MARCOS TADEU NEIRA MIRANDA

Throughout the Republic, there is a reflection on technique and politics, culminating in the description of a true political technique understood as a technique for governing the city under the responsibility of a few specialists. The basis for understanding this political technique lies in the discussions on technique tout court, whose strict definition asserts that it is a power relationship (arkhê) between a ruler and a governed person for the benefit of the latter. This definition is the core of the concept of politics developed throughout the work. In addressing political technique, this thesis adopts a psychological perspective that amplifies the teleological consideration of the strict definition of technique. In this sense, it is argued that there is a type of orientation of the political technician’s soul required for the legitimate exercise of this function. The analysis of the types of human nature will serve, in effect, to justify the diversity of individuals in the city and their eventual adherence to the functions for which they are naturally suited. The typology of human nature emerges precisely from reflections on technique, in which technique qua technique is linked to the need to consider the motivation of the technician to perform the function for which he is naturally directed. From this perspective, the notion of misthos (wage, reward) is central to the delimitation of human nature and to its insertion within the community. The focus of the thesis consists of examining the foundation of political technique, through the investigation of technical knowledge, in an approach centered on the point of view of the political technician’s disposition. During this study, it will be possible to shed new light on known passages of Plato's political propositions in the Republic, by highlighting their critical feature for the forms of organization of political power contemporary to the Athenian philosopher, as well as the provocative character that Plato's reflections bring to our times.