THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO - Studyplace

INTRODUCTION
and assurance as in dealing with other things, and so missing whatever
value those other things might have' (505 E, p. 216). To possess
this good would be happiness; to know it would be wisdom;
to seek the knowledge of it is what Plato means by philosophy. If it
is true that this knowledge can be gained only by highly gifted natures
after a long course of intellectual discipline and practical experience,
then it is hard to deny the central paradox of the Republic,
that the human race will never see the end of troubles until p0­
litical power is entrusted to the lover of wisdom; who has learnt
what makes life worth living and who will 'despise all existing
honours as mean and worthless, caring only for the right and the
honours to be gained from that, and above all for justice as the one
indispensable thing in whose service and maintenance he will reorganize
his own state' (540 D, p. 262).
In such terms the author of the earliest Utopia in European literature
confronts the modern reader with the ultimate problem of
politics: How can the state be so ordered as to place effective control
in the hands of men who understand that you cannot make
either an individual or a society happy by making them richer or
more powerful than their neighbours So long as knowledge is valued
as the means to power, and power as the means to wealth, the
helm of the ship will be grasped by the ambitious man, whose
Bible is Machiavelli's Prince, or by the man of business, whose
Bible is his profit and loss account. It is Plato's merit to have seen
that this problem looms up, in every age, behind all the superficial
arguments of political expediency. Every reader will find
something to disagree with in Plato's solution, even when transposed
into terms appropriate to modern conditions; but if he will
seriously ask himself why he disagrees and what alternative he can
propose, the effort will help him to clear his own mind. Plato's
purpose will then be achieved, at least in part; for he never forgot
the lesson of Socrates, that wisdom begins when a man finds out
that he does not know what he thinks he knows.