Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

i n t e r c han g e betweenthe t h r e e cIasse s (t r a desrna n, a ux ­
iii a r y, gua r dian) would be the grea tes t damage to the
city, and would rightfully be entitled evildoing in
chief . The greatest evildoing towards one's own
city is injustice ..• So this is injustice. On the
other hand, let us put it in this way. The opposite of
this, own-dealing of each class, money-makers, assistants
and guardians, each one of these doing its own
bus i n e s sin the city, w0 u I d be jus tice and wo u I d rna k e
the cit Y jus t • " ( 6 ) Sinceo r d e r, .p 1a. t 0 ass ume s, r equires
the conscious direction and integration of the
social units, the state becomes the indispensible agent
not only for justice but for the good life of every
individual.
Plato's argument can be put in syllogistic form:
1. Civil society benefits every
individual.
2. Civil society presupposes order.
3. Order, in turn, requires the conscious
direction and integration of the parts.
4 . Co n sci 0 u s d ire c t i on n e ce s sit ate s a
d ire c tor and the ref 0 r e e n t.a i 1 s the
state.
5 • The s tat e i s the ref 0 ret h e e s s en t i a 1
age n t for the at t a i n men t 0 f the good
life of every individual.
Rousseau's argument in the Social Contract is
n ear 1 y ide n tic a Ito t hat 0 f P I a to' s • ( 7 ) n I ass ume t tt
says Rousseau, "that me'n have reached a point at which
the obstacles that endanger their preservation in the
state of nature overcome by their resistance the forces
whie h e a chi n d i v i d u a I can ex e r t wit h a view t 0 rna i n ­
taining himself in that state. Then .this primitive
con d i t ion can nolo n g e r subsis t, and the huma n raee
would perish unless it changed its mode of existen
c e . tt ( 8 ) R 0 us sea u 's vehie I e for c hanging t his ttmo de
of ex i s tence tt is the social contract. "Rightly understood,
n says Rousseau, the terms of the contract "are
reducible to one only, viz., the total alienation to
the whole community of each associate with all his
rights." But he adds, since "each gives himself to
all, he gives himsel f to nobody; and as there is not
one associate over whom we do not acquire the same
rights which we concede to him over ourselves, we gain
the equivalent of all that we lose, and more power to
preserve what we have."(g) Clearly, Rousseau, like
Plato, believes that individuals enter into civil so-
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