[457d]
and that none shall cohabit with any
privately; and that the children shall be common, and that no parent shall
know its own offspring nor any child its parent.” “This
is a far bigger paradox than the other, and provokes more distrust as to its
possibility and its utility.1” “I presume,”
said I, “that there would be no debate about its utility, no
denial that the community of women and children would be the greatest good,
supposing it possible. But I take it that its possibility or the contrary
1 A distinct suggestion of the topics of the “useful” and the “possible” in Aristotle's Rhetoric.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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