La corrupción como el imperio de la epithymía desde la perspectiva platónica

This article interprets corruption in Platonic philosophy as the result of the dominance of epithymia, the appetitive part of the soul associated with pleasure, desire, and the pursuit of power. It reconstructs the political crisis that shaped Plato’s thought, examines Socratic ethics, and traces the development of Plato’s account of the soul in dialogues such as the Gorgias, the Republic, and the Phaedrus. Drawing on the parallel between the individual soul and the polis, it argues that order depends on the rule of the logistikon, or rational principle, supported by the thymoeides, over the epithymetikon. When this hierarchy is reversed, personal corruption and political decline follow. Democracy encourages the expansion of appetites and may give way to tyranny, where epithymia reaches its fullest expression. Plato thus presents a pessimistic view of the human and political tendency toward disorder.