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

CHAPTER III: PLATO'S POLITICAL
THEORY
Plato's Ideal State. I have devoted considerable
space to the exposition of Plato's ethical theory, partly
because of its intrinsic importance, and partly because it
provides the key to the understanding of his political
theory. For, mutatis mutandis, the latter reproduces die
former point by point. On & previous page 1 1 drew atten-
tion to the significance of die fact that to the ethical
problem set by Glaucon and Adeimantus, Socrates returns
a political answer. Hie answer takes the form of the con-
struction of an ideal State in which the principle of justice,
a definition of which has been demanded by Glaucon
and Adeimantus, together with a proof of its superiority
to injustice, may be seen writ large. I have not space to
enter into a description of the various features and provisions
of Plato's State, curious and interesting as they
are. They include a division ofthe citizens into three classes,
Guardians, Soldiers and Workers, the possession of wives
in common, at any rate by the highest, or Guardian class,
the exclusion of artists from the city on the ground that
most ofthem arouse emotions which are better left dormant,
and an economic communism which prohibits the owner-
ship of property by members of the Guardian class, in
order that they may have no temptation to distinguish
between what is theirs and what the State's. The neces-
saries of life are made available for the Guardians by the
third, or Worker, class; to these necessaries the Guardians
have free and unlimited access, but they do not own them.
Outstanding, as already indicated,' is a system ofeducation
which, taking charge of the child from its earliest years,
1 Scc Chapter I, p. 24, *Scc Chapter II, pp. 59, 60.