Il filosofo e il mare. Immagini marine e nautiche nella Repubblica di Platone

The thesis aims at investigating the birth and the role of the image of the ship of the polis and of the kubernetes (stirer, but from this greek term we have the latin gubernator as well as the Italian governatore) in the Western political imaginary. This work tries in fact to put into question or re-signify the contemporary political lexicon. The thesis is divided in two parts: the first is dedicated to the historical and conceptual re-construction of the sea and nautical images in the litterature before Platone and, more broadly, in the Greek culture of the time. The second, instead, offers a detailed reading of the VI book of the Republic of Plato, showing at the same time the close ties to the I book. This second part aims at demonstrating how the image of the kubernetes (along with that of the doctor) is deployed in the platonic corpus in order to provide an example of a specific form of government, that is the government of the one who has the knowledges and skills to claim to be the ruler. These two figures (kubernetes and doctor) both ground their authority on the possibility to offer ‘salvation’ to those who trust them. The image of the ship of the polis and the related image of the kubernetes are understood as belonging to a framework where we find the notions of kosmos (order, good and beautiful order) poros (the sea route but also the clever device to gain success) sumpheron (the advantage) and soteria (salvation). This work aims at demonstrating that the nautical image is in Plato essentially an image of order –however dinamic – that is to say it 'shows' the order which, according to Plato, has to rule over the new politeia established by the philosophers rulers. Such image, moreover, offers an answer to the problems raised by Thrasimacus in the I book about the advantage offered by each art (and specificallt of the political art). The task of the true kubernetes, then, is to find again and again the best route (poros) for his ship/city, offering to the ones embarked/citizens the avantage peculiar to his art, that is to say offering them salvation. But salvation, within the Greek and platonic framework, is nothing but the manteinance of the order, kosmos, which reigns in the kallipolis. Lastly, this work tries to offer a rapid survey of the later developement of the nautical paradigm in the Latin world, especially in the writings of Cicero.