The Idea of Order in the History of Greek Philosophy: A Study of the Epistemological-Ontological Aspects of Order in Plato’s Political Philosophy

One of the issues which has united the ontological, epistemological, and anthropological dimensions of philosophical thought in the course of history and has continually affected and determined the related social and political directions and general trends is “order”. In other words, order enjoys three ontological, epistemological, and anthropological aspects with respect to political life in society and can function as the basis for the interpretation and formation of the history of philosophy. In Greek philosophy, order is one of the philosophical principles which, due to its influence over different schools of philosophy and philosophers during the whole history of philosophical thought, enjoys an important and unique role and status. The issue of order in Platonic philosophy proved to be a turning point in this regard. Accordingly, in this paper it has been tried to explore the philosophical concept of order from its epistemological, ontological, and anthropological aspects in the history of Greek philosophy ,in general, and in Platonic philosophy, in particular. The writers have also aimed to demonstrate its influence and directive role in Plato’s political philosophy. Therefore, following an analytic-descriptive method, they firstly cast a historical glance at the concept of order in the works of pre-Platonic thinkers. Then they investigate his general philosophy and, particularly, his political philosophy with respect to the above-mentioned dimensions while emphasizing his desirable political and educational systems based on his idea of order. Their findings indicate that a philosophical thought based on order might begin with a mythological and naturalist view; nevertheless, with the later development of human thought, it shifts its attention to a kind of order with mathematical, cosmological, and metaphysical tendencies. Following this process, the Platonic natural and mathematical view of order unites with a divine and virtuous view of order. Consequently, as both the context and basis of other virtues and also as the ultimate goal of philosophy, it develops a political-social form in connection with law.