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

PLATO'S POLITICAL THEORY 75
view. As Plato puts it, the ordinary man does not know
what is good or why he ought to behave rightly, but he
does have correct opinions on these matters; or, as some
modern psychologists would say, he is conditioned by his
training and environment to think and act conformably
with the principles which determine the welfare of the
State. Once again, this conception of Plato's is a forerunner
of important developments in later thought. A
school of writers on ethics, known as the naturalistic
school, has sought to interpret all morals, both social and
individual, according to the principle in terms of which
Plato describes the purely conventional morals of his
third class. 1 All morality, that is to say, is explained and
interpreted by naturalistic writers in terms of social
expediency; it is never the expression of an insight into
an objective difference between right and wrong. The
existence of such an objective difference would, indeed,
be denied.
Summary. A recapitulation of the main points of the
foregoing exposition may be useful.
(i) There is, first, a conception of vocation. There are,
broadly, two sorts of men for whom there are appropriate
two sorts of lives. For both Plato recommends in youth
such training and education as will discipline the passions
and emotions and inculcate the ideals which are required
of a good citizen. For the members of the highest or
Guardian class, however, there is prescribed a further
education which seeks so to train the intellect that the
Guardian may become capable of apprehending the
Forms which constitute reality. For the Guardian class,
then, there is a further excellence which its members
possess, not as citizens, but as individuals. This is fundamentally
an excellence of the intellect.
(a) Secondly, the ideal State is a hierarchy of three
orders, each of which stands in a specific relation to the
other two. The members of the second and third orders
*See Chapter X, pp. 351, 35 ** 373-379-