PLATO’S KUNIKOS KOSMOPOLITēS

Many are willing to ascribe certain cosmopolitan principles of justice to Socrates. This is not surprising as the later cosmopolitans claimed a Socratic heritage. Few are willing to extend such principles to Plato. The philosophic dog as the image of the ideal political leader that we see in Republic, Book II seems to confirm this common reading. The dog, we are told, is friendly with the familiar and angry at the strange. If this were Plato’s ideal, indeed he would not be cosmopolitan. I argue, however, that on Plato’s own terms it is irrational to get angry at strangers. The image of the political leader in the form of the dog depicts the realistic leader, and this realistic image is juxtaposed to the ideal ruler, the true hilosopher, someone like Socrates.