Plato vs Mahatma Gandhi on Action
Plato and Mahatma Gandhi on action, side by side — 4 passages against 10, and what the disagreement is actually about.
Plato and Mahatma Gandhi both have a great deal to say about action — 4 passages and 10 respectively in thinkr's library — and they do not say the same thing. Setting them side by side is more useful than reading either alone, because the disagreement shows you what each position is actually giving up.
Plato on action
Student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, founder of the Academy. His dialogues — the Republic, Symposium, Phaedo — set the terms of Western metaphysics.
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
“The orators — and the despots — have the least power in their cities … since they do nothing that they wish to do, practically speaking, though they do whatever they think to be best.”
“Socrates: But suppose the words used are ‘just’ and ‘good’. Don’t we then go each his own way, and find ourselves in disagreement with ourselves as well as with each other? / Phaedrus: Undoubtedly.”
“There is no one who ever acts honestly in the administration of states, nor any helper who will save any one who maintains the cause of the just.”
Mahatma Gandhi on action
Indian lawyer and ascetic who led the nonviolent independence movement. His satyagraha — truth-force — shaped twentieth-century moral politics.
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
“Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilised—the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals.”
“We who seek justice will have to do justice to others.”
“The only real, dignified, human doctrine is the greatest good of all, and this can only be achieved by uttermost self-sacrifice.”
“In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.”
“It has always been easier to destroy than to create.”
“No action which is not voluntary can be called moral.”
“Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.”
“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men. The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
“Politics without principle, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice — are the seven social sins.”
Where they part
Athens, c. 428–348 BCE and India, 1869–1948 are not the same world, and the difference is not only historical. Plato treats action as something to be necessity is the mother of invention… — a matter of practice. Mahatma Gandhi approaches it from another side entirely. Neither is refuting the other; they are answering slightly different questions, and noticing which question you are actually asking is most of the work.