Prophets and Predictors

Prophets and Predictors

2. THE PRIMACY

OF PLATO

I. F. CLARKE writes about

the first great utopia in human history and shows

how its authors social insights and power of thought have dominated the
literature of the ideal state for over two thousand years.

Plato is one of the rare original thinkers

in the history of philosophy. He shares
with St Augustine and with Kant an
exceptional
quality of mind-a
capacity
for profound
and
productive
thought-that
has made him a powerful influence
in Western
civilisation.
In the history of political theory he
maintains
an unquestioned
primacy:
he was the first to demonstrate how to
argue out the principles on which men
could construct
a rational
and just
society; and he was the first to elaborate an admirable dialectical method
for the analysis and communication
of
ideas. The pattern and the practice of
the Platonic prototype are constants in
the long history of utopian literature;
for the Republic and the Laws are both
Genesis
and
Deuteronomy
in the
political scriptures of the ideal state
and
of their
black
opposites-the
dystopias.
In 388 BC Plato founded the first
university-the
Academy-and
although the circumstances
of human
society have gone through
profound
changes since then, his design for an
ideal state is still central to the argument about the nature and direction
of society. In the Republic and the Laws
the great debate about the best social
Professor I. F. Clarke is Head of the English

Studies Department,
UK.

FUTURES

University of Strathclyde,

March 1872

system begins; and the discussion runs

from Plato to Marx,
from More to
Orwell, all of them dealing in their
own ways with the permanent problems
of political
order,
social
stability,
universal justice, and the happiness of
all citizens.
The
debate
continues
today-often
disastrously-because
there can be no end to it. Like Plato
we have
not
yet discovered
any
satisfactory
means of reconciling
the
permanent
division between the opposing interests
of Gemeinschaft and
Gesellschaft: that is, between the benefits
of life in a closely related, intimate
community
and the practical
advantages of the impersonal,
bureaucratic
state.
The shaping factors at work in the
Platonic utopia were the system of life
in the cities of the Greek mainland and
the fearful experiences of the Peloponnesian War. During the first twentyfour years of his life the young Plato
had seen the worst effects of warfare in
constant slaughter, frequent epidemics,
famine, finally the collapse of Athens
and the subsequent
terror
of the
Thirty Tyrants.
His conclusions were
a verdict against the political systems
of his time; for he describes how he:
finally saw clearly in regard to all
states now existing that without exception their system of government is bad.
Their constitutions are almost beyond

75

76

Prophets and Predictors

redemption, except through some miraculous plan accompanied

by good
luck.
It followed,
therefore,
that:
the human race will not be free from
evils until either the stock of those who
rightly
and truly follow philosophy
acquire political authority, or the class
who have power in the cities be led by
some dispensation
of providence
to
become
real philosophers.
On the
day when Tammany
Hall transfers to
Harvard,
the millennium
will commence.
The dialogue of the Republic opens
with a discussion about the nature of
justice; but the first statements on the
arrangement
of an ideal state only
appear when the speakers go on to
consider the origin of the city. Adeimantus
and
Glaucon
agree
with
Socrates that the city must begin from
a primordial fact in nature: No one
of us is sufficient for himself, but each
is in need of many things.
Since
economic advantage decides the foundation of cities, and since men have
different
talents and abilities,
it is
clear that the communal
economy
requires the division and specialisation
of labour,
so that all citizens can
benefit from the multifarious activities
of the crafts, trades and professions. In
this Plato was, like all planners of ideal
states, very much a man of his times:
his theory grows out of his experience;
ethical and political considerations act
in parallel with an exceptionally acute
understanding
of social development.
Plato sets out, therefore, to frame a
system of government that would avoid
wasting
wars
between
cities
and
anarchic factions within cities. For him
and for all Athenians
of the fourth
century
the city was the whole of
civilisation;
it was the source and
guarantee of life, law and liberty. But
because Plato could not imagine any
other form of social organisation,
he
accepted the basic facts of life in the
Greek polis-slavery,
a rigid social
system, preparedness for war. His ideal
scheme reflects the physical and the

political conditions
of a real city: it
lies within a river valley, close to the
sea, surrounded by enough arable land
to feed the citizens, with a river for fish,
and uplands that provide olives and
wood. As the city grows in size,
trouble follows; for the day will come,
says Plato, when the land which was
sufficient to support the first population
will be now insufficient and too small.
Then if we were to have enough for
pasture and ploughland, we must take
a slice from our neighbours territory.
The logic of Platos theory of history
demands
a standing
army for the
protection
of the community;
and
since the basic principle of specialisation directs every citizen to the one task
for which
nature
fitted him,
it
follows that the defenders of the state
must be carefully
selected for their
qualities of mind and body.
Plato divided the tasks of work and
warfare between the labouring classthe Artisans-and
the Auxiliaries,
a
warrior
caste entirely
dedicated
to
military matters. And now what is the
next question?,
asked Plato. Is it not
who of these citizens are to rule, and
who are to be ruled ? And Plato
completes his social structure by adding
a third supreme class-the
Guardianswho are selected from the best, bravest,
wisest and most devoted of the citizens.
Here, then, is the answer to the original
question about the nature of justice.
For the state can be said to be truly
just, when all three classes and all
individuals carry out their duties: that
is, when all act according
to this
principle abiding in child and woman,
in slave and freeman and artisan, in
ruler and ruled, that each minded his
own business, one man one work.
This
doctrine
of social roles looks
forward to Karl Marx. Plato is saying,
in effect,
from each
according
to
ability and to each according to the part
played
in the social scheme.
This
principle
comes
out with startling
clarity in the fifth Book of the Republic.
The passage should be required reading

FUTURES

March 1972

Top. The perfect circle equals

ment and all the occupations

the ideal city:

of the city.

Bottom.
If Plato could have seen his ideal
expressed
the social geometry
of his utopia.

the human
city from

eye can take in all the functions

above,

he would

know

that

perfect

of the governtown

planning

Above. The direction

of all citizens
is
the basic
postulate
in the Platonic
proposition:
the heart of the ideal city
is the centre
of all government
and
social activity.
Left. The image of the perfect state as
a self-contained
and enclosed
community
carried
on from
Plato
into
modern times. In this illustration
from
a seventeenth
century
utopia
the
explorers
make the journey
to the
ideal commonwealth.

FUTURES

March

1972

Prophets and Predictors

for the Womens

Liberation
Army,
since Plato is convinced that womenat least the women of the controlling
classes-are
as good as men and that
for the purposes of guarding the city
the nature of men and women is the
same.
As the relentless logic piles up the
ordinances
and
regulations
of the
Platonic paradise, political and ethical
principles
complete the pattern of a
totalitarian
state. For example,
Plato
saves the citizen from the dangers of
self-centred thinking and private emotions by bringing all men to the same
common
denominator.
He
forbids
private
property
and
proposes
a
thorough-going
communism;
a careful
and compulsory
system of education
induces a common attitude of mind;
and precise instructions govern sexual
relations in order that a sound mating
system will produce the best citizens
and that the rulers may as far as
possible keep the population
at the
same level, having regard to wars and
diseases and all such ravages.
The
direction of the state derives in every
way from established first principles: a
rigid
censorship
decides
what
the
young can read, and a benign system
of propaganda
promotes social unity
with suitable lies, since it pertains to
the guardians of the city, and to them
alone, to tell falsehoods,
to deceive
either enemies or citizens for the citys
welfare. In fact, the foundation of the
ideal state is to depend on one noble
falsehood,
concocted
with the set
purpose of consolidating
the constitution. Plato proposed the creation of a
special myth in order to explain the
divine origin of the social system. The
obedient citizens are to be told: You
in this city are all brothers-so
we
shall tell our tale to them-but
God as
he was fashioning
you, put gold in
those of you who are capable of ruling;
and hence they are deserving of most
reverence. He put silver in the Auxiliaries, and iron and copper in the
farmers and the other craftsmen.
In

FUTURES

March 1972

the final analysis Platos grand design

has its origin in a fake theology-a
hoax
about
nature
and nurture-that
is
meant to make the state completely and
eternally immutable. The fear of change
is the inspiration
of the first great
utopia in human history.
This
suggests that the ideologue
constructs the ideal state in his own
image. In spite of the apparent objectivity of the argument
the perfect
social scheme
is both
the natural
product of theory and the practical
answer to social problems. The utopist
sets out to provide a blue-print for the
best of all possible worlds in order to wipe
out-at
least in the imagination-the
disorder
and injustice
he finds in
society.
The
basic elements
of his
social geometry are the views he holds
about mans place in nature; and for
this reason the Republic and the Laws
described
a perfect,
changeless
city
state that was the mirror image of
Greek philosophy.
The metaphysical
context of Platos propositions was his
theory of the Forms, those Ideas or
objective
essences
that
are outside
space and time. Since these are perfect,
and since
all material
things
are
imperfect copies of the ideal Forms, it
follows that all change
must be a
movement away from perfection. Again
it follows that, since society is sick the
only
true
physician
must
be the
philosopher
and the only adequate
remedy must prescribe for the eternal
and unchanging tranquillity of the city
state.
Plato earned his preeminence
in the
history of utopias. His extraordinary
social
insights
and his exceptional
power of thought have dominated the
literature
of the ideal state for more
than two thousand years. In the Refublit Plato gave the world both a measure
with which to assess later utopias and a
method for the writing of utopias. In
terms of political enquiry the Republic
was the equivalent of the alphabet-a
communications
device
capable
of
handling
all the diverse and com-

79