[1264b]
[1]
But again, if Socrates
intends to make the Farmers have their wives in common but their property
private, who is to manage the household in the way in which the women's husbands
will carry on the work of the farms? And if the property and the wives of the
Farmers are to be common . . . 1
It
is also strange that Socrates employs
the comparison of the lower animals to show that the women are to have the same
occupations as the men, considering that animals have no households to manage.
Also Socrates' method of appointing the
magistrates is not a safe one. For he makes the same persons hold office always;
but this occasions rebellion even among people of no special distinction, much
more so then among high-spirited and warlike men. But it is clear that he is
compelled to make the same persons govern always, for the god-given admixture of
gold in the soul is not bestowed on some at one time and others at another time,
but is always in the same men, and
Socrates says that at the moment of birth some men receive an
admixture of gold and others of silver and those who are to be the Artisans and
Farmers an admixture of copper and iron. And again, although he deprives the Guardians of
happiness, he says that it is the duty of the law-giver to make the whole city
happy. But it is not possible for the whole to be happy unless most or all of
its parts, or some of them, possess happiness. For happiness is not a thing of
the same sort
[20]
as being an even number:
that may belong to a whole but not to either of its parts, but happiness cannot
belong to the whole and not to its parts. But yet, if the Guardians are not
happy, what other class is? For clearly the Artisans and the general mass of the
vulgar classes are not.The Republic discussed by
Socrates therefore possesses these
difficulties and also others not smaller than these.And almost the same holds
good of the Laws also, which was written later, so that it will
be advantageous to make some small examination of the constitution described in
that book as well. For in the Republic
Socrates has laid down details about
very few matters—regulations about community of wives and children and
about property, and the structure of the constitution (for the mass of
the population is divided into two parts, one forming the Farmer class and the
other the class that defends the state in war, and there is a third class drawn
from these latter that forms the council and governs the state), but
about the Farmers and the Artisans, whether they are excluded from government or
have some part in it, and whether these classes also are to possess arms and to
serve in war with the others or not, on these points
Socrates has made no decision, but though he
thinks that the women ought to serve in war with the Guardians and share the
same education, the rest of the discourse he has filled up with external topics,
and about the sort of education which it is proper for the Guardians to
have.2
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