of opinion and the ideologist, mere shadows of reality changing with the light.
The Republic by Plato
Book VIII
Persons of the Dialogue:
Plato
Socrates
Glaucon
Veritax Vox Liberabit
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