Page 18 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Western Political Thought

Notes • The rulers, being enlightened despots, were given absolute powers but were put under strict
regimentation through collective households and property to ensure that they did not use
their privileged positions to exploit the rest. The artisans were denied political participation,
but were allowed to retain their families and property. Since the average person failed to
understand the meaning of what constituted the good, it became necessary for the political
leader to educate him. Moreover, Plato insisted that rulership, like any other skill, required
specialized training and apprenticeship. Society benefited if the right person performed the
right job to avoid the maladies of a round peg in a square hole. Plato defended this argument
deftly with the theory of three classes and three souls, emphasizing the bottom line that a
good state, like a good individual, should exemplify moderation in character, thereby
possessing the qualities of wisdom, courage, temperance and justice. Plato maintained that
justice was good in itself and not only for its consequences. It was valuable as it leads to the
happiness of its possessor.
• One of the casualties of the argument for specialization of skills was political participation by
the average individual. Plato was critical of the Athenian democratic practice that
distinguished between government based on law and one subjected to human will, preferring
the former, for it guaranteed moral equality of individuals and consent by the governed.
• At all events the ideal state ... was simply a denial of the political faith of the city state, with
its ideal of free citizenship and its hope that every man, within the limits of his powers might
be made a sharer in the duties and privileges of government .... Plato’s omission of law from
his ideal state cannot be interpreted otherwise than as a failure to perceive a striking moral
aspect of the very society which he desired to perfect.
• Plato’s Ideal State has been both an inspiration and a warning for subsequent efforts in
Utopian projects. Thomas More’s (1478-1535) Utopia (1516), Fra Tomaso Campanula’s (1568-
1639) The City of Sun (1602), and Francis Bacon’s (1561-1626) The New Atlantis (1627), were
patterned on the lines of the Republic. Plato’s attempt cautions us against utopianism, for
utopianism has led to totalitarianism. At the heart of a Utopian project is the chimerical idea
of finality, which is inherently incompatible in a world that is essentially pluralistic and not
amenable to complete solutions. Any effort to depict a perfect blueprint is not only
methodologically unsound, but also politically dangerous. It is not possible to foresee
everything and plan accordingly. Assuming that total planning is possible (like Plato and
other Utopian theorists suggest), who is to plan the planners? Utopianism is politically
dangerous, for it ignores and abuses individuality, liberty, plurality, tolerance, freedom of
choice and democracy.
• In a world of rapid change with history compressed, any radical programme of social action
and utopianism is ill-equipped and inadept to cope with stresses and shocks, thus becoming
a dinosaur. It is with the help of realistically conceived and practically feasible theories
emphasizing moderation, gradualism and majoritarianism, that change which is permanent
and swift, can be addressed. In realizing this essential fact, Aristotle scored over Plato, as his
realism proved to be much more enduring and valuable than Platonic idealism, which
remained unrealizable and impracticable.
1.6 Key-Words

1. Poton : Plato’s Sister
2. Adeimantus and Glaucon : Plato’s brother
3. Antiphon : Plato’s half-brother

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