Above the Law and Out for Justice
Chapter 8 focusses on Statesman 291a1-297b4 and argues that, according to the Eleatic Visitor, the single criterion for right rule (orthē archē) is the wisdom or expertise of the statesman; thus it is entirely irrelevant to right rule whether the statesman rules without laws and by force. But he also says that judges and orators possess arts that are ‘precious and related to statecraft’ (303e9-10), suggesting that law and consent will be essential to the statesman’s governance. The solution to this puzzle hangs on an elaboration of the content and teleological structure of statecraft. This expertise aims at and achieves what is beneficial (most just) to the city, and it is for the statesman to decide when laws and consent are actually beneficial. Since laws and consent are tools that typically facilitate the goals of statecraft, they are ‘marks’ of right rule, even though neither is a criterion of right rule.