- They have taken no precautions to regulate population accordingly.815 * They set no proper limit between luxury and penury for individual possessions.816 Plato’s system is not thoroughgoing, since it allows inequalities in personal property, a criticism also valid against his own proposals.817 Phaleas failed to include personal property in his system of equality.818 > Such strictures seem to proceed from his pedantic desire to criticize inconsistency. However, he may have apprehended more clearly than did Plato the danger of the press of poverty that must eventually result from a system like that of
Our author is also strong in his denial of either the wisdom or feasibility of the communism in the Republic.820 He argues that Plato’s proposed family communism is based upon the false principle that a state must be composed of like elements,821 and shows that it must fail to accomplish its end of harmony, for Plato’s “all” must mean all collectively.822 But this must result, if realized, in a decrease of devotion,823 and thus in a lack of the very harmony sought,824 since one of the chief sources of attachment in the world is exclusive ownership.825 He would deem such a measure, therefore, more fitting for the third class, since a weakening of their ties of affection might result in greater submission to the rulers,826 another striking evidence of the gulf that separates the ideal of Greek political thought from the spirit of modern democracy.