futures volume 4 issue 1 1972 [doi 10.1016%2f0016-3287%2872%2990026-2] i.f. clarke -- prophets and...

8/11/2019 Futures Volume 4 issue 1 1972 [doi 10.1016%2F0016-3287%2872%2990026-2] I.F. Clarke -- Prophets and predict

1/5

Prophets and Predictor s 75

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 capa-

city for profound and productive

thought-that has made him a power-

ful 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 ela-

borate 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 al-

though the circumstances of human

society have gone through profound

changes since then his design for an

ideal state is still central to the argu-

ment 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 University of Strathclyde

UK.

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 op-

posing interests of Gemeinschaft and

Gesellschaft that is between the benefits

of life in a closely related intimate

community and the practical advan-

tages 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 Pelopon-

nesian War. During the first twenty-

four 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 excep-

tion their system of government is bad.

Their constitutions are almost beyond

FUTURES March 872


2/5

76

Prophets and Predi ctors

redemption except through some mira-

culous 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 com-

mence.

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. Adei-

mantus

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 founda-

tion 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 specialisa-

tion 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 class-

the 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 Guardians-

who 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 972


3/5

Top. The perfect circle equals the ideal city: the human eye can take in all the functions of the govern-

ment and all the occupations of the city.

Bottom. If Plato could have seen his ideal city from above he would know that perfect town planning

expressed the social geometry of his utopia.


4/5

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 com-

munity 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 972


5/5

Prophets and Predictor s 79

for the Womens Liberation Army the final analysis Platos grand design

since Plato is convinced that women-

has its origin in a fake theology-a hoax

at least the women of the controlling

about nature and nurture-that is

classes-are as good as men and that

meant to make the state completely and

for the purposes of guarding the city eternally immutable. The fear of change

the nature of men and women is the is the inspiration of the first great

same. utopia in human history.

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 emo-

tions 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 constitu-

tion. 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 Auxi-

liaries and iron and copper in the

farmers and the other craftsmen. In

This suggests that the ideologue

constructs the ideal state in his own

image. In spite of the apparent objec-

tivity 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 ll possible worlds n 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 Refub

l i t

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-

FUTURES March 972

futures volume 4 issue 1 1972 [doi 10.1016%2f0016-3287%2872%2990026-2] i.f. clarke -- prophets and...

Documents