Dictionary

philosopher king en · NOUN

Etymology

The concept comes from Plato's Republic (circa 375 BCE), which considers the ideal rulers of a city state.

Meanings

1. A hypothetical ideal ruler, trained in philosophy, who has a full understanding of the Platonic ideal of the Form of the Good, and uses this for the benefit of the state.
2. (figuratively) A very wise ruler.
   • He flies much about from place to place; now at Potsdam, now at Berlin, at Charlottenburg, Reinsberg; nothing loath to run whither business calls him, and appear in public: the gazetteer world, as we noticed, which has been hitherto a most mute world, breaks out here and there into a kind of husky jubilation over the great things he is daily doing, and rejoices in the prospect of having a Philosopher King;[…] 1862, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book XI, page 6:
   • This philosopher king contrasts sharply with the cruel tyrant, who plays a memorable role in other parts of the Histories. 1987, Stewart Flory, The Archaic Smile of Herodotus:
   • But if the President was not the philosopher-king, what was he? After all he was a man who had spent much of his life at a University. 1919, John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace:
   • […] what has been said about the State and the government is not a mere dream[…] that is to say, when the true philosopher kings are born in a State, one or more of them, despising the honours of this present world which they deem mean and worthless, […] 1871, Benjamin Jowett, transl., Republic, translation of Πολιτεία by Plato:

Forms

Translations (5)

de Philosophenkönig (very wise ruler) · cmn 哲學王 /哲学王 (very wise ruler) · fr philosophe roi (very wise ruler) · ja 哲人王 (very wise ruler) · fi filosofikuningas (very wise ruler)

wikipedia: Republic (Plato)