cost of shutting out all the workers; the strong sense of the social function of property;364 the practical denial of real private ownership of land; the demand for publicity in business, which is one of the chief suggestions for the regulation of corporations today;365 the active interest in the conservation of natural resources, which, while not socialistic, lies in the direction of greater social control;366 and the fact that distribution of the products of industry is made practically a function of the state.367 The demand for equality and unity is also somewhat analogous to the modern socialistic hostility to competition, which Ruskin calls the “law of death.”368 It may be added further that Plato’s description of the economic strife in his day is slightly suggestive of the criticism of capitalism by modern socialism.369 However, the basal motive of Plato is, again, not that of modern socialism. His aim is still primarily moral and political rather than material,370 and he exhibits less interest in the welfare of the laborers than he does in the Republic.371 Moreover, his demand for equality is prompted by exactly the same motive as was active in the Republic, not to ameliorate the condition of the laborer, whom he has relegated to slavery, but to avoid the hated civic discord (διάστασις) and to preserve the unity of the state.372 The equality too, is in no sense analogous to that sought by modern socialism, for, as seen above, it is merely equality within a class, comprising the aristocratic minority of the state, and does not touch the working masses at all.373 In fine then, though there are perhaps enough truly socialistic elements in the Laws to warrant the classification of Souchon, yet if Plato’s ideal were realized, it would be mainly a restoration of the old economic régime in Greece, based on agriculture and the family tenure of property. Such an ideal, modern socialists would doubtless fail to recognize as having much in common with their own.374
Table of Contents
CHAPTER III PLATO
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