I think that I plump for the first option. What care for entails is not power over, but greater force than. This is a distinction that #Arendt makes. For her, power is the realm of law, of contract, of mutual obligation enforceable by law, though in a much broader sense than just that of a codified, top down legal system.

The private is the realm of force, which is to say violence, vulnerability and compulsion.

I cannot legitimately demand or expect respect or authority because I care for you. It gives me no rights over you, least of all the right of possession. It does make you vulnerable because you need me.

To bring it back to Plato, I think that one thing he is exploring in the #Apology, #Crito and #Phaedo, is the tension between the good, the power that governs and restrains force, that limits, if I am good, what I do to you because I can, and the law, the power that regulates the polis.

The unanswered question is where is justice? It feels like justice ought to aim at the good, but, it seems to belong to the law. The law does not aim at the good. It aims at regulating how we, me, you, him, her, them etc, live together.

If we let the good regulate how we live together, then we have to dominate others because, as #Socrates is always insisting the wise councillor is as rare as the expert horse trainer, or, in fact, no where to be found. We either submit to the rule of some non existent wise ruler or we do nothing.

I have been thinking a bit about #exile recently. It is pretty incoherent, so I went back to #Plato. I had never appreciated how moving #Socrates' apology is or how politically brilliant, despite his protestations.

I am not much closer to clarifying my thoughts on exile. I still think that the deep stuff in the #Crito is a kind of context principle, an individual is a human only in the context of a polis. Of course, it's the individuals though who determine the value of the collective.

I also noticed, thanks to #Graeber and #Wengrow, that Socrates makes the claim that because Athens has regulated sex, marriage, the family and the education of the young, he is owned in some sense by Athens. In short, care implies ownership which entails the right to domination. Presumably, part of the 'personal is political' critique has this sort of argument in mind, but how is that to be developed?

#Socrates in #Plato's #Crito. Turns out travel is good for you. #philosophy

From #Plato's #Crito on #Socrates. Turns out travel is good for you. #philosophy