Examine Plato theory of communism  

Plato Theory of Communism and its Criticism | Plato Theory of Communism  

   The supreme concern of Plato was to secure justice in his ideal state. He could stress two essential elements for its realisation. One is a system of state control of education and the other is a new social order based on communism of property and family for the upper classes, the warriors and the rulers, who are sometimes called by a single name, the guardians. Another aim which was uppermost in his mind was to secure the unity and harmony of the state. He thought that this could be achieved only when the guardians did not pursue any interest of their own, apart from that of the state. Again this could be ensured only when the material condition in which the guardians lived could be such "as will neither deteriorate their virtue as guardians nor tempt them to prey upon the other citizens." Communism was the most effective agency whereby these material temptations which might allure them to go astray from the path of virtue could be removed.

    Barker points out that, communism, "is a heroic remedy for a desperate evil-the union of political power and economic temptation in the same hands". For, Plato was convinced that nothing was more disastrous for the purity and efficiency of administration than the union of political and economic power in the same hands. Those who weild political power in the state have economic interest of their own. They are most likely to forget their real mission and follow lines of action which would further them at the expense of the rest of the population. It reminds us of Marx who said that the economic class which controls the state machinery exploits the other classes for its own advantage. In psychological terms, the guardians could devote themselves to the discharge of their special duties of governing in the light of reason only when their lives were free from any economic motive issuing from appetite.

  As Gettell observes, the guardians had only one reason for existing-to promote the well-being of the state. If private property interferes with this purpose it should be abolished. Sabine, also writes: "So firmly was Plato convinced of the pernicious effect of wealth upon government that he saw no way to abolish the evil except by abolishing wealth itself, so far as, the soldiers and rulers are concerned". Unless private property is rigorously renounced, appetite may get the better of reason and may lead to selfish acquisition, corruption and neglect of duty. In such an environment, to use Alexander Gray's words, "May not the watchdog worry the sheep instead of the wolf?" In other words, the ruler may become a menace to the ruled, instead of being their protector. Therefore, the rulers will have no property, they will live in barracks and eat common meals. The bare necessaries of their lives are to be supplied by the artisans who will enjoy private property along individualist line.

Communism of Wives (abolition of family)

Concerning family relationship Plato was willing that the artisans continue to have private family and monogamous marriages, but such practices were not acceptable for the guardians. Plato reasoned that members of the guardian class must be entirely unselfish if they were to successfully discharge their duties. They could not even be allowed the privilege of being partial to their own children. Such partiality might take precedence over their duties to the state. The remedy lay in communising family relationships. Wives, husbands and children must be held in common and shared by all. These would lead to other advantages.

The advantages for the abolition of private family, as seen by Plato may be summed up thus:

1. Plato was convinced that family affection was a serious and powerful rival to the loyalty to the state. As Sabine explains: "Plato regards family affection towards particular persons as another potent rival to the state..." Plato thus condemned private family as a centre of exclusiveness where selfish and acquistive instincts find free play and this becomes the nursery of disunity and disharmony in society.

2. The abolition of family would also emancipate women from the soul-killing drudgery of the home and thus would enable them to devote their time and energy to the services of the state.

3. Richard Crossman points to an eugenic reason for the abolition of family ties. The abolition of family would be followed by an arrangement under which the state could choose suitable seasons and periods when persons of opposite sexes were to be selected by the state for temporary union for breeding the ideal type of children necessary for state purposes. Undesirable children were even to be 'exposed', that is, destroyed.

Criticism: Plato's theory of communism

Plato's theory of communism has been subjected to carping criticism from many quarters.

First, his conviction that private economic interest of the ruling class breeds corruption and disunity is unexceptionable but his prescription for curing the ills is unsound. The producing class for instance, cannot be kept away from participation in political life of the society for long, without clamours.

Secondly, it does not look just or natural to deny the blessings of family life based on private property to the guardians. Here Plato ignored the essential psychology of human nature. In all ages and in all climes, men of all classes have needed a certain minimum of personal possession through which alone they could best express their individuality. This is as applicable to the rulers as to other classes. To deny this private possession is to deliberately stunt the growth of individual personality.

Thirdly, private property is an institution of civilisation and its conditions. abolition even on a limited scale, represents a reversion to primitive

Fourthly, communism, as visualised by Plato for his ideal state, leads to its excessive unification. And it is a fact that the richness of life in the state depends not on an excessively centralised unity but on a diversity based on private property and private family. Plato's communism of property would repress industry, make men indolent and destroy the spirit of charity and benevolence.

Fifthly, Aristotle severely criticizes communism of property on several grounds:

(i) Real progress of society depends on cultivation of distinct interests by individuals based on private ownership which is a natural instinct of a man.

(ii) Unity of the state can best be promoted by proper education, and not by communism which only produces dead-level uniformity. (iii) Plato's communism of private property, applicable only to the guardian class, would produce dissension and disharmony among the classes instead of harmony and unity.

(iv) Communism of property, Aristotle fears, would lead to indifference, inefficiency and under-production, resulting from common neglect. Property is, again, a basis for natural extension of personality and an instrument of moral action to Aristotle.

Plato's communism represented a material cure for spiritual evil.

 Sixthly, Plato's communism of wives and children has also been ruthlessly attacked.

(A) The Platonic system ignores the influence of heredity and family environment and tradition on the nature of the child. It denies child the gentle influence of the home, the sweetness of family affection and the loving devotion of parents to securing the welfare of children. The parentless children under Plato's communistic system would be poor specimens of humanity thrown to the tender mercies of apathetic nurses. It has been rightly observed by Taylor that Plato "very much underestimates the significance of sex for whole of spiritual life."

(B) Plato's communism of wives condemns women to the masculine life of service to the state, by taking them out of the more congenial and useful life of housewife. After all, the qualities of sensibility, gentleness and grace are basic to the life of a woman, of which she would be deprived in Plato's communistic arrangement.

(C) Plato's system of state-controlled mating debases human being to the position of prize-stock animals. It ignores basic human psychology and so it is considered unworkable.

 (D) Plato, the eugenist, does not hesitate to recommend the annihilation of a child which is born weak and deformed in body or mind. Communism should, if anything, be humanistic in its core and content; but Plato's communism shows no mercy to the weaklings, the insanes and idiots. The theory is unethical and unworkable as well. A system, which is calculated to kill the parental urge of men and women living in society, is bound to come to grief.

(E) It has also been apprehended that Plato's theory may lead to incestuous love which the world has generally agreed to condemn.

(F) Aristotle disagrees with Plato in his theory of community of wives as well. The reasons are:

(i) that community of wives creates confusion and disharmony in social order.

(ii) that children common to all are bound to be neglected.

(iii) that state controlled mating will be unworkable, and will often fail to bring the best males and females together.

(iv) that it will make the guardian class most unhappy.

 Seventhly, Family is after all a natural school of moral conduct and preparation for service to the state. Communism of women will destroy family and weaken it. The habit of temperance which is an indispensable element of good character will disappear in such condition.

Eigthly, Plato's communism has been criticized as what Natorp calls, "half communism". For it is applicable to only the guardian class; but the artisans who form the majority in society could enjoy a private property without any let or hindrance.

Finally, Plato's system disallows an individual to identify himself with an association other than the state. Even the natural association of family is denied to him. 

Plato's Communism & Modern Communism

respects. Plato's communism differs from modern communism in certain

(1) While the former demands an equal abnegation of material of material goods. possession, the later demands equal division of labour and enjoyment

(2) While Plato's communism is concerned only with the two the society as a whole. upper classes of the society, modern communism is concerned with

Plato's communism ignores the economic classes specially the peasantry and the working class. But modern communism is concerned most for these two exploited classes.

(3) Plato's communism seeks to bring unity in state by preventing the combination of political authority with economic power in the same hand. Modern communism stands for giving all powers to the proletariat for ushering in a classless society.

(4) Plato's communism advocates the abolition of permanent, monogamous sexual relationship along with the abolition of private property, modern communism is concerned only with the prohibition of private property for all classes alike and the introduction of state ownership.

(5) Plato's communism seeks to establish unity of the state by changing the material environment through communism of property and of family in regard to a select group of upper class. Modern communism, on the other hand, endeavours to capture state power to establish dictatorship of the proletariat and not the rule of philosopher-king.

(6) Modern communism is primarily economic and only secondarily a political doctrine but Plato's communism is many-sided, having psychological, philosophical, ethical, political and specially ascetic aspects. Barker observes, "Platonic communism is aristocratic...it exists for the sake of whole society but not for the whole society. It exists only for the governing classes. In that sense it is a political and not an economic communism."

(7) The basic tenets of Marxism include dialectical materialism and class struggle; Platonic communism, on the other hand, has for its foundation an idealist orientation as well as class harmony as element of social stability.