GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

706 ETHICS AND POLITICS*. THE MODERNS
it is in effect adopting the same scale of valuation as that
by which Capitalism is dominated. Communism, in short,
would not set different ends before man, to serve as his
ideals and to inspire his efforts; it would retain the ends of
Capitalism, but it would pursue them more effectively,
and it would add to them the good of economic justice*
Plato would point out that wealth and, he would add,
the happiness which wealth can give, are the ends appropriate
to his third class* He would further draw attention
to the fact that wealth, regarded as an end, divides man-
kind, in that, if one man has it, another cannot have it.
Even the most intensive application to the processes of
production of the fullest development of scientific technique
that we can now envisage, would produce only a
limited quantity of wealth. The members of a community
which value wealth as an end will then, Plato would point
out, be perpetually struggling among themselves for the
largest share. A state whose members are engaged in
struggle is a State divided against itself; it will harbour
within its borders conflict and rivalry and nurture cor-
ruption and neptoism* Such a State is likened to the condition
of a soul which is governed not by reason, but by
the appetites. It is, moreover, one in which men whose souls
are dominated by their appetites will come to power.
In brief, then, the State that values wealth will be harassed
by constant internal strife and cannot long endure. These
consequences, Plato would conclude, are bound to result
from the setting up of false gods, namely, material objects,
wealth and economic power, as the ends of human endeavour
and the objects of human reverence. The good
and wise man, Plato would add, does not desire material
possessions for himself, nor does he value his fellows in
proportion as they possess them.
This contempt for purely material goods was characteristic
of much Greek thought. To desire possessions was,
for men pervaded by Platonic ideals, a mark of ill-breed*
ing. As for social reform, writes Plotinus, who developed
Plato's philosophy on its mystical side, "men complain