Plutarch's essay arguing philosophers should actively befriend and advise rulers, since one improved statesman benefits an entire people.
This short essay from Plutarch's Moralia (its Latin title means "That Philosophers Especially Should Converse with Rulers") makes a pointed case against the idea that a philosopher who mixes with kings and statesmen is merely a flatterer chasing status. Plutarch argues the opposite is true: the person who avoids powerful men out of fear of looking like a courtier is the real coward and lover of glory, since philosophy is meant to be practical and active, not a private hobby practiced in a corner.
Plutarch builds his case through a chain of analogies. A physician would rather heal an eye that watches over many than one that serves only itself; a well-digger would rather uncover a river for a whole city than dig an isolated well; a shipwright takes more pride building a rudder for Themistocles' flagship than an ordinary boat. In each case, skill applied to something with wide reach outdoes skill kept small. He extends this to famous philosopher-statesman pairs of history and legend — Anaxagoras and Pericles, Plato and Dion, Pythagoras among the Italian Greeks, Panaetius summoned by Scipio, Plato's own voyage to advise the tyrant Dionysius of Sicily — to show that when philosophy takes hold of one ruler, it "benefits many through one," like a single goat eating eryngo and stopping the whole herd until the goatherd frees it.
The essay also distinguishes true friendship with the powerful from flattery. Plutarch draws on the myth of Ixion embracing a cloud instead of Hera to describe those who chase reputation instead of real goodwill, and contrasts philosophers, who make rulers genuinely better, with priests, who merely petition gods who are already good. He closes with Plato's failed attempt to reform Dionysius of Syracuse, calling the tyrant a "palimpsest" whose old stains of tyranny had set too deep to erase — a caution that the work is best begun with the young, before character hardens.
“does not spread to others, but having produced calm and quiet in that one man, withers away and dies out along with him. But if it lays hold of a ruling man, one active in politics and public affairs, and fills him with nobility and goodness, it benefits many through one”
— Maxime Cum Princibus Philsopho Esse Diserendum · read this chapter →
“But if it lays hold of a ruling man, one active in politics and public affairs, and fills him with nobility and goodness, it benefits many through one — as Anaxagoras did by his association with Pericles, and Plato with Dion, and Pythagoras with the leading men of the Italian Greeks.”
— Maxime Cum Princibus Philsopho Esse Diserendum · read this chapter →
“For nothing is so productive of joy as a favor freely given.”
— Maxime Cum Princibus Philsopho Esse Diserendum · read this chapter →
“Indeed, the arguments of philosophers, if they are inscribed firmly in the souls of rulers and statesmen and take hold there, acquire the force of laws; it was for this very reason that Plato sailed to Sicily, hoping to turn his doctrines into laws and deeds amid the affairs of Dionysius.”
— Maxime Cum Princibus Philsopho Esse Diserendum · read this chapter →
“it is neither pleasant nor easy to benefit people against their will, and it is trust that makes them willing”
— Maxime Cum Princibus Philsopho Esse Diserendum · read this chapter →
It argues that philosophers should seek out and advise powerful men rather than avoid them for fear of seeming like flatterers. Plutarch says improving one ruler benefits everyone under that ruler's power, much as a single goat eating eryngo can stop an entire herd until it is freed.
No. He distinguishes genuine friendship, which seeks to make a ruler more just and moderate, from flattery, which chases reputation like Ixion embracing a cloud instead of Hera. The philosopher who withdraws from public men entirely is, in Plutarch's view, the real coward and lover of glory.
He cites Anaxagoras with Pericles, Plato with Dion, Pythagoras among the leading men of the Italian Greeks, Panaetius summoned by Scipio, and Cato visiting Athenodorus. The most extended example is Plato's voyage to Sicily to try to reform the tyrant Dionysius.
Plutarch says Plato sailed to Sicily hoping to turn his teachings into actual laws and deeds under Dionysius, but found the tyrant like a palimpsest already stained with tyranny too deeply set to wash out. Plutarch draws the lesson that young men should absorb sound teaching early, before character hardens.
To argue that skill applied broadly is more valuable than skill applied narrowly: a physician would rather heal an eye that watches over many people, and a well-digger would rather supply a whole city than dig an isolated well. He uses this to justify philosophers directing their efforts toward rulers whose good conduct affects many.
"Maxime Cum Principibus Philosopho Esse Disserendum," meaning roughly "That the Philosopher Ought Especially to Converse with Rulers." It is one of the shorter political essays collected in Plutarch's Moralia.
Moralia: Ad Principem Ineruditum · Moralia: Adversus Colotem · Moralia: Amatoriae Narrationes · Moralia: Amatorius · Moralia: An Recte Dictum Sit Latenter Esse Vivendum · Moralia: An Seni Respublica Gerenda Sit · Moralia: An Virtus Doceri Possit · Moralia: An Vitiositas Ad Infelicitatem Sufficia · Moralia: Animine An Corporis Affectiones Sint Piores · Moralia: Apophthegmata Laconica · Moralia: Aquane An Ignis Sit Utilior · Moralia: Bruta Animalia Ratione Uti