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Western Political Thought

Notes of virtue and individuality. It was the foundation of moral life. According to Plato, self-
interest was morally dangerous and harmful as it corrupted individuals and perverted social
life. The Ideal State however precluded plurality, for diverse allegiances led to inevitable and
intolerable conflicts. The Ideal State, with unity as its goal, was projected as an essential
precondition for both order and genuine freedom.
• The problem for Plato, as it was to be the problem for Rousseau two thousand years later,
was that of discovering the conditions within which the absolute freedom of the individual
could be combined with absolute justice of the state.
• Plato’s political theory affirmed absolutes and permanent truths, against the ethical relativism
of Heraclitus and the democratic upsurge in Periclean Athens. His dialogues “are the earliest
and the most fertile source of discussion of ultimate values, efforts to question conventional
morality” (Berlin 1978: 3). This quest to find the ideal and perfect manifested itself in the
form of rule by an aristocracy of intellect, suggesting that any deviation from the ideal
represented degeneration, imperfection and therefore was evil. He desired to arrest all change,
for he conceived a perfect state to be static and unchanging (Popper 1945). Philosophically,
he combated Heraclitan logic by invoking a mystical distinction between the intellect and
sense; politically, he countered the democratic temper by defending an aristocracy of
philosopher rulers. His state, apparently radical, actually embodied the values of a
conservative aristocracy, like order, stability, meritocracy and rule by the few.

2.6 Key-Words

1. Thymos : Dignity
2. Timocracy : A state being governed on principles of honour and military glory.

2.7 Review Questions

1. Critically examine Plato’s Theory of Education.
2. Explain the importance of community of wives and property in Plato’s Ideal State
3. Briefly describe Plato’s Communism.
Answers: Self-Assessment
(i) Tyranny (ii)20 (iii) 20 and 40 (iv) Self-worth and dignity

2.8 Further Readings

1. Mukherjee, S. and Ramaswamy, S. 2004: A History of Political Thought, PHI
Learning Pvt. Ltd.
2. Mukhopadhyay, A.K. 1990 Western Political Thought, Calcutta - KP Bagchi and
Company.

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