Wisdom and Leadership Essay

Leadership and Wisdom Synthesis Essay

Task:

Write a persuasive essay making a claim about the relationship between leadership and wisdom which synthesizes the ideas we have considered from Plato, Machiavelli, Saunders, Aurelius, and Lao Tzu to support your position.  

http://www.rowan.edu/open/philosop/clowney/Aesthetics/scans/Plato/PlatoCave.pdf

http://as1020.pbworks.com/f/saunders-braindead.pdf

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1232/1232-h/1232-h.htm

Injustice is a kind of blasphemy. Nature designed rational beings for each other’s sake: to help—not harm—one another, as they deserve. To transgress its will, then, is to blaspheme against the oldest of the gods. And to lie is to blaspheme against it too. Because “nature” means the nature of that which is. And that which is and that which is the case are closely linked, so that nature is synonymous with Truth—the source of all true things. To lie deliberately is to blaspheme—the liar commits deceit, and thus injustice. And likewise to lie without realizing it. Because the involuntary liar disrupts the harmony of nature— its order. He is in conflict with the way the world is structured. As anyone is who deviates toward what is opposed to the truth—even against his will. Nature gave him the resources to distinguish between true and false. And he neglected them, and now can’t tell the difference. -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

When the Master governs, the people
are hardly aware that he exists.
Next best is a leader who is loved.
Next, one who is feared.
The worst is one who is despised.

If you don't trust people,
you make them untrustworthy.

The Master doesn't talk, he acts.
When his work is done,
the people say, "Amazing:
we did it, all by ourselves!”

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching