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

PfATO'S POLITICAL THEORY 70
>rc, in any event remain less marked than that of members
f the first. Such as it is, it will be developed best by die
roper
exercise of the functions which the individual, is
ualified to perform. For this,' Plato would conclude,
[ have done my best to provide in my State, and, so
>ng as the philosopher-Guardians are in control, the
rovision will continue/
i) That there is No Right of Self-Government.
(ore formidable is the criticism which is based upon the
dage, "It is only the wearer who knows where the shoe
inches/' This, as we shall see later, embodies one of the
asic 1
presuppositions of democracy. Nobody, the democrat
rgues, can know what it is like to obey laws and live
nder a form of government except -those who are actually
ibject to the laws and those who actually suffer the
overnment. That is one of the reasons, and not the
&st important of them, why the subject should have a
oice in making the laws and choosing the government*
fe may be, in fact it is, the case that people who are imerfect
are better suited by imperfect laws which provide
>r their idiosyncrasies, make allowance for their weakesses
and reflect their needs, than by perfect ones which
resuppose the ability to conform to a standard of beaviour
which outruns their capacity. In any event,
eople must in the last resort be allowed to determine
>r themselves by what principles the society in which
icy live is to be governed, even if, owing to their intperiencc,
folly and stupidity, they make a worse job of
would have done,
inning society than Plato's philosophers
or it is better to be free to go wrong than to be compelled
> go right.
Plato would, I suppose, answer that, granted the
Efectiveness of his system of education, these aspirations
>r freedom and self-government could not possibly arise,
irk a citizen whose
or the laws could not conceivably
iucation had for its sole object the moulding
Sec Chapter XIX, pp. 7^796-
of the citizen