A Concept That Establishes the State and Destroys the State: Reflections on Merit in Plato's Political Philosophy

Abstract

The subject of this study is the examination of Plato's views on the relationship between the establishment of a state organism, its healthy operation, its collapse and merit. The research consists of three parts. In the first part, The concepts of state and merit are conceptually discussed. In the second part, the features of the concept of merit that establish the state as a public authority and order and the destructive features of the concept of incompetence are mentioned. In this context, the argument that the concept of merit is in the ontology of state theory is explained by giving examples from the establishment and collapse of states in World history. In the third and last part, the relationship between the concept of merit and the state mechanism in Plato's political philosophy is examined. In Plato, merit is not just about public institutions, as It is today. Plato sees merit as a rule that everyone in a political field must abide by. According to Plato, merit is an instrument that establishes a state and incompetence is an instrument that can bring the end of the political order. In this respect, according to Plato, the relationship between the individual, society and the state should be established on the axis of merit for the state order to be established, operated in a healthy way and not destroyed.