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Western Political Thought

Notes make it. The rulers of this kind would pass off the benefits of good ruling to the rest of society that
stood disenfranchised.
Politics did not mean promoting one’s personal interests. Instead it was to promote the common
good. Plato thereby established a high standard for governing and governors.

Plato abolished private family and property for the guardian class, for they
encouraged nepotism, favouritism, particularism, factionalism and other corrupt
practices among rulers.

Plato proposed that the members of the guardian class live together in common, like soldiers in a
barrack. They would not possess any gold or silver. They would only have the small amount of
property that was necessary. None would own a house or storeroom, namely an exclusive private
space. They would receive a fixed quota from the producing class, depending on what was required
for subsistence. The life of the guardians would be in accordance with the rule followed among the
Greeks that “friends have all things in common”.
In the Republic, Plato devoted greater space and consideration to community of wives than to
property. This was because he was perturbed by the negative emotions of hatred, selfishness,
avarice and envy that the family encouraged. He disliked the exclusivity that the private family
fostered in its members. In addition, he was dismayed by the secondary position women held
within the family, confined to perform household chores.
The Platonic scheme was based on the premise that women and men were identical in natural
endowments and faculties. Like Pythagoras, he accepted that men and women did not differ much
and that they should be treated equally. Following Aristophanes’ proposal in Ecclesiazusae, Plato
accepted women as legislators and rulers. There were two distinct ideas that were embedded in
Plato’s community of wives: reform of conventional marriage, and emancipation of women. To
achieve these, he proposed abolition of permanent monogamous marriages and private families.
These were restricted to guardian women alone.
Conventional marriage led to women’s subordination, subjugation and seclusion. He rejected the
idea of marriage as a spiritual union or sacrament or bond based on love and mutual respect.
However, marriage was necessary to ensure the reproduction and continuation of the human race.
He, therefore, advocated temporary sexual unions for the purpose of bearing children. He relieved
women of child rearing and child care responsibilities.
Plato proposed strict regulation of sexual intercourse, which was to be performed in the interest of
the state by ensuring that the best and the fittest of human stock were made available.
The philosopher ruler would decide on sexual unions:
There would be as many unions of the best of both sexes, and as few of the inferior as
possible ... . No one but the Rulers must know how all this is being effected; otherwise
our herd of Guardians may become rebellious ... we must then institute certain festivals
at which we shall bring together the brides and bridegrooms ... the number of marriages
we shall leave to the Rulers’ discretion ... . I think they will have to invent some
ingenious system of drawing lots, so that, at each pairing off, the inferior candidate
may blame his luck rather than the rulers.
Men and women were freed from permanent marital ties, not with the purpose of encouraging
sexual promiscuity, but, rather for securing the greatest good of the community. Abortion was
recommended for illegitimate children, those that were not sanctioned by the state or were the
result of mating by persons beyond the prescribed age limits.

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