In this lecture, Roger explores Plato's Statesman — one of the most overlooked and underestimated dialogues in all of Western philosophy. At its heart, the dialogue asks a deceptively profound question: what kind of human being is actually capable of governing well? Through the method of diaeresis — a disciplined process of binary division that progressively strips away the inessential to reveal the real — Plato guides us toward the vision of the true statesman, who turns out to be not merely a skilled politician but a divine archetype. Rooted in the Hermetic and Neoplatonic wisdom tradition, this presentation reveals how Plato's method of paired division is nothing less than a royal road of the mind — a way of thinking that mirrors the structure of reality itself, and that when followed with patience and integrity, carries the soul step by step from the world of appearances toward the singular, indivisible truth at the summit of all inquiry.

This presentation was originally delivered by Roger Weir on March 29, 1990.

More information about these presentations can be found at
https://sharedpresencefoundation.org/presentations/plato
https://sharedpresencefoundation.org/presentations/platos-theory-of-education
https://sharedpresencefoundation.org/presentations/plato-ii

More presentations by Roger Weir are available at the Shared Presence Foundation website and on our YouTube channel