The Open Society and Its Enemies, by Karl R. Popper

"Science," the Greek word for knowledge, when appended to the word "political," creates what seems like an oxymoron. For who could claim to know politics? More complicated than any game, most people who play it become addicts and die without understanding what they were addicted to. The rest of us suffer under their malpractice as our "leaders." A truer case of the blind leading the blind could not be found. Plumb the depths of confusion here.

Re: The Open Society and Its Enemies, by Karl R. Popper

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Part 1 of 18

Notes

General Remarks.

The text of the book is self-contained and may be read without these Notes. However, a considerable amount of material which is likely to interest all readers of the book will be found here, as well as some references and controversies which may not be of general interest. Readers who wish to consult the Notes for the sake of this material may find it convenient first to read without interruption through the text of a chapter, and then to turn to the Notes.

I wish to apologize for the perhaps excessive number of cross-references which have been included for the benefit of those readers who take a special interest in one or other of the side issues touched upon (such as Plato's preoccupation with racialism, or the Socratic Problem). Knowing that war conditions would make it impossible for me to read the proofs, I decided to refer not to pages but to note numbers. Accordingly, references to the text have been indicated by notes such as: 'cp. text to note 24 to chapter 3', etc. War conditions also restricted library facilities, making it impossible for me to obtain a number of books, some recent and some not, which would have been consulted in normal circumstances.

* Notes which make use of material which was not available to me when writing the manuscript for the first edition of this book (and other notes which I wish to characterize as having been added to the book since 1943) are enclosed by asterisks; not all new additions to the notes have, however, been so marked.*

Note to Introduction

For Kant's motto, see note 41 to chapter 24, and text.

The terms 'open society' and 'closed society' were first used, to my knowledge, by Henri Bergson, in Two Sources of Morality and Religion (Engl, ed., 1935). In spite of a considerable difference (due to a fundamentally different approach to nearly every problem of philosophy) between Bergson's way of using these terms and mine, there is a certain similarity also, which I wish to acknowledge. (Cp. Bergson's characterization of the closed society, op. cit., p. 229, as 'human society fresh from the hands of nature'.) The main difference, however, is this. My terms indicate, as it were, a rationalist distinction; the closed society is characterized by the belief in magical taboos, while the open society is one in which men have learned to be to some extent critical of taboos, and to base decisions on the authority of their own intelligence (after discussion). Bergson, on the other hand, has a kind of religious distinction in mind. This explains why he can look upon his open society as the product of a mystical intuition, while I suggest (in chapters 10 and 24) that mysticism may be interpreted as an expression of the longing for the lost unity of the closed society, and therefore as a reaction against the rationalism of the open society. From the way my term 'The Open Society' is used in chapter 10, it may be seen that there is some resemblance to Graham Wallas' term 'The Great Society'; but my term may cover a 'small society' too, as it were, like that of Periclean Athens, while it is perhaps conceivable that a 'Great Society' may be arrested and thereby closed. There is also, perhaps, a similarity between my 'open society' and the term used by Walter Lippmann as the title of his most admirable book. The Good Society (1937). See also note 59 (2) to chapter 10 and notes 29, 32, and 58 to chapter 24, and text.

Notes to Volume I

Notes to Chapter One


For Pericles' motto, see note 31 to chapter 10, and text. Plato's motto is discussed in some detail in notes 33 and 34 to chapter 6, and text.

1. I use the term 'collectivism' only for a doctrine which emphasizes the significance of some collective or group, for instance, 'the state' (or a certain state; or a nation; or a class) as against that of the individual. The problem of collectivism versus individualism is explained more fully in chapter 6, below; see especially notes 26 to 28 to that chapter, and text. — Concerning 'tribalism', cp. chapter 10, and especially note 38 to that chapter (list of Pythagorean tribal taboos).

2. This means that the interpretation does not convey any empirical information, as shown in my The Logic of Scientific Discovery.

3. One of the features which the doctrines of the chosen people, the chosen race, and the chosen class have in common is that they originated, and became important, as reactions against some kind of oppression. The doctrine of the chosen people became important at the time of the foundation of the Jewish church, i.e. during the Babylonian captivity; Count Gobineau's theory of the Aryan master race was a reaction of the aristocratic emigrant to the claim that the French Revolution had successfully expelled the Teutonic masters. Marx's prophecy of the victory of the proletariat is his reply to one of the most sinister periods of oppression and exploitation in modern history. Compare with these matters chapter 10, especially note 39, and chapter 17, especially notes 13-15, and text.

* One of the briefest and best summaries of the historicist creed can be found in the radically historicist pamphlet which is quoted more fully at the end of note 12 to chapter 9, entitled Christians in the Class Struggle, by Gilbert Cope, Foreword by the Bishop of Bradford. ('Magnificat' Publication No. 1, Published by the Council of Clergy and Ministers for Common Ownership, 1942, 28, Maypole Lane, Birmingham 14.) Here we read, on pp. 5-6: 'Common to all these views is a certain quality of "inevitability plus freedom". Biological evolution, the class conflict succession, the action of the Holy Spirit — all three are characterized by a definite motion towards an end. That motion may be hindered or deflected for a time by deliberate human action, but its gathering momentum cannot be dissipated, and though the final stage is but dimly apprehended, it is 'possible to know enough about the process to help forward or to delay the inevitable flow. In other words, the natural laws of what we observe to be "progress" are sufficiently... understood by men so that they can... either... make efforts to arrest or divert the main stream — efforts which may seem to be successful for a time, but which are in fact foredoomed to failure.'*

4. Hegel said that, in his Logic, he had preserved the whole of Heraclitus' teaching. He also said that he owed everything to Plato. *It may be worth mentioning that Ferdinand von Lassalle, one of the founders of the German social democratic movement (and, like Marx, a Hegelian), wrote two volumes on Heraclitus.*

Notes to Chapter Two

1. The question 'What is the world made of?' is more or less generally accepted as the fundamental problem of the early Ionian philosophers. If we assume that they viewed the world as an edifice, the question of the ground-plan of the world would be complementary to that of its building material. And indeed, we hear that Thales was not only interested in the stuff the world is made of, but also in descriptive astronomy and geography, and that Anaximander was the first to draw up a ground-plan, i.e. a map of the earth. Some further remarks on the Ionian school (and especially on Anaximander as predecessor of Heraclitus) will be found in chapter 10; cp. notes 38-40 to that chapter, especially note 39.

* According to R. Eisler, Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt , p. 693, Homer's feeling of destiny ('moira') can be traced back to oriental astral mysticism which deifies time, space, and fate. According to the same author (Revue de Synthese Historique, 41, app., p. 16 f), Hesiod's father was a native of Asia Minor, and the sources of his idea of the Golden Age, and the metals in man, are oriental. (Cp. on this question Eisler 's forthcoming posthumous study of Plato, Oxford 1950.) Eisler also shows (Jesus Basileus, vol. II, 618 f) that the idea of the world as a totality of things ('cosmos') goes back to Babylonian political theory. The idea of the world as an edifice (a house or tent) is treated in his Weltenmantel.'

2. See Diels, Die Vorsokratiker, 5th edition, 1934 (abbreviated here as 'D5'), fragment 124; cp. also D5, vol. II, p. 423, lines 21 f (The interpolated negation seems to me methodologically as unsound as the attempt of certain authors to discredit the fragment altogether; apart from this, I follow Rustow's emendation.) For the two other quotations in this paragraph, see Plato, Cratylus, 40 Id, 402a/b.

My interpretation of the teaching of Heraclitus is perhaps different from that commonly assumed at present, for instance from that of Burnet. Those who may feel doubtful whether it is at all tenable are referred to my notes, especially the present note and notes 6, 7, and 11, in which I am dealing with Heraclitus' natural philosophy, having confined my text to a presentation of the historicist aspect of Heraclitus' teaching and to his social philosophy. I further refer them to the evidence of chapters 4 to 9, and especially of chapter 10, in whose light Heraclitus' philosophy, as I see it, appears as a somewhat typical reaction to the social revolution which he witnessed. Cp. also the notes 39 and 59 to that chapter (and text), and the general criticism of Burnet's and Taylor's methods in note 56.

As indicated in the text, I hold (with many others, for instance, with Zeller and Grote) that the doctrine of universal flux is the central doctrine of Heraclitus. As opposed to this, Burnet holds that this 'is hardly the central point in the system' of Heraclitus (cp. Early Greek Philosophy, 2nd ed., 163). But a close inspection of his arguments (158 f) leaves me quite unconvinced that Heraclitus' fundamental discovery was the abstract metaphysical doctrine 'that wisdom is not the knowledge of many things, but the perception of the underlying unity of warring opposites', as Burnet puts it. The unity of opposites is certainly an important part of Heraclitus' teaching, but it can be derived (as far as such things can be derived; cp. note 11 to this chapter, and the corresponding text) from the more concrete and intuitively understandable theory of flux; and the same can be said of Heraclitus' doctrine of the fire (cp. note 7 to this chapter).

Those who suggest, with Burnet, that the doctrine of universal flux was not new, but anticipated by the earlier Ionians, are, I feel, unconscious witnesses to Heraclitus' originality; for they fail now, after 2,400 years, to grasp his main point. They do not see the difference between a flux or circulation within a vessel or an edifice or a cosmic framework, i.e. within a totality of things (part of the Heraclitean theory can indeed be understood in this way, but only that part of it which is not very original; see below), and a universal flux which embraces everything, even the vessel, the framework itself (cp. Lucian in D5 I, p. 190) and which is described by Heraclitus' denial of the existence of any fixed thing whatever. (In a way, Anaximander had made a beginning by dissolving the framework, but there was still a long way from this to the theory of universal flux. Cp. also note 15 (4) to chapter 3.)

The doctrine of universal flux forces Heraclitus to attempt an explanation of the apparent stability of the things in this world, and of other typical regularities. This attempt leads him to the development of subsidiary theories, especially to his doctrine of fire (cp. note 7 to this chapter) and of natural laws (cp. note 6). It is in this explanation of the apparent stability of the world that he makes much use of the theories of his predecessors by developing their theory of rarefaction and condensation, together with their doctrine of the revolution of the heavens, into a general theory of the circulation of matter, and of periodicity. But this part of his teaching, I hold, is not central to it, but subsidiary. It is, so to speak, apologetic, for it attempts to reconcile the new and revolutionary doctrine of flux with common experience as well as with the teaching of his predecessors. I believe, therefore, that he is not a mechanical materialist who teaches something like the conservation and circulation of matter and of energy; this view seems to me to be excluded by his magical attitude towards laws as well as by his theory of the unity of opposites which emphasizes his mysticism.

My contention that the universal flux is the central theory of Heraclitus is, I believe, corroborated by Plato. The overwhelming majority of his explicit references to Heraclitus (Crat, 401d, 402a/b, 411, 437ff , 440; Theaet, 153c/d, 160d, 177c, 179d f , 182a ff , 183a ff., cp. dlso Symp., 207d, Phil., 43a; cp. also Aristotle's Metaphysics, 987a33, 1010al3, 1078b 13) witness to the tremendous impression made by this central doctrine upon the thinkers of that period. These straightforward and clear testimonies are much stronger than the admittedly interesting passage which does not mention Heraclitus' name (Soph., 242d f., quoted already, in connection with Heraclitus, by Ueberweg and Zeller), on which Burnet attempts to base his interpretation. (His other witness, Philo Judaeus, cannot count much as against the evidence of Plato and Aristotle.) But even this passage agrees completely with our interpretation. (With regard to Burnet's somewhat wavering judgement concerning the value of this passage, cp. note 56(7) to chapter 10.) Heraclitus' discovery that the world is not the totality of things but of events or facts is not at all trivial; this can be perhaps gauged by the fact that Wittgenstein has found it necessary to reaffirm it quite recently: 'The world is the totality of facts, not of things.' (Cp. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1921/22, sentence 1.1; italics mine.)

To sum up. I consider the doctrine of universal flux as fundamental, and as emerging from the realm of Heraclitus' social experiences. All other doctrines of his are in a way subsidiary to it. The doctrine of fire (cp. Aristotle's Metaphysics, 984a7, 1067a2; also 989a2, 996a9, 5; Physics, 205a3) I consider to be his central doctrine in the field of natural philosophy; it is an attempt to reconcile the doctrine of flux with our experience of stable things, a link with the older theories of circulation, and it leads to a theory of laws. And the doctrine of the unity of opposites I consider as something less central and more abstract, as a forerunner of a kind of logical or methodological theory (as such it inspired Aristotle to formulate his law of contradiction), and as linked to his mysticism.

3. W. Nestle, Die Vorsokratiker (1905), 35.

4. In order to facilitate the identification of the fragments quoted, I give the numbers of Bywater's edition (adopted, in his English translation of the fragments, by Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy), and also the numbers of Diels' 5th edition.

Of the eight passages quoted in the present paragraph, (1) and (2) are from the fragments B 114 (= Bywater, and Burnet), D5 121 (= Diels, 5th edition). The others are from the fragments: (3) B 111, D5 29; cp. Plato's Republic, 586a/b... (4): B 111, D5 104... (5): B 112, D5 39 (cp. D5, vol. I, p. 65, Bias, 1)... (6): B 5, D5 17... (7): B 110, D5 33... (8): B 100, D5 44.

5. The three passages quoted in this paragraph are from the fragments: (1) and (2): cp. B 41, D5 91; for (1) cp. also note 2 to this chapter; (3): D5 74.

6. The two passages are B 21, D5 31; and B 22, D5 90.

7. For Heraclitus' 'measures' (or laws, or periods), see B 20, 21, 23, 29; D5 30, 31, 94. (D 31 brings 'measure' and 'law' (logos) together.)

The five passages quoted later in this paragraph are from the fragments: (1): D5, vol. I, p. 141, line 10. (Cp. Diog. Laert., IX, 7.)... (2): B 29, D5 94 (cp. note 2 to chapter 5)... (3): B 34, D5 100... (4): B 20, D5 30... (5): B 26, D5 66.

(1) The idea of law is correlative to that of change or flux, since only laws or regularities within the flux can explain the apparent stability of the world. The most typical regularities within the changing world known to man are the natural periods: the day, the moon-month, and the year (the seasons). Heraclitus' theory of law is, I believe, logically intermediate between the comparatively modem views of 'causal laws' (held by Leucippus and especially by Democritus) and Anaximander's dark powers of fate. Heraclitus' laws are still 'magical', i.e. he has not yet distinguished between abstract causal regularities and laws enforced, like taboos, by sanctions (with this, cp. chapter 5, note 2). It appears that his theory of fate was connected with a theory of a 'Great Year' or 'Great Cycle' of 18,000 or 36,000 ordinary years. (Cp. for instance J. Adam's edition of The Republic of Plato, vol. II, 303.) I certainly do not think that this theory is an indication that Heraclitus did not really believe in a universal flux, but only in various circulations which always re-established the stability of the framework; but I think it possible that he had difficulties in conceiving a law of change, and even of fate, other than one involving a certain amount of periodicity. (Cp. also note 6 to chapter 3.)

(2) Fire plays a central role in Heraclitus' philosophy of nature. (There may be some Persian influence here.) The flame is the obvious symbol of a flux or process which appears in many respects as a thing. It thus explains the experience of stable things, and reconciles this experience with the doctrine of flux. This idea can easily be extended to living bodies which are like flames, only burning more slowly. Heraclitus teaches that all things are in flux, all are like fire; their flux has only different 'measures' or laws of motion. The 'bowl' or 'trough' in which the fire burns will be in a much slower flux than the fire, but it will be in flux nevertheless. It changes, it has its fate and its laws, it must be burned into by the fire, and consumed, even if it takes a longer time before its fate is fulfilled. Thus, 'in its advance, the fire will judge and convict everything' (B 26, D5 66).

Accordingly, the fire is the symbol and the explanation of the apparent rest of things in spite of their real state of flux. But it is also a symbol of the transmutation of matter from one stage (fuel) into another. It thus provides the link between Heraclitus' intuitive theory of nature and the theories of rarefaction and condensation, etc., of his predecessors. But its flaring up and dying down, in accordance with the measure of fuel provided, is also an instance of a law. If this is combined with some form of periodicity, then it can be used to explain the regularities of natural periods, such as days or years. (This trend of thought renders it unlikely that Burnet is right in disbelieving the traditional reports of Heraclitus' belief in a periodical conflagration, which was probably connected with his Great Year; cp. Aristotle, Physics, 205a3 with D5 66.)

8. The thirteen passages quoted in this paragraph are from the fragments.

(1): B 10, D5 123... (2): B 11, D5 93... (3): B 16, D5 40... (4): B 94, D5 73... (5): B 95, D5 89... with (4) and (5), cp. Plato's Republic, 476c f , and 520c... (6): B 6, D5 19... (7): B 3, D5 34... (8): B 19, D5 41... (9): B 92, D5 2... (10): B 91a, D5 113... (11): B 59, D5 10... (12): B 65, D5 32... (13):B28, D5 64.

9. More consistent than most moral historicists, Heraclitus is also an ethical and juridical positivist (for this term, cp. chapter 5): 'All things are, to the gods, fair and good and right; men, however, have taken up some things as wrong, and some as right' (D5 102, B 61; see passage (8) in note 11.) That he was the first juridical positivist is attested by Plato (Theaet, 177c/d). On moral and juridical positivism in general, cp. chapter 5 (text to notes 14-18) and chapter 22.

10. The two passages quoted in this paragraph are: (1): B 44, D5 53... (2): B 62, D5 80.

11. The nine passages quoted in this paragraph are: (1): B 39, D5 126... (2): B 104, D5 111... (3): B 78, D5 88... (4): B 45, D5 51... (5): D5 8... (6): B 69, D5 60... (7): B 50, D5 59... (8): B 61, D5 102 (cp. note 9)... (9): B 57, D5 58. (Cp. Aristotle, Physics, 185b20.)

Flux or change must be the transition from one stage or property or position to another. In so far as flux presupposes something that changes, this something must remain identically the same, even though it assumes an opposite stage or property or position. This links the theory of flux to that of the unity of opposites (cp. Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1005b25, 1024a24 and 34, 1062a32, 1063a25) as well as the doctrine of the oneness of all things; they are all only different phases or appearances of the one changing something (of fire).

Whether 'the path that leads up' and 'the path that leads down' were originally conceived as an ordinary path leading first up a mountain, and later down again (or perhaps: leading up from the point of view of the man who is down, and down from that of the man who is up), and whether this metaphor was only later applied to the processes of circulation, to the path that leads up from earth through water (perhaps liquid fuel in a bowl?) to the fire, and down again from the fire through the water (rain?) to earth; or whether Heraclitus' path up and down was originally applied by him to this process of circulation of matter; all this can of course not be decided. (But I think that the first alternative is more likely in view of the great number of similar ideas in Heraclitus' fragments: cp. the text.)

12. The four passages are: (1): B 102, D5 24... (2): B 101, D5 25 (a closer version which more or less preserves Heraclitus' pun is: 'Greater death wins greater destiny.' Cp. also Plato's Laws, 903 d/e; contrast With. Rep. 617 d/e)... (3): B 111, D5 29 (part of the continuation is quoted above; see passage (3) in note 4)... (4): B 113, D5 49.

13. It seems very probable (cp. Meyer's Gesch. d. Altertums, esp. vol. I) that such characteristic teachings as that of the chosen people originated in this period, which produced several other religions of salvation besides the Jewish.

14. Comte, who in France developed a historicist philosophy not very dissimilar from Hegel's Prussian version, tried, like Hegel, to stem the revolutionary tide. (Cp. F. A. von Hayek, The Counter-Revo lution of Science, Economica, N.S. vol. VIII, 1941, pp. 119 ff., 281 ff.) For Lassalle's interest in Heraclitus, see note 4 to chapter 1. — It is interesting to note, in this connection, the parallelism between the history of historicist and of evolutionary ideas. They originated in Greece with the semi-Heraclitean Empedocles (for Plato's version, see note 1 to chapter 11), and they were revived, in England as well as in France, in the time of the French Revolution.

Notes to Chapter Three

1. With this explanation of the term oligarchy, cp. also the end of notes 44 and 57 to chapter 8.

2. Cp. especially note 48 to chapter 10.

3. Cp. the end of chapter 7, esp. note 25, and chapter 10, esp. note 69.

4. Cp. Diogenes Laert., Ill, 1. — Concerning Plato's family connections, and especially the alleged descent of his father's family from Codrus, 'and even from the God Poseidon', see G. Grote, Plato and other Companions of Socrates (edn 1875), vol. I, 114. (See, however, the similar remark on Critias' family, i.e. on that of Plato's mother, in E. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, vol. V, 1922, p. 66.) Plato says of Codrus in the Symposium (208d): 'Do you suppose that Alcestis,... or Achilles,... or that your own Codrus would have sought death — in order to save the kingship for his children -- had they not expected to win that immortal memory of their virtue in which indeed we keep them?' Plato praises Critias' (i.e. his mother's) family in the early Charmides (157e ff.) and in the late Timaeus (20e), where the family is traced back to the Athenian ruler (archon-) Dropides, the friend of Solon.

5. The two autobiographical quotations which follow in this paragraph are from the Seventh Letter (325). Plato's authorship of the Letters has been questioned by some eminent scholars (perhaps without sufficient foundation; I think Field's treatment of this problem very convincing; cp. note 57 to chapter 10; on the other hand, even the Seventh Letter looks to me a little suspicious — it repeats too much what we know from the Apology, and says too much what the occasion requires). I have therefore taken care to base my interpretation of Platonism mainly on some of the most famous dialogues; it is, however, in general agreement with \hQ Letters. For the reader's convenience, a Hst of those Platonic dialogues which are frequently mentioned in the text may be given here, in what is their probable historical order; cp. note 56 (8) to chapter 10. Crito — Apology — Euthyphro; Protagoras — Meno — Gorgias; Cratylus — Menexenus — Phaedo; Republic; Parmenides — Theaetetus; Sophist — Statesman (or Politicus) — Philebus; Timaeus — Critias; Laws.

6. (1) That historical developments may have a cyclic character is nowhere very clearly stated by Plato. It is, however, alluded to in at least four dialogues, namely in the Phaedo, in the Republic, in the Statesman (or Politicus), and in the Laws. In all these places, Plato's theory may possibly allude to Heraclitus' Great Year (cp. note 6 to chapter 2). It may be, however, that the allusion is not to Heraclitus directly, but rather to Empedocles, whose theory (cp. also Aristotle, Met, 1000a25 f.) Plato considered as merely a 'milder' version of the Heraclitean theory of the unity of all flux. He expresses this in a famous passage of the Sophist (242e f.). According to this passage, and to Aristotle (De Gen. Corn , B, 6., 334a6), there is a historical cycle embracing a period in which love rules, and a period in which Heraclitus' strife rules; and Aristotle tells us that, according to Empedocles, the present period is 'now a period of the reign of Strife, as it was formerly one of Love'. This insistence that the flux of our own cosmic period is a kind of strife, and therefore bad, is in close accordance both with Plato's theories and with his experiences.

The length of the Great Year is, probably, the period of time after which all heavenly bodies return to the same positions relative to each other as were held by them at the moment from which the period is reckoned. (This would make it the smallest common multiple of the periods of the 'seven planets'.)

(2) The passage in the Phaedo mentioned under (1) alludes first to the Heraclitean theory of change leading from one state to its opposite state, or from one opposite to the other: 'that which becomes less must once have been greater...' (70e/71a). It then proceeds to indicate a cyclic law of development: 'Are there not two processes which are ever going on, from one extreme to its opposite, and back again...?' (loc. cit.). And a little later (72a/b) the argument is put like this: 'If the development were in a straight line only, and there were no compensation or cycle in nature,... then, in the end, all things would take on the same properties... and there would be no further development' It appears that the general tendency of the Phaedo is more optimistic (and shows more faith in man and in human reason) than that of the later dialogues, but there are no direct references to human historical development.

(3) Such references are, however, made in the Republic where, in Books VIII and IX, we find an elaborate description of historical decay treated here in chapter 4. This description is introduced by Plato's Story of the Fall of Man and of the Number, which will here be discussed more fully in chapters 5 and 8. J. Adam, in his edition of The Republic of Plato (1902, 1921), rightly calls this story 'the setting in which Plato's "Philosophy of History" is framed' (vol. II, 210). This story does not contain any explicit statement on the cyclic character of history, but it contains a few rather mysterious hints which, according to Aristotle's (and Adam's) interesting but uncertain interpretation, are possibly allusions to the Heraclitean Great Year, i.e. to the cyclic development. (Cp. note 6 to chapter 2, and Adam, op. cit, vol. II, 303; the remark on Empedocles made there, 303f., needs correction; see (1) in this note, above.)

(4) There is, furthermore, the myth in the Statesman (268e-274c). According to this myth, God himself steers the world for half a cycle of the great world period. When he lets go, then the world, which so far has moved forward, begins to roll back again. Thus we have two half-periods or half-cycles in the full cycle, a forward movement led by God constituting the good period without war or strife, and a backward movement when God abandons the world, which is a period of increasing disorganization and strife. It is, of course, the period in which we live. Ultimately, things will become so bad that God will take the wheel again, and reverse the motion, in order to save the world from utter destruction.

This myth shows great resemblances to Empedocles' myth mentioned in (1) above, and probably also to Heraclitus' Great Year. — Adam ( op. cit., vol. II, 296 f.) also points out the similarities with Hesiod's story. *One of the points which allude to Hesiod is the reference to a Golden Age of Cronos; and it is important to note that the men of this age are earth-born. This estabhshes a point of contact with the Myth of the Earth-bom, and of the metals in man, which plays a role in the Republic (414b ff. and 546e f); this role is discussed below in chapter 8. The Myth of the Earth-bom is also alluded to in the Symposium (191b); possibly the allusion is to the popular claim that the Athenians are 'like grasshoppers' — autochthonous (cp. notes 32 (l)e to chapter 4 and 1 1 (2) to chapter 8).*

When, however, later in the Statesman (302b ff.) the six forms of imperfect government are ordered according to their degree of imperfection, there is no indication any longer to be found of a cyclic theory of history. Rather, the six forms, which are all degenerate copies of the perfect or best state (Statesman, 293d/e; 297c; 303b), appear all as steps in the process of degeneration; i.e. both here and in the Republic Plato confines himself, when it comes to more concrete historical problems, to that part of the cycle which leads to decay.

* (5) Analogous remarks hold for the Laws. Something like a cyclic theory is sketched in Book III, 676b/c-677b, where Plato turns to a more detailed analysis of the beginning of one of the cycles; and in 67 8e and 679c, this beginning turns out to be a Golden Age, so that the further story again becomes one of deterioration. — It may be mentioned that Plato's doctrine, that the planets are gods, together with the doctrine that the gods influence human lives (and with his belief that cosmic forces are at work in history), played an important part in the astrological speculations of the neo-Platonists. All three doctrines can be found in the Laws (see, for example, 821b-d and 899b; 899d-905d; 677a ff.). Astrology, it should be realized, shares with historicism the belief in a determinate destiny which can be predicted; and it shares with some important versions of historicism (especially with Platonism and Marxism) the belief that, notwithstanding the possibility of predicting the future, we have some influence upon it, especially if we actually know what is coming.*

(6) Apart from these scanty allusions, there is hardly anything to indicate that Plato took the upward or forward part of the cycle seriously. But there are many remarks, apart from the elaborate description in the Republic and that quoted in (5), which show that he believed very seriously in the downward movement, in the decay of history. We must consider, especially, the Timaeus, and the Laws.

(7) In the Timaeus (42b f, 90e ff., and especially 9 Id f; cp. also the Ph a edrus, 248d f), Plato describes what may be called the origin of species by degeneration (cp. text to note 4 to chapter 4, and note 11 to chapter 11): men degenerate into women, and later into lower animals.

(8) In Book III of the Laws (cp. also Book IV, 713a ff.; see however the short allusion to a cycle mentioned above) we have a rather elaborate theory of historical decay, largely analogous to that in the Republic. See also the next chapter, especially notes 3, 6, 7, 27, 31, and 44.

7. A similar opinion of Plato's political aims is expressed by G. C. Field, Plato and His Contemporaries (1930), p. 91: 'The chief aim of Plato's philosophy may be regarded as the attempt to re-establish standards of thought and conduct for a civilization that seemed on the verge of dissolution.' See also note 3 to chapter 6, and text.

8. I follow the majority of the older and a good number of contemporary authorities (e.g. G. C. Field, F. M. Cornford, A. K. Rogers) in believing, against John Burnet and A. E. Taylor, that the theory of Forms or Ideas is nearly entirely Plato's, and not Socrates', in spite of the fact that Plato puts it into the mouth of Socrates as his main speaker. Though Plato's dialogues are our only first-rate source for Socrates' teaching, it is, I believe, possible to distinguish in them between 'Socratic', i.e. historically true, and 'Platonic' features of Plato's speaker 'Socrates'. The so-called Socratic Problem is discussed in chapters 6, 7, 8, and 10; cp. especially note 56 to chapter 10.

9. The term 'social engineering' seems to have been used first by Roscoe Pound, in his Introduction to the Philosophy of Law (1922, p. 99; *Bryan Magee tells me now that the Webbs used it almost certainly before 1922.*) He uses the term in the 'piecemeal' sense. In another sense it is used by M. Eastman, Mxrxwm; Is it Science? (1940). I read Eastman's book after the text of my own book was written; my term 'social engineering' is, accordingly, used without any intention of alluding to Eastman's terminology. As far as I can see, he advocates the approach which I criticize in chapter 9 under the name 'Utopian social engineering'; cp. note 1 to that chapter. — See also note 18 (3) to chapter 5. As the first social engineer one might describe the town-planner Hippodamus of Miletus. (Cp. Aristotle's Politics 1276b22, and R. Eisler, Jesus Basileus, II, p. 754.)

The term 'social technology' has been suggested to me by C. G. F. Simkin. — I wish to make it clear that in discussing problems of method, my main emphasis is upon gaining practical institutional experience. Cp. chapter 9, especially text to note 8 to that chapter. For a more detailed analysis of the problems of method connected with social engineering and social technology, see my The Poverty of Historicism (2nd edition, 1960), part III.

10. The quoted passage is from my The Poverty of Historicism, p. 65. The 'undesigned results of human actions' are more fully discussed below, in chapter 14, see especially note 11 and text.

11. I believe in a dualism of facts and decisions or demands (or of 'is' and 'ought'); in other words, I believe in the impossibility of reducing decisions or demands to facts, although they can, of course, be treated as facts. More on this point will be said in chapters 5 (text to notes 4-5), 22, and 24.

12 Evidence in support of this interpretation of Plato's theory of the best state will be supplied in the next three chapters; I may refer, in the meanwhile, to Statesman, 293 d/e; 297c; Laws, 713b/c; 739d/e; Timaeus, 22d ff., especially 25e and 26d.

13. Cp. Aristotle's famous report, partly quoted later in this chapter (see especially note 25 to this chapter, and the text).

14. This is shown in Grote's Plato, vol. Ill, note u on pp. 267 f.

15. The quotations are from the Timaeus, 50c/d and 51e-52b. The simile which describes the Forms or Ideas as the fathers, and Space as the mother, of the sensible things, is important and has far-reaching connections. Cp. also notes 17 and 19 to this chapter, and note 59 to chapter 10.

(1) It resembles Hesiod's myth of chaos, the yawning gap (space; receptacle) which corresponds to the mother, and the God Eros, who corresponds to the father or to the Ideas. Chaos is the origin, and the question of the causal explanation (chaos = cause) remains for a long time one of origin (arche-) or birth or generation.

(2) The mother or Space corresponds to the indefinite or boundless of Anaximander and of the Pythagoreans. The Idea, which is male, must therefore correspond to the definite (or limited) of the Pythagoreans. For the definite, as opposed to the boundless, the male, as opposed to the female, the light, as opposed to the dark, and the good, as opposed to the bad, all belong to the same side in the Pythagorean table of opposites. (Cp. Aristotle's Metaphysics, 986a22 f ) We also can therefore expect to see the Ideas associated with light and goodness. (Cp. end of note 32 to chapter 8.)

(3) The Ideas are boundaries or limits, they are definite, as opposed to indefinite Space, and impress or imprint (cp. note 17 (2) to this chapter) themselves like rubber-stamps, or better, like moulds, upon Space (which is not only space but at the same time Anaximander 's unformed matter — stuff without property), thus generating sensible things. *J. D. Mabbott has kindly drawn my attention to the fact that the Forms or Ideas, according to Plato, do not impress themselves upon Space but are, rather, impressed or imprinted upon it by the Demiurge. Traces of the theory that the Forms are 'causes both of being and of generation (or becoming)' can be found aheady in the Phaedo (100d), as Aristotle points out (in Metaphysics 1080a2).*

(4) In consequence of the act of generation, Space, i.e. the receptacle, begins to labour, so that all things are set in motion, in a Heraclitean or Empedoclean flux which is really universal in so far as the movement or flux extends even to the framework, i.e. (boundless) space itself. (For the late Heraclitean idea of the receptacle, cp. the Cratylus, 41 2d.)

(5) This description is also reminiscent of Parmenides' 'Way of Delusive Opinion', in which the world of experience and of flux is created by the mingling of two opposites, the light (or hot or fire) and the dark (or cold or earth). It is clear that Plato's Forms or Ideas would correspond to the former, and Space or what is boundless to the latter; especially if we consider that Plato's pure space is closely akin to indeterminate matter.

(6) The opposition between the determinate and indeterminate seems also to correspond, especially after the all-important discovery of the irrationality of the square root of two, to the opposition between the rational and the irrational. But since Parmenides identifies the rational with being, this would lead to an interpretation of Space or the irrational as non- being. In other words, the Pythagorean table of opposites is to be extended to cover rationality, as opposed to irrationality, and being, as opposed to non-being. (This agrees with Metaphysics, 1004b27, where Aristotle says that 'all the contraries are reducible to being and non-being'; 1072a31, where one side of the table — that of being — is described as the object of (rational) thought; and 1093b 13, where the powers of certain numbers — presumably in opposition to their roots — are added to this side. This would further explain Aristotle's remark in Metaphysics, 986b27; and it would perhaps not be necessary to assume, as F. M. Cornford does in his excellent article 'Parmenides' Two Ways', Class. Quart, XVII, 1933, p. 108, that Parmenides, fir. 8, 53/54, 'has been misinterpreted by Aristotle and Theophrastus' for if we expand the table of opposites in this way, Cornford's most convincing interpretation of the crucial passage of fir. 8 becomes compatible with Aristotle's remark.)

(7) Cornford has explained (op. cit, 100) that there are three 'ways' in Parmenides, the way of Truth, the way of Not-being, and the way of Seeming (or, if I may call it so, of delusive opinion). He shows (101) that they correspond to three regions discussed in the Republic, the perfectly real and rational world of the Ideas, the perfectly unreal, and the world of opinion (based on the perception of things in flux). He has also shown (102) that in the Sophist, Plato modifies his position. To this, some comments may be added from the point of view of the passages in the Timaeus to which this note is appended.

(8) The main difference between the Forms or Ideas of the Republic and those of the Timaeus is that in the former, the Forms (and also God; cp. Rep., 380d) are petri-fied, so to speak, while in the latter, they are deified. In the former, they bear a much closer resemblance to the Parmenidean One (cp. Adam's note to Rep., 380d28, 31), than in the latter. This development leads to the Laws, where the Ideas are largely replaced by souls. The decisive difference is that the Ideas become more and more the starting points of motion and causes of generation, or as the Timaeus puts it, fathers of the moving things. The greatest contrast is perhaps between the Phaedo, 79e: 'The soul is infinitely more like the unchangeable; even the most stupid person would not deny that' (cp. also Rep., 585c, 609b f), and the Laws, 895e/896a (cp. Phaedrus, 245c ff.): 'What is the definition of that which is named "soul"? Can we imagine any other definition than... "The motion that moves itself'?' The transition between these two positions is, perhaps, provided by the Sophist (which introduces the Form or Idea of motion itself) and by the Timaeus, 35a, which describes the 'divine and unchanging' Forms and the changing and corruptible bodies. This seems to explain why, in the Laws (cp. 894d/e), the motion of the soul is said to be 'first in origin and power' and why the soul is described (966e) as 'the most ancient and divine of all things whose motion is an ever-flowing source of real existence'. (Since, according to Plato, all living things have souls, it may be claimed that he admitted the presence of an at least partly formal principle in things; a point of view which is very close to Aristotelianism, especially in the presence of the primitive and widespread belief that all things are alive.) (Cp. also note 7 to chapter 4.)

(9) In this development of Plato's thought, a development whose driving force is to explain the world of flux with the help of the Ideas, i.e. to make the break between the world of reason and the world of opinion at least understandable, even though it cannot be bridged, the Sophist seems to play a decisive role. Apart fi"om making room, as Cornford mentions (op. cit, 102), for the plurality of Ideas, it presents them, in an argument against Plato's own earlier position (248a ff.): (a) as active causes, which may interact, for example, with mind; (b) as unchanging in spite of that, although there is now an Idea of motion in which all moving things participate and which is not at rest; (c) as capable of mingling with one another. It further introduces 'Not-being', identified in the Timaeus with Space (cp. Cornford, Plato's Theory of Knowledge , 1935, note to 247), and thus makes it possible for the Ideas to mingle with it (cp. also Philolaus, fr. 2, 3, 5, Diels^), and to produce the world of flux with its characteristic intermediate position between the being of Ideas and the not- being of Space or matter.

(10) Ultimately, I wish to defend my contention in the text that the Ideas are not only outside space, but also outside time, though they are in contact with the world at the beginning of time. This, I believe, makes it easier to understand how they act without being in motion; for all motion or flux is in space and time. Plato, I believe, assumes that time has a beginning. I think that this is the most direct interpretation of Laws, 721c: 'the race of man is twin-born with all time', considering the many indications that Plato believed man to be created as one of the first creatures. (In this point, I disagree slightly with Cornford, Plato's Cosmology , 1937, p. 145, and pp. 26 ff.)

(11) To sum up, the Ideas are earlier and better than their changing and decaying copies, and are themselves not in flux. (See also note 3 to chapter 4.)

16. Cp. note 4 to this chapter.

17. (1) The role of the gods in the Timaeus is similar to the one described in the text. Just as the Ideas stamp out things, so the gods form the bodies of men. Only the human soul is created by the Demiurge himself who also creates the world and the gods. (For another hint that the gods are patriarchs, see Laws, 713c/d.) Men, the weak, degenerate children of gods, are then liable to further degeneration; cp. note 6(7) to this chapter, and 37-41 to chapter 5.

(a) In an interesting passage of the Laws (681b; cp. also note 32 (1, a) to chapter 4) we find another allusion to the parallelism between the relation Idea — things and the relation parent — children. In this passage, the origin of law is explained by the influence of tradition, and more especially, by the transmission of a rigid order from the parents to the children; and the following remark is made: 'And they (the parents) would be sure to stamp upon their children, and upon their children's children, their own cast of mind.'

18. Cp. note 49, especially (3), to chapter 8.

19. Cp. Timaeus, 31a. The term which I have freely translated by 'superior thing which is their prototype' is a term frequently used by Aristotle with the meaning 'universal' or 'generic term'. It means a 'thing which is general' or 'surpassing' or 'embracing' and I suspect that it originally means 'embracing' or 'covering' in the sense in which a mould embraces or covers what it moulds.

20. Cp. Republic, 597c. See also 596a (and Adam's second note to 596a5): 'For we are in the habit, you will remember, of postulating a Form or Idea — one for each group of many particular things to which we apply the same name.'

21. There are innumerable passages in Plato; I mention only the Phaedo (e.g. 79a), the Republic, 544a, the Theaetetus (152d/e, 179d/e), the Timaeus (28b/c, 29c/d, 51d f). Aristotle mentions it in Metaphysics, 987a32; 999a25-999bl0; 1010a6-15; 1078b 15; see also notes 23 and 25 to this chapter.

22. Parmenides taught, as Burnet puts it (Early Greek Philosophy 2, 208), that 'what is... is finite, spherical, motionless, corporeal', i.e. that the world is a full globe, a whole without any parts, and that 'there is nothing beyond it'. I am quoting Burnet because (a) his description is excellent and (b) it destroys his own interpretation (E.G. P., 208-11) of what Parmenides calls the 'Opinion of the Mortals' (or the Way of Delusive Opinion). For Burnet dismisses there all the interpretations of Aristotle, Theophrastus, Simplicius, Gomperz, and Meyer, as 'anachronisms' or 'palpable anachronisms', etc. Now the interpretation dismissed by Burnet is practically the same as the one here proposed in the text; namely, that Parmenides believed in a world of reality behind this world of appearance. Such a dualism, which would allow Parmenides' description of the world of appearance to claim at least some kind of adequacy, is dismissed by Burnet as hopelessly anachronistic. I suggest, however, that if Parmenides had believed solely in his unmoving world, and not at all in the changing world, then he would have been really mad (as Empedocles hints). But in fact there is an indication of a similar dualism already in Xenophanes, fragm. 23-6, if confronted with fragm. 34 (esp. 'But all may have their fancy opinions'), so that we can hardly speak of an anachronism. — As indicated in note 15 (6-7), I follow Cornford's interpretation of Parmenides. (See also note 41 to chapter 10.)

23. Cp. Aristotle's Metaphysics, 1078b23; the next quotation is: op. cit, 1078bl9.

24. This valuable comparison is due to G. C. Field, Plato and His Contemporaries, 211.

25. The preceding quotation is from Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1078bl5; the next from cit., 987b7.

26. In Aristotle's analysis (in Metaphysics, 987a30-bl8) of the arguments which led to the theory of Ideas (cp. also note 56 (6) to chapter 10), we can distinguish the following steps: (a) Heraclitus' flux, (b) the impossibility of true knowledge of things in flux, (c) the influence of Socrates' ethical essences, (d) the Ideas as objects of true knowledge, (e) the influence of the Pythagoreans, (f) the 'mathematicals' as intermediate objects. — ((e) and (f) I have not mentioned in the text, where I have mentioned instead (g) the Parmenidean influence.)

It may be worth while to show how these steps can be identified in Plato's own work, where he expounds his theory; especially in the Phaedo and in the Republic, in the Theaetetus and in the Sophist, and in the Timaeus.

(1) In the Phaedo, we fmd indications of all the points up to and including (e). In 65a-66a, the steps (d) and (c) are prominent, with an allusion to (b). In 70e step (a), Heraclitus' theory appears, combined with an element of Pythagoreanism (e). This leads to 74a ff., and to a statement of step (d). 99-100 is an approach to (d) through (c), etc. For (a) to (d), cp. also the Cratylus, 439c ff.

In the Republic, it is of course especially Book VI that corresponds closely to Aristotle's report, (a) In the beginning of Book VI, 485a/b (cp. 527a/b), the Heraclitean flux is referred to (and contrasted with the unchanging world of Forms). Plato there speaks of 'a reality which exists for ever and is exempt from generation and degeneration '. (Cp. notes 2 (2) and 3 to chapter 4 and note 33 to chapter 8, and text.) The steps (b), (d) and especially if) play a rather obvious role in the famous Simile of the Line (Rep., 509c-511e; cp. Adam's notes, and his appendix I to Book VII); Socrates' ethical influence, i.e. step (c), is of course alluded to throughout the Republic. It plays an important role within the Simile of the Line and especially immediately before, i.e. in 508b ff, where the role of the good is emphasized; see in particular 508b/c: 'This is what I maintain regarding the offspring of the good. What the good has begotten in its own likeness is, in the intelligible world, related to reason (and its objects) in the same way as, in the visible world', that which is the offspring of the sun, 'is related to sight (and its objects).' Step (e) is implied in (/), but more fully developed in Book VII, in the famous Curriculum (cp. especially 523a-527c), which is largely based on the Simile of the Line in Book VI.

(2) In the Theaetetus, (a) and (b) are treated extensively; (c) is mentioned in 174b and 175c. In the Sophist, all the steps, including (g), are mentioned, only (e) and (J) being left out; see especially 247a (step (c)); 249c (step (b)); 253d/e (step (d)). In the Philebus, we find indications of all steps except perhaps (/); steps (a) to (d) are especially emphasized in 59a-c.

(3) In the Timaeus, all the steps mentioned by Aristotle are indicated, with the possible exception of (c), which is alluded to only indirectly in the introductory recapitulation of the contents of the Republic, and in 29d. Step (e) is, as it were, alluded to throughout, since 'Timaeus' is a 'western' philosopher and strongly influenced by Pythagoreanism. The other steps occur twice in a form almost completely parallel to Aristotle's account; first briefly in 28a-29d, and later, with more elaboration, in 48e-55c. Immediately after (a), i.e. a Heraclitean description (49a ff.; cp. Cornford, Plato's Cosmology, 178) of the world in flux, the argument (b) is raised (51c-e) that if we are right in distinguishing between reason (or true knowledge) and mere opinion, we must admit the existence of the unchangeable Forms; these are (in 51e f) introduced next in accordance with step (d). The Heraclitean flux then comes again (as labouring space), but this time it is explained, as a consequence of the act of generation. And as a next step (f) appears, in 53c. (I suppose that the 'lines and planes and solids' mentioned by Aristotle in Metaphysics, 992b 13, refer to 53c ff.)

(4) It seems that this parallelism between the Timaeus and Aristotle's report has not been sufficiently emphasized so far; at least, it is not used by G. C. Field in his excellent and convincing analysis of Aristotle's report (Plato and His Contemporaries, 202 ff.). But it would have strengthened Field's arguments (arguments, however, which hardly need strengthening, since they are practically conclusive) against Burnet's and Taylor's views that the Theory of Ideas is Socratic (cp. note 56 to chapter 10). For in the Timaeus, Plato does not put this theory into the mouth of Socrates, a fact which according to Burnet's and Taylor's principles should prove that it was not Socrates' theory. (They avoid this inference by claiming that 'Timaeus' is a Pythagorean, and that he develops not Plato's philosophy but his own. But Aristotle knew Plato personally for twenty years and should have been able to judge these matters; and he wrote his Metaphysics at a time when members of the Academy could have contradicted his presentation of Platonism.)

(5) Burnet writes, in Greek Philosophy, 1, 155 (cp. also p. xliv of his edition of the Phaedo, 1911): 'the theory of forms in the sense in which it is maintained in the Phaedo and Republic is wholly absent from what we may fairly regard the most distinctively Platonic of the dialogues, those, namely, in which Socrates is no longer the chief speaker. In that sense it is never even mentioned in any dialogue later than the Parmenides... with the single exception of the Timaeus (51c), where the speaker is a Pythagorean.' But if it is maintained in the Timaeus in the sense in which it is maintained in the Republic, then it is certainly so maintained in the Sophist, 257d/e; and in the Statesman, 269c/d; 286a; 297b/c, and c/d; 301a and e; 302e; and 303b; and in the Philebus, 15a f , and 59a-d; and in the Laws, 713b, 739d/e, 962c f, 963c ff., and, most important, 965c (c^. Philebus, 16d), 965d, and 966a; see also the next note. (Burnet believes in the genuineness of the Letters, especially the Seventh; but the theory of Ideas is maintained there in 342a ff.; see also note 56 (5, d) to chapter 10.)

27. Cp. Laws, 895d-e. I do not agree with England's note (in his edition of the Laws, vol. II, 472) that 'the word "essence" will not help us'. True, if we meant by 'essence' some important sensible part of the sensible thing (which might perhaps be purified and produced by some distillation), then 'essence' would be misleading. But the word 'essential' is widely used in a way which corresponds very well indeed with what we wish to express here; something opposed to the accidental or unimportant or changing empirical aspect of the thing, whether it is conceived as dwelling in that thing, or in a metaphysical world of Ideas.

I am using the term 'essentialism' in opposition to 'nominalism', in order to avoid, and to replace, the misleading traditional term 'realism', wherever it is opposed (not to 'idealism' but) to 'nominalism'. (See also note 26 ff. to chapter 11, and text, and especially note 38.)

On Plato's application of his essentialist method, for instance, as mentioned in the text, to the theory of the soul, see Laws, 895e f, quoted in note 15 (8) to this chapter, and chapter 5, especially note 23. See also, for instance, Meno, 86d/e, and Symposium, 199c/d.

28. On the theory of causal explanation, cp. my The Logic of Scientific Discovery, especially section 12, pp. 59 ff. See also note 6 to chapter 25, below.

29. The theory of language here indicated is that of Semantics, as developed especially by A. Tarski and R. Carnap. Cp. Carnap, Introduction to Semantics, 1942, and note 23 to chapter 8.

30. The theory that while the physical sciences are based on a methodological nominalism, the social sciences must adopt essentialist ('reahstic') methods, has been made clear to me by K. Polanyi (in 1925); he pointed out, at that time, that a reform of the methodology of the social sciences might conceivably be achieved by abandoning this theory. — The theory is held, to some extent, by most sociologists, especially by J. S. Mill (for instance. Logic, VI, ch. VI, 2; see also his historicist formulations, e.g. in VI, ch. X, 2, last paragraph: 'The fundamental problem... of the social science is to find the laws according to which any state of society produces the state which succeeds it...'), K. Marx (see below); M. Weber (cp., for example, his definitions in the beginning of Methodische Grundlagen der Soziologie, in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, I, and in Ges. Aufsaetze zur Wissenschaftslehre), G. Simmel, A. Vierkandt, R. M. Maclver, and many more. — The philosophical expression of all these tendencies is E. Husserl's 'Phaenomenology', a systematic revival of the methodological essentialism of Plato and Aristotle. (See also chapter 1 1. especially note 44.)

The opposite, the nominalist attitude in sociology, can be developed, I think, only as a technological theory of social institutions.

In this context, I may mention how I came to trace historicism back to Plato and Heraclitus. In analysing historicism, I found that it needs what I call now methodological essentialism; i.e. I saw that the typical arguments in favour of essentialism are bound up with historicism (cp. my The Poverty of Historicism). This led me to consider the history of essentialism. I was struck by the parallelism between Aristotle's report and the analysis which I had carried out originally without any reference to Platonism. In this way, I was reminded of the roles of both Heraclitus and Plato in this development.

31. R. H. S. Grossman's Plato To-day (1937) was the first book (apart from G. Grote's Plato) I have found to contain a political interpretation of Plato which is partly similar to my own. See also notes 2-3 to chapter 6, and text. * Since then I have found that similar views of Plato have been expressed by various authors. C. M. Bowra (Ancient Greek Literature, 1933) is perhaps the first; his brief but thorough criticism of Plato (pp. 186-90) is as fair as it is penetrating. The others are W. Fite ( The Platonic Legend, 1934); B. Farrington (Science and Politics in the Ancient World, 1939); A. D. Winspear (The Genesis of Plato's Thought, 1940); and H. Kelsen (Platonic Justice, 1933; now in What is Justice!, 1957, and Platonic Love, in The American Imago, vol. 3, 1942).*
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Re: The Open Society and Its Enemies, by Karl R. Popper

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Part 2 of 18

Notes to Chapter Four

1. Cp. Republic, 608e. See also note 2 (2) to this chapter.

2. In the Laws, the soul — 'the most ancient and divine of all things in motion' (966e) — is described as the 'starting point of all motion' (895b). (1) With the Platonic theory, Aristotle contrasts his own, according to which the 'good' thing is not the starting point, but rather the end or aim of change since 'good' means a thing aimed at — the final cause of change. Thus he says of the Platonists, i.e. of 'those who believe in Forms', that they agree with Empedocles (they speak 'in the same way' as Empedocles) in so far as they 'do not speak as if anything came to pass for the sake of these' (i.e. of things which are 'good') 'but as if all movement started from them'. And he points out that 'good' means therefore to the Platonists not 'a cause qua good', i.e. an aim, but that 'it is only incidentally a good'. Cp. Metaphysics, 988a35 and b8 ff. and 1075a, 34/35. This criticism sounds as if Aristotle had sometimes held views similar to those of Speusippus, which is indeed Zeller's opinion; see note 11 to chapter 11.

(2) Concerning the movement towards corruption, mentioned in the text in this paragraph, and its general significance in the Platonic philosophy, we must keep in mind the general opposition between the world of unchanging things or Ideas, and the world of sensible things in flux. Plato often expresses this opposition as one between the world of unchanging things and the world of corruptible things, or between things that are ungenerated, and those that are generated and are doomed to degenerate, etc.; see, for instance. Republic, 485a/b, quoted in note 26(1) to chapter 3 and in text to note 33 to chapter Republic, 508d-e; 527a/b; and Republic, 546a, quoted in text to note 37 to chapter 5: 'All things that have been generated must degenerate' (or decay). That this problem of the generation and corruption of the world of things in flux was an important part of the Platonic School tradition is indicated by the fact that Aristotle devoted a separate treatise to this problem. Another interesting indication is the way in which Aristotle talked about these matters in the introduction to his Politics, contained in the concluding sentences of the Nicomachean Ethics (11 8 lb/1 5): 'We shall try to... find what it is that preserves or corrupts the cities...'

This passage is significant not only as a general formulation of what Aristotle considered the main problem of his Politics, but also because of its striking similarity to an important passage in the Laws, viz. 676a, and 676b/c quoted below in text to notes 6 and 25 to this chapter. (See also notes 1,3, and 24/25 to this chapter; see note 32 to chapter 8, and the passage from the Laws quoted in note 59 to chapter 8.)

3. This quotation is from the Statesman, 269d. (See also note 23 to this chapter.) For the hierarchy of motions, drr Laws, 893c-895b. For the theory that perfect things (divine 'natures'; cp. the next chapter) can only become less perfect when they change, see especially Republic, 380e-381c — in many ways (note the examples in 380e) a parallel passage to Laws, 1916.. The quotations from Aristotle are from the Metaphysics, 988b3, and from De Gen. et Corn , 335bl4. The last four quotations in this paragraph are from Plato's Laws, 904c f, and 797d. See also note 24 to this chapter, and text. (It is possible to interpret the remark about the evil objects as another allusion to a cyclic development, as discussed in note 6 to chapter 2, i.e. as an allusion to the belief that the trend of the development must reverse, and that things must begin to improve, once the world has reached the lowest depth of evilness.

* Since my interpretation of the Platonic theory of change and of the passages from the Laws has been challenged, I wish to add some further comments, especially on the two passages (1) Laws, 904c, f, and (2) 797d.

(1) The passage Laws, 904c, 'the less significant is the beginning decline in their level of rank' may be translated more literally 'the less significant is the beginning movement down in the level of rank'. It seems to me certain, from the context, that 'down the level of rank' is meant rather than 'as to level of rank', which clearly is also a possible translation. (My reason is not only the whole dramatic context, down from 904a, but also more especially the series 'kata... kata... kato- which, in a passage of gathering momentum, must colour the meaning of at least the second 'kata'. — Concerning the word I translate by 'level', this may, admittedly, mean not only 'plane' but also 'surface'; and the word I translate by 'rank' may mean 'space'; yet Bury's translation: 'the smaller the change of character, the less is the movement over surface in space' does not seem to me to yield much meaning in this context.)

(2) The continuation of this passage (Laws, 798) is most characteristic. It demands that 'the lawgiver must contrive, by whatever means at his disposal ['by hook or by crook', as Bury well translates], a method which ensures for his state that the whole soul of every one of its citizens will, from reverence and fear, resist any change of any of the things that are established of old'. (Plato includes, explicitly, things which other lawgivers consider 'mere matters of play' — such, as, for example, changes in the games of children.)

(3) In general, the main evidence for my interpretation of Plato's theory of change — apart from a great number of minor passages referred to in the various notes in this chapter and the preceding one — is of course found in the historical or evolutionary passages of all the dialogues which contain such passages, especially the Republic (the decline and fall of the state from its near-perfect or Golden Age in Books VIII and IX), the Statesman (the theory of the Golden Age and its decline), the Laws (the story of the primitive patriarchy and of the Dorian conquest, and the story of the decline and fall of the Persian Empire), the Timaeus (the story of evolution by degeneration, which occurs twice, and the story of the Golden Age of Athens, which is continued in the Critias).  

To this evidence Plato's frequent references to Hesiod must be added, and the undoubted fact that Plato's synthetic mind was not less keen than that of Empedocles (whose period of strife is the one ruling now; cp. Aristotle, De Gen. et Corn , 334a, b) in conceiving human affairs in a cosmic setting (Statesman, Timaeus).

(4) Ultimately, I may perhaps refer to general psychological considerations. On the one hand the fear of innovation (illustrated by many passages in the Laws, e.g. 758c/d) and, on the other hand, the idealization of the past (such as found in Hesiod or in the story of the lost paradise) are frequent and striking phenomena. It is perhaps not too far-fetched to connect the latter, or even both, with the idealization of one's childhood — one's home, one's parents, and with the nostalgic wish to return to these early stages of one's life, to one's origin. There are many passages in Plato in which he takes it for granted that the original state of affairs, or original nature, is a state of blessedness. I refer only to the speech of Aristophanes in the Symposium; here it is taken for granted that the urge and the suffering of passionate love is sufficiently explained if it is shown that it derives from this nostalgia, and similarly, that the feelings of sexual gratification can be explained as those of a gratified nostalgia. Thus Plato says of Eros (Symposium, 193d): 'He will restore us to our original nature (see also 191d) and heal us and make us happy and blessed.' The same thought underlies many remarks such as the following from the Philebus (16c): 'The men of old... were better than we are now, and... lived nearer to the gods... ' All this indicates the view that our unhappy and unblessed state is a consequence of the development which makes us different from our original nature — our Idea; and it further indicates that the development is one from a state of goodness and blessedness to a state where goodness and blessedness are being lost; but this means that the development is one of increasing corruption. Plato's theory of anamnesis -- the theory that all knowledge is re-cognition or re-collection of the knowledge we had in our pre-natal past is part of the same view: in the past there resides not only the good, the noble, and the beautiful, but also all wisdom. Even the ancient change or motion is better than secondary motion; for in the Laws the soul is said to be (895b) 'the starting point of all motions the first to arise in things at rest... the most ancient and potent motion', and (966c) 'the most ancient and divine of all things'. (Cp. note 15 (8) to chapter 3.)

As pointed out before (cp. especially note 6 to chapter 3), the doctrine of an historical and cosmic tendency towards decay appears to be combined, in Plato, with a doctrine of an historical and cosmic cycle. (The period of decay, probably, is a part of this cycle.)*

4. Cp. Timaeus, 91d-92b/c. See also note 6 (7) to chapter 3 and note 11 to chapter 11.

5. See the beginning of chapter 2 above, and note 6 (1) to chapter 3. It is not a mere accident that Plato mentions Hesiod's story of 'metals' when discussing his own theory of historical decay (Rep., 546e/547a, esp. notes 39 and 40 to chapter 5); he clearly wishes to indicate how well his theory fits in with, and explains, that of Hesiod.

6. The historical part of the Laws is in Books Three and Four (see note 6(5) and (8) to chapter 3). The two quotations in the text are from the beginning of this part, i.e. Laws, 676a. For the parallel passages mentioned, sqq Republic, 369b, f. ('The birth of a city...') and 545d ('How will our city be changed...').

It is often said that the Laws (and the Statesman) are less hostile towards democracy than the Republic, and it must be admitted that Plato's general tone is in fact less hostile (this is perhaps due to the increasing inner strength of democracy; see chapter 10 and the beginning of chapter 11). But the only practical concession made to democracy in the Laws is that political officers are to be elected, by the members of the ruling (i.e. the military) class; and since all important changes in the laws of the state are forbidden anyway (cp., for instance, the quotations in note 3 of this chapter), this does not mean very much. The fundamental tendency remains pro-Spartan, and this tendency was, as can be seen from Aristotle's Politics, 11, 6, 17 (1265b), compatible with a so-called 'mixed' constitution. In fact, Plato in the Laws is, if anything, more hostile towards the spirit of democracy, i.e. towards the idea of the freedom of the individual, than he is in the Republic; cp. especially the text to notes 32 and 33 to chapter 6 (i.e. Laws, 739c, ff., and 942a, f ) and to notes 19-22 to chapter 8 (i.e. Laws, 903c-909a). — See also next note.

7. It seems likely that it was largely this difficulty of explaining the first change (or the Fall of Man) that led Plato to transform his theory of Ideas, as mentioned in note 15 (8) to chapter 3; viz., to transform the Ideas into causes and active powers, capable of mingling with some of the other Ideas (cp. Sophist, 252e, ff.), and of rejecting the remaining ones (Sophist, 223c), and thus to transform them into something like gods, as opposed to the Republic which (cp. 380d) petrifies even the gods into unmoving and unmoved Parmenidean beings. An important turning point is, apparently, the Sophist, 248e-249c (note especially that here the Idea of motion is not at rest). The transformation seems to solve at the same time the difficulty of the so-called 'third man'; for if the Forms are, as in the Timaeus, fathers, then there is no 'third man' necessary to explain their similarity to their offspring.

Regarding the relation of the Republic to the Statesman and to the Laws, I think that Plato's attempt in the two latter dialogues to trace the origin of human society further and further back is likewise connected with the difficulties inherent in the problem of the first change. That it is difficult to conceive of a change overtaking a perfect city is clearly stated in Republic, 546a; Plato's attempt in the Republic to solve it will be discussed in the next chapter (cp. text to notes 37-40 to chapter 5). In the Statesman, Plato adopts the theory of a cosmic catastrophe which leads to the change from the (Empedoclean) half-circle of love to the present period, the half-circle of strife. This idea seems to have been dropped in the Timaeus, in order to be replaced by a theory (retained in the Laws) of more limited catastrophes, such as floods, which may destroy civilizations, but apparently do not affect the course of the universe. (It is possible that this solution of the problem was suggested to Plato by the fact that in 373-372 B.C., the ancient city of Helice was destroyed by earthquake and flood.) The earliest form of society, removed in the Republic only by one single step from the still existing Spartan state, is thrust back to a more and more distant past. Although Plato continues to believe that the first settlement must be the best city, he now discusses societies prior to the first settlement, i.e. nomad societies, 'hill shepherds'. (Cp. especially note 32 to this chapter.)

8. The quotation is from Marx-Engels, The Communist Manifesto; cp. A Handbook of Marxism (edited by E. Burns, 1935), 22.

9. The quotation is from Adam's comments on Book VIII of the Republic; see his edition, vol. II, 198, note to 544a3.

10. Cp. Republic, 544c.

11. (1) As opposed to my contention that Plato, like many modern sociologists since Comte, tries to outline the typical stages of social development, most critics take Plato's story merely as a somewhat dramatic presentation of a purely logical classification of constitutions. But this not only contradicts what Plato says (cp. Adam's note to Rep., 544c 19, op. cit, vol. II, 199), but it is also against the whole spirit of Plato's logic, according to which the essence of a thing is to be understood by its original nature, i.e. by its historical origin. And we must not forget that he uses the same word, 'genus', to mean a class in the logical sense and a race in the biological sense. The logical 'genus' is still identical with the 'race', in the sense of 'offspring of the same parent'. (With this, cp. notes 15-20 to chapter 3, and text, as well as notes 23-24 to chapter 5, and text, where the equation nature = origin = race is discussed.) Accordingly, there is every reason for taking what Plato says at its face value; for even if Adam were right when he says (loc. cit.) that Plato intends to give a 'logical order', this order would for him be at the same time that of a typical historical development. Adam's remark (loc. cit.) that the order 'is primarily determined by psychological and not by historical considerations' turns, I believe, against him. For he himself points out (for instance, op. cit, vol. II, 195, note to 543a, ff.) that Plato 'retains throughout... the analogy between the Soul and the City'. According to Plato's political theory of the soul (which will be discussed in the next chapter), the psychological history must run parallel to the social history, and the alleged opposition between psychological and historical considerations disappears, turning into another argument in favour of our interpretation.

(2) Exactly the same reply could be made if somebody should argue that Plato's order of the constitution is, fundamentally, not a logical but an ethical one; for the ethical order (and the aesthetic order as well) is, in Plato's philosophy, indistinguishable from the historical order. In this connection, it may be remarked that this historicist view provides Plato with a theoretical background for Socrates' eudemonism, i.e. for the theory that goodness and happiness are identical. This theory is developed, in the Republic (cp. especially 580b), in the form of the doctrine that goodness and happiness, or badness and unhappiness, are proportional; and so they must be, if the degree of the goodness as well as of the happiness of a man is to be measured by the degree in which he resembles our original blessed nature — the perfect Idea of man. (The fact that Plato's theory leads, in this point, to a theoretical justification of an apparently paradoxical Socratic doctrine may well have helped Plato to convince himself that he was only expounding the true Socratic creed; see text to notes 56/57 to chapter 10.)

(3) Rousseau took over Plato's classification of institutions (Social Contract, Book II, ch. VII, Book III, ch. Ill ff., cp. also ch. X). It seems however that he was not directly influenced by Plato when he revived the Platonic Idea of a primitive society (cp., however, notes 1 to chapter 6 and 14 to chapter 9); but a direct product of the Platonic Renaissance in Italy was Sanazzaro's most influential Arcadia, with its revival of Plato's idea of a blessed primitive society of Greek (Dorian) hill shepherds. (For this idea of Plato's, cp. text to note 32 to this chapter.) Thus Romanticism (cp. also chapter 9) is historically indeed an offspring of Platonism.

(4) How far the modem historicism of Comte and Mill, and of Hegel and Marx, is influenced by the theistic historicism of Giambattista Vico's New Science (1725) is very hard to say: Vico himself was undoubtedly influenced by Plato, as well as by St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei and Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy. Like Plato (cp. ch. 5), Vico identified the 'nature' of a thing with its 'origin' (cp. Opere, Ferrari's second edn, 1852-4, vol. V, p. 99); and he believed that all nations must pass through the same course of development, according to one universal law. His 'nations' (like Hegel's) may thus be said to be one of the links between Plato's 'Cities' and Toynbee's 'Civilizations'.

12. Cp. Republic, 549c/d; the next quotations are op. cit., 550d-e, and later, op. cit., 551a/b.

13. Cp. op. cit., 556e. (This passage should be compared with Thucydides, III, 82-4, quoted in chapter 10, text to note 12.) The next quotation is op. cit., 557a.

14. For Pericles' democratic programme, see text to note 31, chapter 10, note 17 to chapter 6, and note 34 to chapter 10.

15. Adam, in his edition of The Republic of Plato, vol. II, 240, note to 559d22. (The italics in the second quotation are mine.) Adam admits that 'the picture is doubtless somewhat exaggerated'; but he leaves little doubt that he thinks it is, fundamentally, true 'for all time'.

16. Adam, loc. cit.

17. This quotation is from Republic, 560d (for this and the next quotation, cp. Lindsay's translation); the next two quotations are from the same work, 563 a-b, and d. (See also Adam's note to 563d25.) It is significant that Plato appeals here to the institution of private property, severely attacked in other parts of the Republic, as if it were an unchallenged principle of justice. It seems that when the property bought is a slave, an appeal to the lawful right of the buyer is adequate.

Another attack upon democracy is that 'it tramples under foot' the educational principle that 'no one can grow up to be a good man unless his earliest years were given to noble games'. (Rep., 558b; see Lindsay's translation; cp. note 68 to chapter 10.) See also the attacks upon equalitarianism quoted in note 14 to chapter 6.

* For Socrates' attitude towards his young companions see most of the earlier dialogues, but also the Phaedo, where Socrates' 'pleasant, kind, and respectful manner in which he listened to the young man's criticism' is described. For Plato's contrasting attitude, see text to notes 19-21 to chapter 7; see also the excellent lectures by H. Cherniss, The Riddle of the Early Academy (1945), especially pp. 70 and 79 (on the Parmenides 135c-d), and cp. notes 18- 21 to chapter 7, and text.

18. Slavery (see the preceding note) and the Athenian movement against it will be further discussed in chapters 5 (notes 13 and text), 10, and 11; see also note 29 to the present chapter. Like Plato, Aristotle (e.g. in Pol, 1313b11, 1319b20; and in his Constitution of Athens, 59, 5) testifies to Athens' liberality towards slaves; and so does the Pseudo- Xenophon (cp. his Const, of Athens, I, 10 f.)

19. Cp. Republic, 577a, f.; see Adam's notes to 577a5 and b12 (op. cit., vol. II, 332 f.). See now also the Addendum III (Reply to a Critic), especially pp. 330 f.

20. Republic, 566e; cp. note 63 to chapter 10.

21. Cp. Statesman (Politicus), 301c/d. Although Plato distinguishes six types of debased states, he does not introduce any new terms; the names 'monarchy' (or 'kingship') and 'aristocracy' are used in the Republic (445d) of the best state itself, and not of the relatively best forms of debased states, as in the Statesman.

22. Cp. Republic, 544d.

23. Cp. Statesman, 297c/d: 'If the government I have mentioned is the only true original, then the others' (which are 'only copies of this'; cp. 297b/c) 'must use its laws, and write them down; this is the only way in which they can be preserved'. (Cp. note 3 to this chapter, and note 18 to chapter 7.) 'And any violation of the laws should be punished with death, and the most severe punishments; and this is very just and good, although, of course, only the second best thing.' (For the origin of the laws, cp. note 32 (1, a) to this chapter, and note 17 (2) to chapter 3.) And in 300e/301a, f , we read: 'The nearest approach of these lower forms of government to the true government... is to follow these written laws and customs... When the rich rule and imitate the true Form, then the government is called aristocracy; and when they do not heed the (ancient) laws oligarchy,' etc. It is important to note that not lawfulness or lawlessness in the abstract, but the preservation of the ancient institutions of the original or perfect state is the criterion of the classification. (This is in contrast to Aristotle's Politics, 1292a, where the main distinction is whether or not 'the law is supreme', or, for instance, the mob.)

24. The passage. Laws, 709e-714a, contains several allusions to Statesman; for instance, 710d-e, which introduces, following Herodotus III, 80-82, the number of rulers as the principle of classification; the enumerations of the forms of government in 712c and d; and 713b, ff., i.e. the myth of the perfect state in the day of Cronos, 'of which the best of our present states are imitations'. In view of these allusions, I little doubt that Plato intended his theory of the fitness of tyranny for Utopian experiments to be understood as a kind of continuation of the story of the Statesman (and thus also of the Republic). — The quotations in this paragraph are from the Laws, 709e, and 710c/d; the 'remark from the Laws quoted above' is 797d, quoted in the text to note 3, in this chapter. (I agree with E. B. England's note to this passage, in his edition of The Laws of Plato, 1921, vol. II, 258, that it is Plato's principle that 'change is detrimental to the power... of anything', and therefore also to the power of evil; but I do not agree with him 'that change from bad', viz., to good, is too self- evident to be mentioned as an exception; it is not self-evident from the point of view of Plato's doctrine of the evil nature of change. See also next note.)

25. Cp. Laws, 676b/c (cp. 676a quoted in the text to note 6). In spite of Plato's doctrine that 'change is detrimental' (cp. the end of the last note), E. B. England interprets these passages on change and revolution by giving them an optimistic or progressive meaning. He suggests that the object of Plato's search is what 'we might call "the secret of political vitality'". (Cp. op. cit., vol. I, 344.) And he interprets this passage on the search for the true cause of (detrimental) change as dealing with a search for 'the cause and nature of the true development of a state, i.e. of its progress towards perfection '. (Italics his; cp. vol. I, 345.) This interpretation cannot be correct, for the passage in question is an introduction to a story of political decline; but it shows how much the tendency to idealize Plato and to represent him as a progressivist blinds even such an excellent critic to his own finding, namely, that Plato believed change to be detrimental.

26. Cp. Republic, 545d (see also the parallel passage 465b). The next quotation is from the Laws, 683e. (Adam in his edition of the Republic, vol. II, 203, note to 545d21, refers to this passage in the Laws.) England, in his edition of the Laws, vol. I, 360 f, note to 683e5, mentions Republic, 609a, but neither 545d nor 465b, and supposes that the reference is 'to a previous discussion, or one recorded in a lost dialogue'. I do not see why Plato should not be alluding to the Republic, by using the fiction that some of its topics have been discussed by the present interlocutors. As Cornford says, in Plato's last group of dialogues there is 'no motive to keep up the illusion that the conversations had really taken place'; and he is also right when he says that Plato 'was not the slave of his own fictions'. (Cp. Cornford, Plato 's Cosmology, pp. 5 and 4.) Plato's law of revolutions was rediscovered, without reference to Plato, by V. Pareto; cp. his Treatise on General Sociology, §§ 2054, 2057, 2058. (At the end of § 2055, there is also a theory of arresting history.) Rousseau also rediscovered the law. (Social Contract, Book III, ch. X.)

27. (1) It may be worth noting that the intentionally non-historical traits of the best state, especially the rule of the philosophers, are not mentioned by Plato in the summary at the beginning of the Timaeus, and that in Book VIII of the Republic he assumes that the rulers of the best state are not versed in Pythagorean number-mysticism; cp. Republic, 546c/d, where the rulers are said to be ignorant of these matters. (Cp. also the remark, Rep., 543d/544a, according to which the best state of Book VIII can still be surpassed, namely, as Adam says, by the city of Books V-VII — the ideal city in heaven.)

In his book, Plato 's Cosmology, pp. 6 ff, Cornford reconstructs the outlines and contents of Plato's unfinished trilogy, Timaeus — Critias — Hermocrates, and shows how they are related to the historical parts of the Laws (Book III). This reconstruction is, I think, a valuable corroboration of my theory that Plato's view of the world was fundamentally historical, and that his interest in 'how it generated' (and how it decays) is linked with his theory of Ideas, and indeed based on it. But if that is so, then there is no reason why we should assume that the later books of the Republic 'started from the question how it' (i.e. the city) 'might be realized in the future and sketched its possible decline through lower forms of politics' (Cornford, op. cit, 6; italics mine); instead we should look upon the Books VIII and IX of the Republic, in view of their close parallelism with the Third Book of the Laws, as a simplified historical sketch of the actual decline of the ideal city of the past, and as an explanation of the origin of the existing states, analogous to the greater task set by Plato for himself in the Timaeus, in the unfinished trilogy, and in the Laws.

(2) In connection with my remark, later in the paragraph, that Plato 'certainly knew that he did not possess the necessary data', see for instance Laws, 683d, and England's note to 683d2.

(3) To my remark, further down in the paragraph, that Plato recognized the Cretan and Spartan societies as petrified or arrested forms (and to the remark in the next paragraph that Plato's best state is not only a class state but a caste state) the following may be added. (Cp. also note 20 to this chapter, and 24 to chapter 10.)

In Laws, 797d (in the introduction to the 'important pronouncement', as England calls it, quoted in the text to note 3 to this chapter), Plato makes it perfectly clear that his Cretan and Spartan interlocutors are aware of the 'arrested' character of their social institutions; Clenias, the Cretan interlocutor, emphasizes that he is anxious to listen to any defence of the archaic character of a state. A little later (799a), and in the same context, a direct reference is made to the Egyptian method of arresting the development of institutions; surely a clear indication that Plato recognized a tendency in Crete and Sparta parallel to that of Egypt, namely, to arrest all social change.

In this context, a passage in the Timaeus (see especially 24a-b) seems important. In this passage, Plato tries to show (a) that a class division very similar to that of the Republic was established in Athens at a very ancient period of its pre-historical development, and (b) that these institutions were closely akin to the caste system of Egypt (whose arrested caste institutions he assumes to have derived from his ancient Athenian state). Thus Plato himself acknowledges by implication that the ideal ancient and perfect state of the Republic is a caste state. It is interesting that Crantor, first commentator on the Timaeus, reports, only two generations after Plato, that Plato had been accused of deserting the Athenian tradition, and of becoming a disciple of the Egyptians. (Cp. Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, Germ, ed., II, 476.) Crantor alludes perhaps to Isocrates' Busiris, 8, quoted in note 3 to chapter 13.

For the problem of the castes in the Republic, see furthermore notes 3 1 and 32 (I, d) to this chapter, note 40 to chapter 6, and notes 11-14 to chapter 8. A. E. Taylor, Plato: The Man and His Work, p. 269 f , forcefully denounces the view that Plato favoured a caste state.

28. Cp. Republic, 416a. The problem is considered more fully in this chapter, text to note 35. (For the problem of caste, mentioned in the next paragraph, see notes 27 (3) and 31 to this chapter.)

29. For Plato's advice against legislating for the common people with their 'vulgar market quarrels', etc., see Republic, 425b-427a/b; especially 425d-e and 427a. These passages, of course, attack Athenian democracy, and all 'piecemeal' legislation in the sense of chapter 9. *That this is so is also seen by Cornford, The Republic of Plato (1941); for he writes, in a note to a passage in which Plato recommends Utopian engineering (it is Republic 500d, f., the recommendation of 'canvas-cleaning' and of a romantic radicalism; cp. note 12 to chapter 9, and text): 'Contrast the piecemeal tinkering at reform satirized at 425e...'. Cornford does not seem to like piecemeal reforms, and he seems to prefer Plato's methods; but his and my interpretation of Plato's intentions seem to coincide.*
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Re: The Open Society and Its Enemies, by Karl R. Popper

Postby admin » Tue Oct 08, 2019 5:21 am

Part 3 of 18

The four quotations further down in this paragraph are from the Republic, 371d/e; 463a-b ('supporters' and 'employers'); 549a; and 471b/c. Adam comments (op. cit., vol. I, 97, note to 371e32): 'Plato does not admit slave labour in his city, unless perhaps in the persons of barbarians.' I agree that Plato opposes in the Republic (469b-470c) the enslavement of Greek prisoners of war; but he goes on (in 471b-c) to encourage that of barbarians by Greeks, and especially by the citizens of his best city. (This appears to be also the opinion of Tarn; cp. note 13(2) to chapter 15.) And Plato violently attacked the Athenian movement against slavery, and insisted on the legal rights of property when the property was a slave (cp. text to notes 17 and 18 to this chapter). As is shown also by the third quotation (from Rep., 548e/549a) in the paragraph to which this note is appended, he did not abolish slavery in his best city. (See also Rep., 590c/d, where he defends the demand that the coarse and vulgar should be the slaves of the best man.) A. E. Taylor is therefore wrong when he twice asserts (in his Plato, 1908 and 1914, pp. 197 and 118) that Plato implies 'that there is no class of slaves in the community'. For similar views in Taylor's Plato: The Man and His Work (1926), cp. end of note 27 to this chapter.

Plato's treatment of slavery in the Statesman throws, I think, much light on his attitude in the Republic. For here, too, he does not speak much about slaves, although he clearly assumes that there are slaves in his state. (See his characteristic remark, 289b/c, that 'all property in tame animals, except slaves' has been already dealt with; and a similarly characteristic remark, 309a, that true kingscraft 'makes slaves of those who wallow in ignorance and abject humility'. The reason why Plato does not say very much about the slaves is quite clear from 289c, ff., especially 289d/e. He does not see a major distinction between 'slaves and other servants', such as labourers, tradesmen, merchants (i.e. all 'banausic' persons who earn money; cp. note 4 to chapter 11); slaves are distinguished from the others merely as 'servants acquired by purchase'. In other words, he is so high above the baseborn that it is hardly worth his while to bother about subtle differences. All this is very similar to the Republic, only a little more explicit. (See also note 57 (2) to chapter 8.)

For Plato's treatment of slavery in the Laws, see especially G. R. Morrow, 'Plato and Greek Slavery' (Mind, N.S., vol. 48, 186-201; see also p. 402), an article which gives an excellent and critical survey of the subject, and reaches a very just conclusion, although the author is, in my opinion, still a little biased in favour of Plato. (The article does not perhaps sufficiently stress the fact that in Plato's day an anti-slavery movement was well on the way; cp. note 13 to chapter 5.)

30. The quotation is from Plato's summary of the Republic in the Timaeus (18c/d). — With the remark concerning the lack of novelty of the suggested community of women and children, compare Adam's edition of The Republic of Plato, vol. I, p. 292 (note to 457b, ff.) and p. 308 (note to 463c 17), as well as pp. 345-55, esp. 354; with the Pythagorean element in Plato's communism, cp. op. cit., p. 199, note to 416d22. (For the precious metals, see note 24 to chapter 10. For the common meals, see note 34 to chapter 6; and for the communist principle in Plato and his successors, note 29 (2) to chapter 5, and the passages mentioned there.)

31. The passage quoted is from Republic, 434b/c. In demanding a caste state, Plato hesitates for a long time. This is quite apart from the 'lengthy preface' to the passage in question (which will be discussed in chapter 6; cp. notes 24 and 40 to that chapter); for when first speaking about these matters, in 415a, ff, he speaks as though a rise from the lower to the upper classes were permissible, provided that in the lower classes 'children were born with an admixture of gold and silver' (415c), i.e. of upper class blood and virtue. But in 434b-d, and, even more clearly, in 547a, this permission is, in effect, withdrawn; and in 547a any admixture of the metals is declared an impurity which must be fatal to the state. See also text to notes 1 1-14 to chapter 8 (and note 27 (3) to the present chapter).

32. Cp. the Statesman, 27 le. The passages in the Laws about the primitive nomadic shepherds and their patriarchs are 677e-680e. The passage quoted is Laws, 680e. The passage quoted next is from the Myth of the Earthborn, Republic, 415d/e. The concluding quotation of the paragraph is from Republic, 440d. — It may be necessary to add some comments on certain remarks in the paragraph to which this note is appended.

(1) It is stated in the text that it is not very clearly explained how the 'settlement' came about. Both in the Laws and in the Republic we first hear (see (a) and (c), below) of a kind of agreement or social contract (for the social contract, cp. note 29 to chapter 5 and notes 43-54 to chapter 6, and text), and later (see (b) and (c), below) of a forceful subjugation.

(a) In the Laws, the various tribes of hill shepherds settle in the plains after having joined together to form larger war bands whose laws are arrived at by an agreement or contract, made by arbiters vested with royal powers (681b and c/d; for the origin of the laws described in 681b, cp. note 17 (2) to chapter 3). But now Plato becomes evasive. Instead of describing how these bands settle in Greece, and how the Greek cities were founded, Plato switches over to Homer's story of the foundation of Troy, and to the Trojan war. From there, Plato says, the Achaeans returned under the name of Dorians, and 'the rest of the story... is part of Lacedaemonian history' (682e) 'for we have reached the settlement of Lacedaemon' (682e/683a). So far we have heard nothing about the manner of this settlement, and there follows at once a further digression (Plato himself speaks about the 'roundabout track of the argument') until we get ultimately (in 683 c/d) the 'hint' mentioned in the text; see (b).

(b) The statement in the text that we get a hint that the Dorian 'settlement' in the Peloponnese was in fact a violent subjugation, refers to the Laws (6 8 3 c/d), where Plato introduces what are actually his first historical remarks on Sparta. He says that he begins at the time when the whole of the Peloponnese was 'practically subjugated' by the Dorians. In the Menexenus (whose genuineness can hardly be doubted; cp. note 35 to chapter 10) there is in 245c an allusion to the fact that the Peloponnesians were 'immigrants from abroad' (as Grote puts it: cp. his Plato, III, p. 5).

(c) In the Republic (369b) the city is founded by workers with a view to the advantages of a division of labour and of co-operation, in accordance with the contract theory.

(d) But later (mRep., 415d/e; see the quotation in the text, to this paragraph) we get a description of the triumphant invasion of a warrior class of somewhat mysterious origin — the 'earthborn'. The decisive passage of this description states that the earthborn must look round to find for their camp the most suitable spot (literally) 'for keeping down those within', i.e. for keeping down those already living in the city, i.e. for keeping down the inhabitants.

(e) In the Statesman (271a, f.) these 'earthborn' are identified with the very early nomad hill shepherds of the pre-settlement period. Cp. also the allusion to the autochthonous grasshoppers in the Symposium, 191b; cp. note 6 (4) to chapter 3, and 1 1 (2) to chapter 8.

(f) To sum up, it seems that Plato had a fairly clear idea of the Dorian conquest, which he preferred, for obvious reasons, to veil in mystery. It also seems that there was a tradition that the conquering war hordes were of nomad descent.

(2) With the remark later in the text in this paragraph regarding Plato's 'continuous emphasis' on the fact that ruling is shepherding, cp., for instance, the following passages: Republic, 343b, where the idea is introduced; 345c, f , where, in the form of the simile of the good shepherd, it becomes one of the central topics of the investigation; 375a-376b, 404a, 440d, 451b-e, 459a-460c, and 466c-d (quoted in note 30 to chapter 5), where the auxiliaries are likened to sheep-dogs and where their breeding and education are discussed accordingly; 416a, ff., where the problem of the wolves without and within the state is introduced; cp. furthermore the Statesman, where the idea is continued over many pages, especially 261d-276d. With regard to the Laws, I may refer to the passage (694e), where Plato says of Cyrus that he had acquired for his sons 'cattle and sheep and many herds of men and other animals'. (Cp. also Laws, 735, and Theaet, 174d.)

(3) With all this, cp. also A. J. Toynbee, A Study of History, esp. vol. Ill, pp. 32 (n. 1), where A. H. Lybyer, The Government of the Ottoman Empire, etc., is quoted, 33 (n. 2), 50-100; see more especially his remark on the conquering nomads (p. 22) who 'deal with... men', and on Plato's 'human watchdogs' (p. 94, n. 2). I have been much stimulated by Toynbee's brilliant ideas and much encouraged by many of his remarks which I take as corroborating my interpretations, and which I can value the more highly the more Toynbee's and my fundamental assumptions seem to disagree. I also owe to Toynbee a number of terms used in my text, especially 'human cattle', 'human herd' and 'human watch-dog'.

Toynbee's Study of History is, from my point of view, a model of what I call historicism; I need not say much more to express my fundamental disagreement with it; and a number of special points of disagreement will be discussed at various places (cp. notes 43 and 45 (2) to this chapter, notes 7 and 8 to chapter 10, and chapter 24; also, my criticism of Toynbee in chapter 24, and in The Poverty of Historicism, p. 110 ff.). But it contains a wealth of interesting and stimulating ideas. Regarding Plato, Toynbee emphasizes a number of points in which I can follow him, especially that Plato's best state is inspired by his experience of social revolutions and by his wish to arrest all change, and that it is a kind of arrested Sparta (which itself was also arrested). In spite of these points of agreement, there is even in the interpretation of Plato a fundamental disagreement between Toynbee's views and my own. Toynbee regards Plato's best state as a typical (reactionary) Utopia, while I interpret its major part, in connection with what I consider as Plato's general theory of change, as an attempt to reconstruct a primitive form of society. Nor do I think that Toynbee would agree with my interpretation of Plato's story of the period prior to the settlement, and of the settlement itself, outlined in this note and the text; for Toynbee says (op. cit., vol. Ill, 80) that 'the Spartan society was not of nomadic origin'. Toynbee strongly emphasizes (op. cit, III, 50 ff.) the peculiar character of the Spartan society, which, he says, was arrested in its development owing to a superhuman effort to keep down their 'human cattle'. But I think that this emphasis on the peculiar situation of Sparta makes it difficult to understand the similarities between the institutions of Sparta and Crete which Plato found so striking (Rep., 544c; Laws, 683a). These, I believe, can be explained only as arrested forms of very ancient tribal institutions, which must be considerably older than the effort of the Spartans in the second Messenian war (about 650-620 B.C.; cp. Toynbee, op. cit.. Ill, 53). Since the conditions of the survival of these institutions were so very different in the two localities, their similarity is a strong argument in favour of their being primitive and against an explanation by a factor which affects only one of them.

For problems of the Dorian Settlement, see also R. Eisler in Caucasia, vol. V, 1928, especially p. 113, note 84, where the term 'Hellenes' is translated as the 'settlers', and 'Greeks' as the 'graziers' — i.e. the cattle-breeders or nomads. The same author has shown (Orphisch-Dionisische Mysteriengedanken, 1925, p. 58, note 2) that the idea of the God- Shepherd is of Orphic origin. At the same place, the sheep-dogs of God (Domini Canes) are mentioned.*

33. The fact that education is in Plato's state a class prerogative has been overlooked by some enthusiastic educationists who credit Plato with the idea of making education independent of financial means; they do not see that the evil is the class prerogative as such, and that it is comparatively unimportant whether this prerogative is based upon the possession of money or upon any other criterion by which membership of the ruling class is determined. Cp. notes 12 and 13 to chapter 7, and text. Concerning the carrying of arms, see Laws, 753b.

34. Cp. Republic, 460c. (See also note 31 to this chapter.) Regarding Plato's recommendation of infanticide, see Adam, op. cit, vol. I, p. 299, note to 460c 18, and pp. 357 ff. Although Adam rightly insists that Plato was in favour of infanticide, and although he rejects as 'irrelevant' all attempts 'to acquit Plato of sanctioning' such a dreadful practice, he tries to excuse Plato by pointing out 'that the practice was widely prevalent in ancient Greece'. But it was not so in Athens. Plato chooses throughout to prefer the ancient Spartan barbarism and racialism to the enlightenment of Pericles' Athens; and for this choice he must be held responsible. For a hypothesis explaining the Spartan practice, see note 7 to chapter 10 (and text); see also the cross-references given there.

The later quotations in this paragraph which favour applying the principles of animal breeding to man are from Republic, 459b (cp. note 39 to chapter 8, and text); those on the analogy between dogs and warriors, etc., from the Republic, 404a; 375a; 376a/b; and 376b. See also note 40 (2) to chapter 5, and the next note here.

35. The two quotations before the note number are both from Republic, 375b. The next following quotation is from 416a (cp. note 28 to this chapter); the remaining ones are from 375c-e. The problem of blending opposite 'natures' (or even Forms; cp. notes 18-20 and 40 (2) to chapter 5, and text and note 39 to chapter 8) is one of Plato's favourite topics. (In the Statesman, 283e, f , and later in Aristotle, it merges into the doctrine of the mean.)

36. The quotations are from Republic, 410c; 410d; 410e; 411e/412a and 412b.

37. In the Laws (680b, ff.) Plato himself treats Crete with some irony because of its barbarous ignorance of literature. This ignorance extends even to Homer, whom the Cretan interlocutor does not know, and of whom he says: 'foreign poets are very little read by Cretans'. ('But they are read in Sparta', rejoins the Spartan interlocutor.) For Plato's preference for Spartan customs, see also note 34 to chapter 6, and the text to note 30 to the present chapter.

38. For Plato's view on Sparta's treatment of the human cattle, see note 29 to this chapter. Republic, 548e/549a, where the timocratic man is compared with Plato's brother Glaucon: 'He would be harder' (than Glaucon) 'and less musical'; the continuation of this passage is quoted in the text to note 29. — Thucydides reports (IV, 80) the treacherous murder of the 2,000 helots; the best of the helots were selected for death by a promise of freedom. It is almost certain that Plato knew Thucydides well, and we can be sure that he had in addition more direct sources of information.

For Plato's views on Athens' slack treatment of slaves, see note 18 to this chapter.

39. Considering the decidedly anti-Athenian and therefore anti-literary tendency of the Republic, it is a little difficult to explain why so many educationists are so enthusiastic about Plato's educational theories. I can see only three likely explanations. Either they do not understand the Republic, in spite of its most outspoken hostility towards the then existing Athenian literary education; or they are simply flattered by Plato's rhetorical emphasis upon the political power of education, just as so many philosophers are, and even some musicians (see text to note 41); or both.

It is also difficult to see how lovers of Greek art and literature can find encouragement in Plato, who, especially in the Tenth Book of the Republic, launched a most violent attack against all poets and tragedians, and especially against Homer (and even Hesiod). See Republic, 600a, where Homer is put below the level of a good technician or mechanic (who would be generally despised by Plato as banausic and depraved; cp. Rep., 495e and 590c, and note 4 to chapter 11); Republic, 600c, where Homer is put below the level of the Sophists Protagoras and Prodicus (see also Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, German edn, II, 401); and Republic, 605a/b, where poets are bluntly forbidden to enter into any well-governed city.

These clear expressions of Plato's attitude, however, are usually passed over by the commentators, who dwell, on the other hand, on remarks like the one made by Plato in preparing his attack on Homer ('... though love and admiration for Homer hardly allow me to say what I have to say'; Rep., 595b). Adam comments on this (note to 595b11) by saying that 'Plato speaks with real feeling'; but I think that Plato's remark only illustrates a method fairly generally adopted in the Republic, namely, that of making some concession to the reader's sentiments (cp. chapter 10, especially text to note 65) before the main attack upon humanitarian ideas is launched.

40. For the rigid censorship aimed at class discipline, see Republic, 377e, ff., and especially 378c: 'Those who are to be the guardians of our city ought to consider it the most pernicious crime to quarrel easily with one another.' It is interesting that Plato does not state this political principle at once, when introducing his theory of censorship in 376e, ff., but that he speaks first only of truth, beauty, etc. The censorship is further tightened up in 595a, ff., especially 605a/b (see the foregoing note, and notes 18-22 to chapter 7, and text). For the role of censorship in the Laws, see 801c/d. — See also the next note.

For Plato's forgetfulness of his principle (Rep., 410c-412b, see note 36 to this chapter) that music has to strengthen the gentle element in man as opposed to the fierce, see especially 399a, f , where modes of music are demanded which do not make men soft, but are 'fit for men who are warriors'. Cp. also the next note, (2). — It must be made clear that Plato has not 'forgotten' a previously announced principle, but only that principle to which his discussion is going to lead up.

41. (1) For Plato's attitude towards music, especially music proper, see, for instance. Republic, 397b, ff.; 398e, ff; 400a, ff; 410b, 424b, f, 546d. Laws, 657e, ff; 673a, 700b, ff, 798d, ff, 801d, ff, 802b, ff, 816c. His attitude is, fundamentally, that one must 'beware of changing to a new mode of music; this endangers everything' since 'any change in the style of music always leads to a change in the most important institutions of the whole state. So says Damon, and I believe him.' (Rep., 424c.) Plato, as usual, follows the Spartan example. Adam (op. cit, vol. I, p. 216, note to 424c20; italics mine; cp. also his references) says that 'the connection between musical and political changes... was recognized universally throughout Greece, and particularly at Sparta, where... Timotheus had his lyre confiscated for adding to it four new strings'. That Sparta's procedure inspired Plato cannot be doubted; its universal recognition throughout Greece, and especially in Periclean Athens, is most improbable. (Cp. (2) of this note.)

(2) In the text I have called Plato's attitude towards music (cp. especially Rep., 398e, ff.) superstitious and backward if compared with 'a more enlightened contemporary criticism'. The criticism I have in mind is that of the anonymous writer, probably a musician of the fifth (or the early fourth) century, the author of an address (possibly an Olympian oration) which is now known as the thirteenth piece of Grenfell and Hunt, The Hibeh Papyri, 1906, pp. 45 ff. It seems possible that the writer is one of 'the various musicians who criticize Socrates' (i.e. the 'Socrates' of Plato's Republic), mentioned by Aristotle (in the equally superstitious passage of his Politics, 1342b, where he repeats most of Plato's arguments); but the criticism of the anonymous author goes much further than Aristotle indicates. Plato (and Aristotle) believed that certain musical modes, for instance, the 'slack' Ionian and Lydian modes, made people soft and effeminate, while others, especially the Dorian mode, made them brave. This view is attacked by the anonymous author. 'They say', he writes, 'that some modes produce temperate and others just men; others, again, heroes, and others cowards.' He brilliantly exposes the silliness of this view by pointing out that some of the most war- like of the Greek tribes use modes reputed to produce cowards, while certain professional (opera) singers habitually sing in the 'heroic' mode without ever showing signs of becoming heroes. This criticism might have been directed against the Athenian musician Damon, often quoted by Plato as an authority, a friend of Pericles (who was liberal enough to tolerate a pro-Spartan attitude in the field of artistic criticism). But it might easily have been directed against Plato himself. For Damon, see Diels5; for a hypothesis concerning the anonymous author, see ibid., vol. II, p. 334, note.

(3) In view of the fact that I am attacking a 'reactionary' attitude towards music, I may perhaps remark that my attack is in no way inspired by a personal sympathy for 'progress' in music. In fact, I happen to like old music (the older the better) and to dislike modem music intensely (especially most works written since the day when Wagner began to write music). I am altogether against 'futurism', whether in the field of art or of morals (cp. chapter 22, and note 19 to chapter 25). But I am also against imposing one's likes and dislikes upon others, and against censorship in such matters. We can love and hate, especially in art, without favouring legal measures for suppressing what we hate, or for canonizing what we love.

42. Cp. Republic, 537a; and 466e-467e.

The characterization of modern totalitarian education is due to A. Kolnai, The War against the West (1938), 318.

43. Plato's remarkable theory that the state, i.e. centralized and organized political power, originates through a conquest (the subjugation of a sedentary agricultural population by nomads or hunters) was, as far as I know, first re-discovered (if we discount some remarks by Machiavelli) by Hume in his criticism of the historical version of the contract theory (cp. his Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, vol. II, 1752, Essay XII, Of the Original Contract): — 'Almost all the governments', Hume writes, 'which exist at present, or of which there remains any record in story, have been founded originally, either on usurpation or conquest, or both...'And he points out that for 'an artful and bold man it is often easy by employing sometimes violence, sometimes false pretences, to establish his dominion over a people a hundred times more numerous than his partizans... By such arts as these, many governments have been established; and this is all the original contract, which they have to boast of The theory was next revived by Renan, in What is a Nation? (1882), and by Nietzsche in his Genealogy of Morals (1887); see the third German edition of 1894, p. 98. The latter writes of the origin of the 'state' (without reference to Hume): 'Some horde of blonde beasts, a conquering master race with a war-like organization... lay their terrifying paws heavily upon a population which is perhaps immensely superior in — numbers... This is the way in which the "state" originates upon earth; I think that the sentimentality which lets it originate with a "contract", is dead.' This theory appeals to Nietzsche because he likes these blonde beasts. But it has also been proffered more recently by F. Oppenheimer (The State, transl. Gitterman, 1914, p. 68); by a Marxist, K. Kautsky (in his book on The Materialist Interpretation of History); and by W. C. Macleod (The Origin and History of Politics, 1931). I think it very likely that something of the kind described by Plato, Hume, and Nietzsche has happened in many, if not in all, cases. I am speaking only about 'states' in the sense of organized and even centralized political power.

I may mention that Toynbee has a very different theory. But before discussing it, I wish first to make it clear that from the anti-historicist point of view, the question is of no great importance. It is perhaps interesting in itself to consider how 'states' originated, but it has no bearing whatever upon the sociology of states, as I understand it, i.e. upon political technology (see chapters 3. 9, and 25 ).

Toynbee 's theory does not confine itself to 'states' in the sense of organized and centralized political power. He discusses, rather, the 'origin of civilizations'. But here begins the difficulty; for some of his 'civilizations' are states (as here described), some are groups or sequences of states, and some are societies like that of the Eskimos, which are not states; and if it is questionable whether 'states' originate according to one single scheme, then it must be even more doubtful when we consider a class of such diverse social phenomena as the early Egyptian and Mesopotamian states and their institutions and technique on the one side, and the Eskimo way of living on the other.

But we may concentrate on Toynbee's description (A Study of History, vol. I, pp. 305 ff.) of the origin of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian 'civilizations'. His theory is that the challenge of a difficult jungle environment rouses a response from ingenious and enterprising leaders; they lead their followers into the valleys which they begin to cultivate, and found states. This (Hegelian and Bergsonian) theory of the creative genius as a cultural and political leader appears to me most romantic. If we take Egypt, then we must look, first of all, for the origin of the caste system. This, I believe, is most likely the result of conquests, just as in India where every new wave of conquerors imposed a new caste upon the old ones. But there are other arguments. Toynbee himself favours a theory which is probably correct, namely, that animal breeding and especially animal training is a later, a more advanced and a more difficult stage of development than mere agriculture, and that this advanced step is taken by the nomads of the steppe. But in Egypt we find both agriculture and animal breeding, and the same holds for most of the early 'states' (though not for all the American ones, I gather). This seems to be a sign that these states contain a nomadic element; and it seems only natural to venture the hypothesis that this element is due to nomad invaders imposing their rule, a caste rule, upon the original agricultural population. This theory disagrees with Toynbee's contention (op. cit. III, 23 f.) that nomad-built states usually wither away very quickly. But the fact that many of the early caste states go in for the breeding of animals has to be explained somehow.

The idea that nomads or even hunters constituted the original upper class is corroborated by the age-old and still surviving upper-class tradition according to which war, hunting, and horses are the symbols of the leisured classes; a tradition which formed the basis of Aristotle's ethics and politics, and which is still alive, as Veblen ( The Theory of the Leisure Class) and Toynbee have shown; and to this evidence we can perhaps add the animal breeder's belief in racialism, and especially in the racial superiority of the upper class. The latter belief which is so pronounced in caste states and in Plato and in Aristotle is held by Toynbee to be 'one of the... sins of our... modem age' and 'something alien from the Hellenic genius' (op. cit.. Ill, 93). But although many Greeks may have developed beyond racialism, it seems likely that Plato's and Aristotle's theories are based on old traditions; especially in view of the fact that racial ideas played such a role in Sparta.

44. Cp. Laws, 694a-698a.

45. (1) Spengler's Decline of the West is not in my opinion to be taken seriously. But it is a symptom; it is the theory of one who believes in an upper class which is facing defeat. Like Plato, Spengler tries to show that 'the world' is to be blamed, with its general law of decline and death. And like Plato, he demands (in his sequel, Prussianism and Socialism) a new order, a desperate experiment to stem the forces of history, a regeneration of the Prussian ruling class by the adoption of a 'socialism' or communism, and of economic abstinence. — Concerning Spengler, I largely agree with L. Nelson, who published his criticism under a long ironical title whose beginning may be translated: 'Witchcraft: Being an Initiation into the Secrets of Oswald Spengler 's Art of Fortune Telling, and a Most Evident Proof of the Irrefutable Truth of His Soothsaying', etc. I think that this is a just characterization of Spengler. Nelson, I may add, was one of the first to oppose what I call historicism (following here Kant in his criticism of Herder; cp. chapter 12, note 56).

(2) My remark that Spengler's is not the Decline and Fall is meant especially as an allusion to Toynbee. Toynbee's work is so superior to Spengler's that I hesitate to mention it in the same context; but the superiority is due mainly to Toynbee's wealth of ideas and to his superior knowledge (which manifests itself in the fact that he does not, as Spengler does, deal with everything under the sun at the same time). But the aim and method of the investigation is similar. It is most decidedly historicist. (Cp. my criticism of Toynbee in The Poverty of Historicism, pp. 110 ff.) And it is, fundamentally, Hegelian (although I do not see that Toynbee is aware of this fact). His 'criterion of the growth of civilizations' which is 'progress towards self-determination' shows this clearly enough; for Hegel's law of progress towards 'self-consciousness' and 'freedom' can be only too easily recognized. (Toynbee's Hegelianism seems to come somehow through Bradley, as may be seen, for instance, by his remarks on relations, op. cit. III, 223: 'The very concept of "relations" between "things" or "beings" involves' a 'logical contradiction... How is this contradiction to be transcended?' (I cannot enter here into a discussion of the problem of relations. But I may state dogmatically that all problems concerning relations can be reduced, by certain simple methods of modem logic, to problems concerning properties, or classes; in other words, peculiar philosophical difficulties concerning relations do not exist. The method mentioned is due to N. Wiener and K. Kuratowski; see Quine, A System of Logistic, 1934, pp. 16 ff.). Now I do not believe that to classify a work as belonging to a certain school is to dismiss it; but in the case of Hegelian historicism I think that it is so, for reasons to be discussed in the second volume of this book.

Concerning Toynbee's historicism, I wish to make it especially clear that I doubt very much indeed whether civilizations are born, grow, break down, and die. I am obliged to stress this point because I myself use some of the terms used by Toynbee, in so far as I speak of the 'breakdown' and of the 'arresting' of societies. But I wish to make it clear that my term 'breakdown' refers not to all kinds of civilizations but to one particular kind of phenomenon — to the feeling of bewilderment connected with the dissolution of the magical or tribal 'closed society'. Accordingly, I do not believe, as Toynbee does, that Greek society suffered 'its breakdown' in the period of the Peloponnesian war; and I find the symptoms of the breakdown which Toynbee describes much earlier. (Cp. with this notes 6 and 8 to chapter 10, and text.) Regarding 'arrested' societies, I apply this term exclusively, either to a society that clings to its magical forms through closing itself up, by force, against the influence of an open society, or to a society that attempts to return to the tribal cage.

Also I do not think that our Western civilization is just one member of a species. I think that there are many closed societies who may suffer all kinds of fates; but an 'open society' can, I suppose, only go on, or be arrested and forced back into the cage, i.e. to the beasts. (Cp. also chapter 10, especially the last note.)

(3) Regarding the Decline and Fall stories, I may mention that nearly all of them stand under the influence of Heraclitus' remark: 'They fill their bellies like the beasts', and of Plato's theory of the low animal instincts. I mean to say that they all try to show that the decline is due to an adoption (by the ruling class) of these 'lower' standards which are allegedly natural to the working classes. In other words, and putting the matter crudely but bluntly, the theory is that civilizations, like the Persian and the Roman empires, decline owing to overfeeding. (Cp. note 19 to chapter 10.)
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Re: The Open Society and Its Enemies, by Karl R. Popper

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Part 4 of 18

Notes to Chapter Five

1. The 'charmed circle' is a quotation from Burnet, Greek Philosophy , I, 106, where similar problems are treated. I do not, however, agree with Burnet that 'in early days the regularity of human life had been far more clearly apprehended than the even course of nature'. This presupposes the establishment of a differentiation which, I believe, is characteristic of a later period, i.e. the period of the dissolution of the 'charmed circle of law and custom'. Moreover, natural periods (the seasons, etc.; cp. note 6 to chapter 2, and Plato (?), Epinomis, 97 8d, ff.) must have been apprehended in very early days. — For the distinction between natural and normative laws, see esp. note 18 (4) to this chapter.

2. *Cp. R. Eisler, The Royal Art of Astrology. Eisler says that the peculiarities of the movement of the planets were interpreted, by the Babylonian 'tablet writers who produced the Library of Assurbanipal' (op. cit, 288), as 'dictated by the "laws" or "decisions" ruling "heaven and earth" (pirishte- shame- u irsiti), pronounced by the creator god at the beginning' (ibid., 232 f ). And he points out (ibid., 288) that the idea of 'universal laws' (of nature) originates with this 'mythological... concept of... "decrees of heaven and earth"...'*

For the passage from Heraclitus, cp. D5, B 29, and note 7 (2) to chapter 2; also note 6 to that chapter, and text. See also Burnet, loc. cit., who gives a different interpretation; he thinks that 'when the regular course of nature began to be observed, no better name could be found for it than Right or Justice... which properly meant the unchanging custom that guided human life.' I do not believe that the term meant first something social and was then extended, but I think that both social and natural regularities ('order') were originally undifferentiated, and interpreted as magical.

3. The opposition is expressed sometimes as one between 'nature' and 'law' (or 'norm' or 'convention'), sometimes as one between 'nature' and the 'positing' or 'laying down' (viz., of normative laws), and sometimes as one between 'nature' and 'art', or 'natural' and 'artificial'.

The antithesis between nature and convention is often said (on the authority of Diogenes Laertius, II, 16 and 4; Doxogr., 564b) to have been introduced by Archelaus, who is said to have been the teacher of Socrates. But I think that, in the Laws, 690b, Plato makes it clear enough that he considers 'the Theban poet Pindar' to be the originator of the antithesis (cp. notes 10 and 28 to this chapter). Apart from Pindar's fragments (quoted by Plato; see also Herodotus, III, 38), and some remarks by Herodotus (loc. cit), one of the earliest original sources preserved is the Sophist Antiphon's fragments On Truth (see notes 11 and 12 to this chapter). According to Plato's Protagoras, the Sophist Hippias seems to have been a pioneer of similar views (see note 13 to this chapter). But the most influential early treatment of the problem seems to have been that of Protagoras himself, although he may possibly have used a different terminology. (It may be mentioned that Democritus dealt with the antithesis which he applied also to such social 'institutions' as language; and Plato did the same in the Cratylus, e.g. 384e.)

4. A very similar point of view can be found in Russell's 'A Free Man's Worship' (in Mysticism and Logic); and in the last chapter of Sherrington's Man on His Nature.

5. (1) Positivists will reply, of course, that the reason why norms cannot be derived from factual propositions is that norms are meaningless; but this shows only that (with Wittgenstein's Tractatus) they define 'meaning' arbitrarily in such a way that only factual propositions are 'meaningful'. (See also my The Logic of Scientific Discovery, pp. 35 ff. and 51 f ) The followers of 'psychologism', on the other hand, will try to explain imperatives as expressions of emotions, norms as habits, and standards as points of view. But although the habit of not stealing certainly is a fact, it is necessary, as explained in the text, to distinguish this fact from the corresponding norm. — On the question of the logic of norms, I fully agree with most of the views expressed by K. Menger in his book. Moral, Wille und Weltgestaltung, 1935. He is one of the first, I believe, to develop the foundations of a logic of norms. I may perhaps express here my opinion that the reluctance to admit that norms are something important and irreducible is one of the main sources of the intellectual and other weaknesses of the more 'progressive' circles in our present time.

(2) Concerning my contention that it is impossible to derive a sentence stating a norm or decision from a sentence stating a fact, the following may be added. In analysing the relations between sentences and facts, we are moving in that field of logical inquiry which A. Tarski has called Semantics (cp. note 29 to chapter 3 and note 23 to chapter 8). One of the fundamental concepts of semantics is the concept of truth. As shown by Tarski, it is possible (within what Camap calls a semantical system) to derive a descriptive statement like 'Napoleon died on St. Helena' from the statement 'Mr. A said that Napoleon died on St. Helena', in conjunction with the further statement that what Mr. A said was true. (And if we use the term 'fact' in such a wide sense that we not only speak about the fact described by a sentence but also about the fact that this sentence is true, then we could even say that it is possible to derive 'Napoleon died on St. Helena' from the two 'facts' that Mr. A said it, and that he spoke the truth.) Now there is no reason why we should not proceed in an exactly analogous fashion in the realm of norms. We might then introduce, in correspondence to the concept of truth, the concept of the validity or rightness of a norm. This would mean that a certain norm N could be derived (in a kind of semantic of norms) from a sentence stating that TV is valid or right; or in other words, the norm or commandment 'Thou shalt not steal' would be considered as equivalent to the assertion 'The norm "Thou shalt not steal" is valid or right'. (And again, if we use the term 'fact' in such a wide sense that we speak about the fact that a norm is valid or right, then we could even derive norms from facts. This, however, does not impair the correctness of our considerations in the text which are concerned solely with the impossibility of deriving norms from psychological or sociological or similar, i.e. non-semantic, facts.)

(3) In my first discussion of these problems, I spoke of norms or decisions but never of proposals. The proposal to speak, instead, of 'proposals' is due to L. J. Russell; see his paper 'Propositions and Proposals', in the Library of the Tenth International Congress of Philosophy (Amsterdam, August 11-18, 1948), vol. I, Proceedings of the Congress. In this important paper, statements of fact or 'propositions' are distinguished from suggestions for the adoption of a line of conduct (of a certain policy, or of certain norms, or of certain aims or ends), and the latter are called 'proposals'. The great advantage of this terminology is that, as everybody knows, one can discuss a proposal, while it is not so clear whether, and in which sense, one can discuss a decision or a norm; thus by talking of 'norms' or 'decisions', one is liable to support those who say that these things are beyond discussion (either above it, as some dogmatic theologians or metaphysicians may say, or — as nonsensical — below it. as some positivists may say).

Adopting Russell's terminology, we could say that a proposition may be asserted or stated (or a hypothesis accepted) while a proposal is adopted; and we shall distinguish the fact of its adoption from the proposal which has been adopted.

Our dualistic thesis then becomes the thesis that proposals are not reducible to facts (or to statements of facts, or to propositions) even though they pertain to facts. *

6. Cp. also the last note (71) to chapter 10.

Although my own position is, I believe, clearly enough implied in the text, I may perhaps briefly formulate what seem to me the most important principles of humanitarian and equalitarian ethics.

(1) Tolerance towards all who are not intolerant and who do not propagate intolerance. (For this exception, cp. what is said in notes 4 and 6 to chapter 7.) This implies, especially, that the moral decisions of others should be treated with respect, as long as such decisions do not conflict with the principle of tolerance.

(2) The recognition that all moral urgency has its basis in the urgency of suffering or pain. I suggest, for this reason, to replace the utilitarian formula 'Aim at the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number', or briefly, 'Maximize happiness', by the formula 'The least amount of avoidable suffering for all', or briefly, 'Minimize suffering'. Such a simple formula can, I believe, be made one of the fundamental principles (admittedly not the only one) of public policy. (The principle 'Maximize happiness', in contrast, seems to be apt to produce a benevolent dictatorship.) We should realize that from the moral point of view suffering and happiness must not be treated as symmetrical; that is to say, the promotion of happiness is in any case much less urgent than the rendering of help to those who suffer, and the attempt to prevent suffering. (The latter task has little to do with 'matters of taste', the former much.) Cp. also note 2 to chapter 9.

(3) The fight against tyranny; or in other words, the attempt to safeguard the other principles by the institutional means of a legislation rather than by the benevolence of persons in power. (Cp. section 1 1 of chapter 7.)

7. Cp. Burnet, Greek Philosophy, I, 117. — Protagoras' doctrine referred to in this paragraph is to be found in Plato's dialogue Protagoras, 322a, ff.; cp. also the Theaetetus, esp. 172b (see also note 27 to this chapter).

The difference between Platonism and Protagoreanism can perhaps be briefly expressed as follows:

(Platonism.) There is an inherent 'natural' order of justice in the world, i.e. the original or first order in which nature was created. Thus the past is good, and any development leading to new norms is bad.

(Protagoreanism.) Man is the moral being in this world. Nature is neither moral nor immoral. Thus it is possible for man also to improve things. — It is not unlikely that Protagoras was influenced by Xenophanes, one of the first to express the attitude of the open society, and to criticize Hesiod's historical pessimism: 'In the beginning, the Gods did not show to man all he was wanting; but in the course of time, he may search for the better, and find it.' (Cp. Diels^ 18.) It seems that Plato's nephew and successor Speusippus returned to this progressive view (cp. Aristotle's Metaphysics, 1072b30 and note 11 to chapter 11) and that the Academy adopted with him a more liberal attitude in the field of politics also.

Concerning the relation of the doctrine of Protagoras to the tenets of religion, it may be remarked that he believed God to work through man. I do not see how this position can contradict that of Christianity. Compare with it for instance K. Earth's statement (Credo, 1936, p. 188): 'The Bible is a human document' (i.e. man is God's instrument).

8. Socrates' advocacy of the autonomy of ethics (closely related to his insistence that problems of nature do not matter) is expressed especially in his doctrine of the self-sufficiency or autarky of the 'virtuous' individual. That this theory contrasts strongly with Plato's views of the individual will be seen later; cp. especially notes 25 to this chapter and 36 to the next, and text. (Cp. also note 56 to chapter 10.)

9. We cannot, for instance, construct institutions which work independently of how they are being 'manned'. With these problems, cp. chapter 7 (text to notes 7-8, 22-23), and especially chapter 9.

10. For Plato's discussion of Pindar's naturalism, see esp. Gorgias, 484b; 488b; Z^m, 690b (quoted below in this chapter; cp. note 28); 714e/715a; cp. also 890a/b. (See also Adam's note to Rep., 359c20.)

11. Antiphon uses the term which, in connection with Parmenides and Plato, I have translated above by 'delusive opinion' (cp. note 15 to chapter 3); and he likewise opposes it to 'truth'. Cp. also Barker's translation m Greek Political Theory, I — Plato and His Predecessors (1918), 83.

12. See Antiphon, On Truth; cp. Barker, op. cit., 83-5. See also next note, (2).

13. Hippias is quoted in Plato's Protagoras, 337e. For the next four quotations, cp. (1) Euripides /(9«, 854 ff.; and (2) his Phoenissae, 538; cp. also Gomperz, Greek Thinkers (German edn, I, 325); and Barker, op. cit., 75; cp. also Plato's violent attack upon Euripides in Republic, 568a-d. Furthermore (3) Alcidamas in Schol. to Aristotle's Rhet. , I, 13, 1373bl8. (4) Lycophron in Aristotle's Fragm., 91 (Rose); (cp. also the Pseudo-Plutarch, De Nobil, 18.2). For the Athenian movement against slavery, cp. text to note 18 to chapter 4, and note 29 (with further references) to the same chapter; also note 18 to chapter 10 and Addendum ///(Reply to a Critic), especially pp. 330 f.

(1) It is worth nothing that most Platonists show little sympathy with this equalitarian movement. Barker, for instance, discusses it under the heading 'General Iconoclasm'; cp. op. cit., 75. (See also the second quotation from Field's Plato quoted in text to note 3, chapter 6.) This lack of sympathy is due, undoubtedly, to Plato's influence.

(2) For Plato's and Aristotle's anti-equalitarianism mentioned in the text, next paragraph, cp. also especially note 49 (and text) to chapter 8, and notes 3-4 (and text) to chapter 11.

This anti-equalitarianism and its devastating effects has been clearly described by W. W. Tarn in his excellent paper 'Alexander the Great and the Unity of Mankind' (Proc. of the British Acad. , XIX, 1933, pp. 123 ff.). Tarn recognizes that in the fifth century, there may have been a movement towards 'something better than the hard-and-fast division of Greeks and barbarians; but', he says, 'this had no importance for history, because anything of the sort was strangled by the idealist philosophies. Plato and Aristotle left no doubt about their views. Plato said that all barbarians were enemies by nature; it was proper to wage war upon them, even to the point of enslaving... them. Aristotle said that all barbarians were slaves by nature...'(p. 124, italics mine). I fully agree with Tarn's appraisal of the pernicious anti- humanitarian influence of the idealist philosophers, i.e. of Plato and Aristotle. I also agree with Tarn's emphasis upon the immense significance of equalitarianism, of the idea of the unity of mankind (cp. op. cit, p. 147). The main point in which 1 cannot fully agree is Tarn's estimate of the fifth-century equalitarian movement, and of the early cynics. He may or may not be right in holding that the historical influence of these movements was small in comparison with that of Alexander. But I believe that he would have rated these movements more highly if he had only followed up the parallelism between the cosmopolitan and the anti-slavery movement. The parallelism between the relations Greeks: barbarians and free men: slaves is clearly enough shown by Tarn in the passage here quoted; and if we consider the unquestionable strength of the movement against slavery (see esp. note 18 to chapter 4) then the scattered remarks against the distinction between Greeks and barbarians gain much in significance. Cp. also Aristotle, Politics, III, 5, 7 (1278a); IV (VI), 4, 16 (1319b); and III, 2, 2 (1275b). See also note 48 to chapter 8, and the reference to E. Badian at the end of that note.

14. For the theme 'return to the beasts', cp. chapter 10, note 71, and text.

15. For Socrates' doctrine of the soul, see text to note 44 to chapter 10.

16. The term 'natural right' in an equalitarian sense came to Rome through the Stoics (there is the influence of Antisthenes to be considered; cp. note 48 to chapter 8) and was popularized by Roman Law (cp. Institutiones, II, 1, 2; I, 2, 2). It is used by Thomas Aquinas also (Summa, II, 91, 2). The confusing use of the term 'natural law' instead of 'natural right' by modern Thomists is to be regretted, as well as the small emphasis they put upon equalitarianism.

17. The monistic tendency which first led to the attempt to interpret norms as natural has recently led to the opposite attempt, namely, to interpret natural laws as conventional. This (physical) type of conventionalism has been based, by Poincare, on the recognition of the conventional or verbal character of definitions. Poincare, and more recently Eddington, point out that we define natural entities by the laws they obey. From this the conclusion is drawn that these laws, i.e. the laws of nature, are definitions, i.e. verbal conventions. Cp. Eddington's letter in Nature, 148 (1941), 141: 'The elements' (of physical theory) '... can only be defined... by the laws they obey; so that we find ourselves chasing our own tails in a purely formal system. ' — An analysis and a criticism of this form of conventionalism can be found in my The Logic of Scientific Discovery, especially pp. 78 ff.

18. (1) The hope of getting some argument or theory to share our responsibilities is, I believe, one of the basic motives of 'scientific' ethics. 'Scientific' ethics is in its absolute barrenness one of the most amazing of social phenomena. What does it aim at? At telling us what we ought to do, i.e. at constructing a code of norms upon a scientific basis, so that we need only look up the index of the code if we are faced with a difficult moral decision? This clearly would be absurd; quite apart from the fact that if it could be achieved, it would destroy all personal responsibility and therefore all ethics. Or would it give scientific criteria of the truth and falsity of moral judgements, i.e. of judgements involving such terms as 'good' or 'bad'? But it is clear that moral judgements are absolutely irrelevant. Only a scandal-monger is interested in judging people or their actions; 'judge not' appears to some of us one of the fundamental and much too little appreciated laws of humanitarian ethics. (We may have to disarm and to imprison a criminal in order to prevent him from repeating his crimes, but too much of moral judgement and especially of moral indignation is always a sign of hypocrisy and Pharisaism.) Thus an ethics of moral judgements would be not only irrelevant but indeed an immoral affair. The all-importance of moral problems rests, of course, on the fact that we can act with intelligent foresight, and that we can ask ourselves what our aims ought to be, i.e. how we ought to act.

Nearly all moral philosophers who have dealt with the problem of how we ought to act (with the possible exception of Kant) have tried to answer it either by reference to 'human nature' (as did even Kant, when he referred to human reason) or to the nature of 'the good'. The first of these ways leads nowhere, since all actions possible to us are founded upon 'human nature', so that the problem of ethics could also be put by asking which elements in human nature I ought to approve and to develop, and which sides I ought to suppress or to control. But the second of these ways also leads nowhere; for given an analysis of 'the good' in form of a sentence like: 'The good is such and such' (or 'such and such is good'), we would always have to ask: What about it? Why should this concern me? Only if the word 'good' is used in an ethical sense, i.e. only if it is used to mean 'that which I ought to do', could I derive from the information 'x is good' the conclusion that I ought to do x. In other words, if the word 'good' is to have any ethical significance at all, it must be defined as 'that which I (or we) ought to do (or to promote)'. But if it is so defined, then its whole meaning is exhausted by the defining phrase, and it can in every context be replaced by this phrase, i.e. the introduction of the term 'good' cannot materially contribute to our problem. (Cp. also note 49 (3) to chapter 11.)

All the discussions about the definition of the good, or about the possibility of defining it, are therefore quite useless. They only show how far 'scientific' ethics is removed from the urgent problems of moral life. And they thus indicate that 'scientific' ethics is a form of escape, and escape from the realities of moral life, i.e. from our moral responsibilities. (In view of these considerations, it is not surprising to find that the beginning of 'scientific' ethics, in the form of ethical naturalism, coincides in time with what may be called the discovery of personal responsibility. Cp. what is said in chapter 10, text to notes 27-38 and 55-7, on the open society and the Great Generation.)

(2) It may be fitting in this connection to refer to a particular form of the escape from responsibility discussed here, as exhibited especially by the juridical positivism of the Hegelian school, as well as by a closely allied spiritual naturalism. That the problem is still significant may be seen from the fact that an author of the excellence of Catlin remains on this important point (as on a number of others) dependent upon Hegel; and my analysis will take the form of a criticism of Catlin's arguments in favour of spiritual naturalism, and against the distinction between laws of nature and normative laws (cp. G. E. G. Catlin, Study of the Principles of Politics, 1930, pp. 96-99).

Catlin begins by making a clear distinction between the laws of nature and 'laws... which human legislators make'; and he admits that, at first sight the phrase 'natural law', if applied to norms, 'appears to be patently unscientific, since it seems to fail to make a distinction between that human law which requires enforcement and the physical laws which are incapable of breach'. But he tries to show that it only appears to be so, and that 'our criticism' of this way of using the term 'natural law' was 'too hasty'. And he proceeds to a clear statement of spiritual naturalism, i.e. to a distinction between 'sound law' which is 'according to nature', and other law: 'Sound law, then, involves a formulation of human tendencies, or, in brief, is a copy of the "natural" law to be "found" by political science. Sound law is in this sense emphatically found and not made. It is a copy of natural social law' (i.e. of what I called 'sociological laws'; cp. text to note 8 to this chapter). And he concludes by insisting that in so far as the legal system becomes more rational, its rules 'cease to assume the character of arbitrary commands and become mere deductions drawn from the primary social laws' (i.e. from what I should call 'sociological laws').

(3) This is a very strong statement of spiritual naturalism. Its criticism is the more important as Catlin combines his doctrine with a theory of 'social engineering' which may perhaps at first sight appear similar to the one advocated here (cp. text to note 9 to chapter 3 and text to notes 1-3 and 8-11 to chapter 9). Before discussing it, I wish to explain why I consider Catlin's view to be dependent on Hegel's positivism. Such an explanation is necessary, because Catlin uses his naturalism in order to distinguish between 'sound' and other law; in other words, he uses it in order to distinguish between 'just' and 'unjust' law; and this distinction certainly does not look like positivism, i.e. the recognition of the existing law as the sole standard of justice. In spite of all that, I believe that Catlin's views are very close to positivism; my reason being that he believes that only 'sound' law can be effective, and in so far 'existent' in precisely Hegel's sense. For Catlin says that when our legal code is not 'sound', i.e. not in accordance with the laws of human nature, then 'our statute remains paper'. This statement is purest positivism; for it allows us to deduce from the fact that a certain code is not only 'paper' but successfully enforced, that it is 'sound'; or in other words, that all legislation which does not turn out to be merely paper is a copy of human nature and therefore just.

(4) I now proceed to a brief criticism of the argument proffered by Catlin against the distinction between (a) laws of nature which cannot be broken, and (b) normative laws, which are man-made, i.e. enforced by sanctions; a distinction which he himself makes so very clearly at first. Catlin's argument is a twofold one. He shows (a1) that laws of nature also are man-made, in a certain sense, and that they can, in a sense, be broken; and (b1) that in a certain sense normative laws cannot be broken. I begin with (a1). 'The natural laws of the physicist', writes Catlin, 'are not brute facts, they are rationalizations of the physical world, whether superimposed by man or justified because the world is inherently rational and orderly. ' And he proceeds to show that natural laws 'can be nullified' when 'fresh facts' compel us to recast the law. My reply to this argument is this. A statement intended as a formulation of a law of nature is certainly man-made. We make the hypothesis that there is a certain invariable regularity, i.e. we describe the supposed regularity with the help of a statement, the natural law. But, as scientists, we are prepared to learn from nature that we have been wrong; we are prepared to recast the law if fresh facts which contradict our hypothesis show that our supposed law was no law, since it has been broken. In other words, by accepting nature's nullification, the scientist shows that he accepts a hypothesis only as long as it has not been falsified; which is the same as to say that he regards a law of nature as a rule which cannot be broken, since he accepts the breaking of his rule as proof that his rule did not formulate a law of nature. Furthermore: although the hypothesis is man- made, we may be unable to prevent its falsification. This shows that, by creating the hypothesis, we have not created the regularity which it is intended to describe (although we did create a new set of problems, and may have suggested new observations and interpretations), (b1) 'It is not true', says Catlin, 'that the criminal "breaks" the law when he does the forbidden act... the statute does not say: "Thou canst not; it says, "Thou shalt not, or this punishment will be inflicted." As command', Catlin continues, 'it may be broken, but as law, in a very real sense, it is only broken when the punishment is not inflicted... So far as the law is perfected and its sanctions executed,... it approximates to physical law.' The reply to this is simple. In whichever sense we speak of 'breaking' the law, the juridical law can be broken; no verbal adjustment can alter that. Let us accept Catlin 's view that a criminal cannot 'break' the law, and that it is only 'broken' if the criminal does not receive the punishment prescribed by the law. But even from this point of view, the law can be broken; for instance, by officers of the state who refuse to punish the criminal. And even in a state where all sanctions are, in fact, executed, the officers could, if they chose, prevent such execution, and so 'break' the law in Catlin 's sense. (That they would thereby 'break' the law in the ordinary sense, also, i.e. that they would become criminals, and that they might ultimately perhaps be punished is quite another question.) In other words: A normative law is always enforced by men and by their sanctions, and it is therefore fundamentally different from a hypothesis. Legally, we can enforce the suppression of murder, or of acts of kindness; of falsity, or of truth; of justice, or of injustice. But we cannot force the sun to alter its course. No amount of argument can bridge this gap.

19. The 'nature of happiness and misery' is referred to in the Theaetetus, 175c. For the close relationship between 'nature' and 'Form' or 'Idea', cp. especially Republic, 597a-d, where Plato first discusses the Form or Idea of a bed, and then refers to it as 'the bed which exists by nature, and which was made by God' (597b). In the same place, he proffers the corresponding distinction between the 'artificial' (or the 'fabricated' thing, which is an 'imitation') and 'truth'. Cp. also Adam's note to Republic, 597b 10 (with the quotation from Burnet given there), and the notes to 476b 13, 501b9, 525c 15; furthermore Theaetetus, 174b (and Cornford's note 1 to p. 85 in his Plato's Theory of Knowledge). See also Aristotle's Metaphysics, 1015a14.

20. For Plato's attack upon art, see the last book of the Republic, and especially the passages Republic, 600a-605b, mentioned in note 39 to chapter 4.

21. Cp. notes 11, 12 and 13 to this chapter, and text. My contention that Plato agrees at least partly with Antiphon's naturalist theories (although he does not, of course, agree with Antiphon's equalitarianism) will appear strange to many, especially to the readers of Barker, op. cit. And it may surprise them even more to hear the opinion that the main disagreement was not so much a theoretical one, but rather one of moral practice, and that Antiphon and not Plato was morally in the right, as far as the practical issue of equalitarianism is concerned. (For Plato's agreement with Antiphon's principle that nature is true and right, see also text to notes 23 and 28, and note 30 to this chapter.)

22. These quotations are from Sophist, 266b and 265e. But the passage also contains (265c) a criticism (similar to Laws, quoted in text to notes 23 and 30 in this chapter) of what may be described as a materialist interpretation of naturalism such as was held, perhaps, by Antiphon; I mean 'the belief... that nature... generates without intelligence'.

23. Cp. Laws, 892a and c. For the doctrine of the affinity of the soul to the Ideas, see also note 15 (8) to chapter 3. For the affinity of 'natures' and 'souls', see Aristotle's Metaphysics, 1015al4, with the passages of the Laws quoted, and with 896d/e: 'the soul dwells in all things that move... '

Compare further especially the following passages in which 'natures' and 'souls' are used in a way that is obviously synonymous: Republic, 485a/b, 485e/486a and d, 486b ('nature'); 486b and d ('soul'), 490e/491a (both), 491b (both), and many other places (cp. also Adam's note to 370a7). The affinity is directly stated in 490b(10). For the affinity between 'nature' and 'soul' and 'race', cp. 50 le where the phrase 'philosophic natures' or 'souls' found in analogous passages is replaced by 'race of philosophers'.

There is also an affinity between 'soul' or 'nature' and the social class or caste; see for instance Republic, 435b. The connection between caste and race is fundamental, for from the beginning (415a), caste is identified with race.

'Nature' is used in the sense of 'talent' or 'condition of the soul' in Laws, 648d, 650b, 655e, 710b, 766a, 875c. The priority and superiority of nature over art is stated in Laws, 889a, ff. For 'natural' in the sense of 'right', or 'true', see Laws, 686d and 818e, respectively.

24. Cp. the passages quoted in note 32 (1), (a) and (c), to chapter 4.

25. The Socratic doctrine of autarky is mentioned m Republic, 387d/e (cp. Apology , 41c, ff., and Adam's note to Rep., 387d25). This is only one of the few scattered passages reminiscent of Socratic teaching; but it is in direct contradiction to the main doctrine of the Republic, as it is expounded in the text (see also note 36 to chapter 6, and text); this may be seen by contrasting the quoted passage with 369c, ff., and very many similar passages.

26. Cp. for instance the passage quoted in the text to note 29 to chapter 4. For the 'rare and uncommon natures', cp. Republic, 491a/b, and many other passages, for instance Timaeus, 51e: 'reason is shared by the gods with very few men'. For the 'social habitat', see 49 Id (cp. also chapter 23).

While Plato (and Aristotle; cp. especially note 4 to chapter 11, and text) insisted that manual work is degrading, Socrates seems to have adopted a very different attitude. (Cp. Xenophon, Memorabilia, II, 7; 7-10; Xenophon's story is, to some extent, corroborated by Antisthenes' and Diogenes' attitude towards manual work; cp. also note 56 to chapter 10.)

27. See especially Theaetetus, 172b (cp. also Cornford's comments on this passage in Plato's Theory of Knowledge). See also note 7 to this chapter. The elements of conventionalism in Plato's teaching may perhaps explain why the Republic was said, by some who still possessed Protagoras' writings, to resemble these. (Cp. Diogenes Laertius, III, 37.) For Lycophron's contract theory, see notes 43-54 to chapter 6 (especially note 46), and text.

28. Cp. Laws, 690b/c; see note 10 to this chapter. Plato mentions Pindar's naturalism also in Gorgias, 484b, A^^h; Laws, 714c, 890a. For the opposition between 'external compulsion' on the one hand, and (a) 'free action', (b) 'nature', on the other, cp. also Republic, 603c, and Timaeus, 64d. (Cp. also Rep., 466c-d, quoted in note 30 to this chapter.)

29. Cp. Republic, 369b-c. This is part of the contract theory. The next quotation, which is the first statement of the naturalist principle in the perfect state, is 370a/b-c. (Naturalism is in the Republic first mentioned by Glaucon in 358e, ff.; but this is, of course, not Plato's own doctrine of naturalism.)

(1) For the further development of the naturalistic principle of the division of labour and the part played by this principle in Plato's theory of justice, cp. especially text to notes 6, 23 and 40 to chapter 6.

(2) For a modern radical version of the naturalistic principle, see Marx's formula of the communist society (adopted from Louis Blanc): 'From each according to his ability: to each according to his needs!' (Cp. for instance A Handbook of Marxism, E. Burns, 1935, p. 752; and note 8 to chapter 13; see also note 3 to chapter 13, and note 48 to chapter 24, and text.)

For the historical roots of this 'principle of communism', see Plato's maxim 'Friends have in common all things they possess' (see note 36 to chapter 6, and text; for Plato's communism see also notes 34 to chapter 6 and 30 to chapter 4, and text), and compare these passages with the Acts: 'And all that believed were together, and had all things in common;... and parted them to all men, as every man had need' (2, 44-45). — 'Neither was there any among them that lacked: for... distribution was made unto every man according as he had need' (4, 34-35).

30. See note 23, and text. The quotations in the present paragraph are all from the Laws: (1) 889, a-d (cp. the very similar passage in the Theaetetus, 172b); (2) 896c-e; (3) 890e/891a.

For the next paragraph in the text (i.e. for my contention that Plato's naturalism is incapable of solving practical problems) the following may serve as an illustration. Many naturalists have contended that men and women are 'by nature' different, both physically and spiritually, and that they should therefore fulfil different functions in social life. Plato, however, uses the same naturalistic argument to prove the opposite; for, he argues, are not dogs of both sexes useful for watching as well as hunting? 'Do you agree', he writes (Rep., 466c-d), 'that women... must participate with men in guarding as well as in hunting, as it is with dogs;... and that in so doing, they will be acting in the most desirable manner, since this will be not contrary to nature, but in accordance with the natural relations of the sexes?' (See also text to note 28 to this chapter; for the dog as ideal guardian, cp. chapter 4, especially note 32 (2), and text.)

31. For a brief criticism of the biological theory of the state, see note 7 to chapter 10, and text. *For the oriental origin of the theory, see R. Eisler, Revue de Synthese Historique, vol. 41, p. 15.*

32. For some applications of Plato's political theory of the soul, and for the inferences drawn from it, see notes 58-9 to chapter 10, and text. For the fundamental methodological analogy between city and individual, see especiallyk Republic, 368e, 445c, 577c. For Alcmaeon's political theory of the human individual, or of human physiology, cp. note 13 to chapter 6.

33. Cp. Republic, 423, b and d.

34. This quotation as well as the next is from G. Grote, Plato and the Other Companions of Socrates (1875), vol. Ill, 124. — The main passages of the Republic are 439c, f. (the story of Leontius); 571c, f. (the bestial part versus the reasoning part); 588c (the Apocalyptic Monster; cp. the 'Beast' which possesses a Platonic Number, in the Revelation 13, 17 and 18); 603d and 604b (man at war with himself). See also Laws, 689a-b, and notes 58-9 to chapter 10.

35. Cp. Republic, 519e, f. (cp. also note 10 to chapter 8); the next two quotations are both from the Laws, 903c. (I have reversed their order.) It may be mentioned that the 'whole' referred to in these two passages ('pan' and 'holon') is not the state but the world; yet there is no doubt that the underlying tendency of this cosmological holism is a political holism; cp. Laws, 903d-e (where the physician and craftsman is associated with the statesman), and the fact that Plato often uses 'holon' (especially the plural of it) to mean 'state' as well as 'world'. Furthermore, the first of these two passages (in my order of quoting) is a shorter version of Republic, 420b-421c; the second of Republic, 520b, ff. ('We have created you for the sake of the state, as well as for your own sake.') Further passages on holism or collectivism are: Republic, 424a, 449e, 462a, f., Laws, 715b, 739c, 875a, f, 903b, 923b, 942a, f (See also notes 31/32 to chapter 6.) For the remark in this paragraph that Plato spoke of the state as an organism, cp. Republic, 462c, and Laws, 964e, where the state is even compared with the human body.

36. Cp. Adam in his edition of the Republic, vol. II, 303; see also note 3 to chapter 4, and text.

37. This point is emphasized by Adam, op. cit., note 546a, b7, and pp. 288 and 307. The next quotation in this paragraph is Republic, 546a; cp. Republic, 485a/b, quoted in note 26 (1) to chapter 3 and in text to note 33 to chapter 8.

38. This is the main point in which I must deviate from Adam's interpretation. I believe Plato to indicate that the philosopher king of Books VI-VII, whose main interest is in the things that are not generated and do not decay (Rep., 485b; see the last note and the passages there referred to), obtains with his mathematical and dialectical training the knowledge of the Platonic Number and with it the means of arresting social degeneration and thereby the decay of the state. See especially the text to note 39.

The quotations that follow in this paragraph are: 'keeping pure the race of the guardians'; cp. Republic, 460c, and text to note 34 to chapter 4. 'A city thus constituted, etc.': 546a.

The reference to Plato's distinction, in the field of mathematics, acoustics, and astronomy, between rational knowledge and delusive opinion based upon experience or perception is to Republic, 523a, ff, 525d, ff. (where 'calculation' is discussed; see especially 526a); 527d, ff , 529b, f , 531a, ff (down to 534a and 537d); see also 509d-511e.

39. * I have been blamed for 'adding' the words (which I never placed in quotation marks) 'lacking a purely rational method'; but in view of Rep., 523a to 537d, it seems to me clear that Plato's reference to 'perception' implies just this contrast.* The quotations in this paragraph are from Rep., 546b, ff. Note that, throughout this passage, it is 'The Muses' who speak through the mouth of 'Socrates'.

In my interpretation of the Story of the Fall and the Number, I have carefully avoided the difficult, undecided, and perhaps undecidable problem of the computation of the Number itself. (It may be undecidable since Plato may not have revealed his secret in full.) I confine my interpretation entirely to the passages immediately before and after the one that describes the Number itself; these passages are, I believe, clear enough. In spite of that, my interpretation deviates, as far as I know, from previous attempts.

(1) The crucial statement on which I base my interpretation is (A) that the guardians work by 'calculation aided by perception'. Next to this, I am using the statements (B) that they will not 'accidentally hit upon (the correct way of) obtaining good offspring'; (Q that they will 'blunder, and beget children in the wrong way'; (Z)) that they are 'ignorant' of such matters (that is, such matters as the Number).

Regarding (A), it should be clear to every careful reader of Plato that such a reference to perception is intended to express a criticism of the method in question. This view of the passage under consideration (546a, f ) is supported by the fact that it comes so soon after the passages 523a-537d (see the end of the last note), in which the opposition between pure rational knowledge and opinion based on perception is one of the main themes, and in which, more especially, the term 'calculation' is used in a context emphasizing the opposition between rational knowledge and experience, while the term 'perception' (see also 511c/d) is given a definite technical and deprecatory sense. (Cp. also, for instance, Plutarch's wording in his discussion of this opposition: in his Life of Marcellus, 306.) I am therefore of the opinion, and this opinion is enforced by the context, especially by (B), (Q, (D), that Plato's remark (A) implies (a) that 'calculation based upon perception' is a poor method, and (b) that there are better methods, namely the methods of mathematics and dialectics, which yield pure rational knowledge. The point I am trying to elaborate is, indeed, so plain, that I should not have troubled so much about it were it not for the fact that even Adam has missed it. In his note to 546a, hi, he interprets 'calculation' as a reference to the rulers' task of determining the number of marriages they should permit, and 'perception' as the means by which they 'decide what couples should be joined, what children be reared, etc.'. That is to say, Adam takes Plato's remark to be a simple description and not as a polemic against the weakness of the empirical method. Accordingly, he relates neither the statement (Q that the rulers will 'blunder' nor the remark (D) that they are 'ignorant' to the fact that they use empirical methods. (The remark (B) that they will not 'hit' upon the right method 'by accident' would simply be left untranslated, if we follow Adam's suggestion.) In interpreting our passage we must keep it in mind that in Book VIII, immediately before the passage in question, Plato returns to the question of the first city of Books II to IV. (See Adam's notes to 449a, ff., and 543a, ff.) But the guardians of this city are neither mathematicians nor dialecticians. Thus they have no idea of the purely rational methods emphasized so much in Book VII, 525-534. In this connection, the import of the remarks on perception, i.e. on the poverty of empirical methods, and on the resulting ignorance of the guardians, is unmistakable.

The statement (B) that the rulers will not 'hit accidentally upon' (the correct way of) 'obtaining good offspring, or none at all', is perfectly clear in my interpretation. Since the rulers have merely empirical methods at their disposal, it would be only a lucky accident if they did hit upon a method whose determination needs mathematical or other rational methods. Adam suggests (note to 546a, b7) the translation: 'none the more will they by calculation together with perception obtain good offspring'; and only in brackets, he adds: 'lit. hit the obtaining of. I think that his failure to make any sense of the 'hit' is a consequence of his failure to see the implications of (A).

The interpretation here suggested makes (Q and (D) perfectly understandable; and Plato's remark that his Number is 'master over better or worse birth', fits in perfectly. It may be remarked that Adam does not comment on (D), i.e. the ignorance, although such a comment would be most necessary in view of his theory (note to 546d22) that 'the number is not a nuptial... number', and that it has no technical eugenic meaning.

That the meaning of the Number is indeed technical and eugenic is, I think, clear, if we consider that the passage containing the Number is enclosed in passages containing references to eugenic knowledge, or rather, lack of eugenic knowledge. Immediately before the Number, (A), (B), (Q, occur, and immediately afterwards, (D), as well as the story of the bride and bridegroom and their degenerate offspring. Besides, (Q before the Number and (D) after the Number refer to each other; for (Q, the 'blunder', is connected with a reference to 'begetting in the wrong way', and (Z)), the 'ignorance', is connected with an exactly analogous reference, viz., 'uniting bride and bridegroom in the wrong manner'. (See also next note.) The last point in which I must defend my interpretation is my contention that those who know the Number thereby obtain the power to influence 'better or worse births'. This does not of course follow from Plato's statement that the Number itself has such power; for if Adam's interpretation is right, then the Number regulates the births because it determines an unalterable period after which degeneration is bound to set in. But I assert that Plato's references to 'perception', to 'blunder' and to 'ignorance' as the immediate cause of the eugenic mistakes would be pointless if he did not mean that, had they possessed an adequate knowledge of the appropriate mathematical and purely rational methods, the guardians would not have blundered. But this makes the inference inevitable that the Number has a technical eugenic meaning, and that its knowledge is the key to the power of arresting degeneration. (This inference also seems to me the only one compatible with all we know about this type of superstition; all astrology, for instance, involves the apparently somewhat contradictory conception that the knowledge of our fate may help us to influence this fate.)

I think that the rejection of the explanation of the Number as a secret breeding taboo arises from a reluctance to credit Plato with such crude ideas, however clearly he may express them. In other words, they arise from the tendency to idealize Plato.

(2) In this connection, I must refer to an article by A. E. Taylor, 'The Decline and Fall of The State in Republic, VII' (Mind, N.S. 48, 1939, pp. 23 ff.). In this article, Taylor attacks Adam (in my opinion not justly), and argues against him: 'It is true, of course, that the decay of the ideal State is expressly said in 546b to begin when the ruling class "beget children out of due season"... But this need not mean, and in my opinion does not mean, that Plato is concerning himself here with problems of the hygiene of reproduction. The main thought is the simple one that if, like everything of man's making, the State carries the seeds of its own dissolution within it, this must, of course, mean that sooner or later the persons wielding supreme power will be inferior to those who preceded them' (pp. 25 ff.). Now this interpretation seems to me not only untenable, in view of Plato's fairly definite statements, but also a typical example of the attempt to eliminate from Plato's writing such embarrassing elements as racialism or superstition. Adam began by denying that the Number has technical eugenic importance, and by asserting that it is not a 'nuptial number', but merely a cosmological period. Taylor now continues by denying that Plato is here at all interested in  'problems of the hygiene of the reproduction'. But Plato's passage is thronged with allusions to these problems, and Taylor himself admits two pages before (p. 23) that it is 'nowhere suggested' that the Number 'is a determinant of anything but the "better and worse births'". Besides, not only the passage in question but the whole of the Republic (and similarly the Statesman, especially 310b, 310e) is simply full of emphasis upon the 'problems of the hygiene of reproduction'. Taylor's theory that Plato, when speaking of the 'human creature' (or, as Taylor puts it, of a 'thing of human generation'), means the state, and that Plato wishes to allude to the fact that the state is the creation of a human lawgiver, is, I think, without support in Plato's text. The whole passage begins with a reference to the things of the sensible world in flux, to the things that are generated and that decay (see notes 37 and 38 to this chapter), and more especially, to living things, plants as well as animals, and to their racial problems. Besides, a thing 'of man's making' would, if emphasized by Plato in such a context, mean an 'artificial' thing which is inferior because it is 'twice removed' from reality. (Cp. text to notes 20-23 to this chapter, and the whole Tenth Book of the Republic down to the end of 608b.) Plato would never expect anybody to interpret the phrase 'a thing of man's making' as meaning the perfect, the 'natural' state; rather he would expect them to think of something very inferior (like poetry; cp. note 39 to chapter 4). The phrase which Taylor translates 'thing of human generation' is usually simply translated by 'human creature', and this removes all difficulties.

(3) Assuming that my interpretation of the passage in question is correct, a suggestion may be made with the intention of connecting Plato's belief in the significance of racial degeneration with his repeated advice that the number of the members of the ruling class should be kept constant (advice that shows that the sociologist Plato understood the unsettling effect of population increase). Plato's way of thinking, described at the end of the present chapter (cp. text to note 45; and note 37 to chapter 8), especially the way he opposes The One monarch. The Few timocrats, to The Many who are nothing but a mob, may have suggested to him the belief that an increase in numbers is equivalent to a decline in quality. (Something on these lines is indeed suggested in the Laws, 710d.) If this hypothesis is correct, then he may easily have concluded that population increase is interdependent with, or perhaps even caused by, racial degeneration. Since population increase was in fact the main cause of the instability and dissolution of the early Greek tribal societies (cp. notes 6, 7, and 63 to chapter 10, and text), this hypothesis would explain why Plato believed that the 'real' cause was racial degeneration (in keeping with his general theories of 'nature', and of 'change').

40. (1) Or 'at the wrong time'. Adam insists (note to 546d22) that we must not translate 'at the wrong time' but 'inopportunely'. I may remark that my interpretation is quite independent of this question; it is fully compatible with 'inopportunely' or 'wrongly' or 'at the wrong time' or 'out of due season'. (The phrase in question means, originally, something like 'contrary to the proper measure'; usually it means 'at the wrong time'.)

* (2) Concerning Plato's remarks about 'mingling' and 'mixture', it may be observed that Plato seems to have held a primitive but popular theory of heredity (apparently still held by race-horse breeders) according to which the offspring is an even mixture or blend of the characters or 'natures' of his two parents, and that their characters, or natures, or 'virtues' (stamina, speed, etc., or, according to the Republic, the Statesman, and the Laws, gentleness, fierceness, boldness, self-restraint, etc.) are mixed in him in proportion to the number of ancestors (grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.) who possessed these characters. Accordingly, the art of breeding is one of a judicious and scientific — mathematical or harmonious — blending or mixing of natures. See especially the Statesman, where the royal craft of statesman- ship or herdsmanship is likened to that of weaving, and where the kingly weaver must blend boldness with self-restraint. (See also Republic, 375c-e, and 410c, ff.; Laws, 731b; and notes 34 f. to chapter 4; 13 and 39 f. to chapter 8; and text.)*

41. For Plato's law of social revolutions, see especially note 26 to chapter 4, and text.

42. The term 'meta-biology' is used by G. B. Shaw in this sense, i.e. as denoting a kind of religion. (Cp. the preface to Back to Methuselah; see also note 66 to chapter 12.)

43. Cp. Adam's note to Republic, 547a 3.

44. For a criticism of what I call 'psychologism' in the method of sociology, cp. text to note 19 to chapter 13 and chapter 14, where Mill's still popular methodological psychologism is discussed.

45. It has often been said that Plato's thought must not be squeezed into a 'system'; accordingly, my attempts in this paragraph (and not only in this paragraph) to show the systematic unity of Plato's thought, which is obviously based on the Pythagorean table of opposites, will probably arouse criticism. But I believe that such a systematization is a necessary test of any interpretation. Those who believe that they do not need an interpretation, and that they can 'know' a philosopher or his work, and take him just 'as he was', or his work just 'as it was', are mistaken. They cannot but interpret both the man and his work; but since they are not aware of the fact that they interpret (that their view is coloured by tradition, temperament, etc.), their interpretation must necessarily be naive and uncritical. (Cp. also chapter 10 (notes 1-5 and 56), and chapter 25.) A critical interpretation, however, must take the form of a rational reconstruction, and must be systematic; it must try to reconstruct the philosopher's thought as a consistent edifice. Cp. also what A. C. Ewing says of Kant (A Short Commentary on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason , 1938, p. 4): '... we ought to start with the assumption that a great philosopher is not likely to be always contradicting himself, and consequently, wherever there are two interpretations, one of which will make Kant consistent and the other inconsistent, prefer the former to the latter, if reasonably possible.' This surely applies also to Plato, and even to interpretation in general.
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Re: The Open Society and Its Enemies, by Karl R. Popper

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Part 5 of 18

Notes to Chapter Six

1. Cp. note 3 to chapter 4 and text, especially the end of that paragraph. Furthermore, note 2 (2) to that chapter. Concerning the formula Back to Nature, I wish to draw attention to the fact that Rousseau was greatly influenced by Plato. Indeed, a glance at the Social Contract will reveal a wealth of analogies especially with those Platonic passages on naturalism which have been commented upon in the last chapter. Cp. especially note 14 to chapter 9. There is also an interesting similarity between Republic, 591a, ff. (and Gorgias, 472e, ff., where a similar idea occurs in an individualist context), and Rousseau's (and Hegel's) famous theory of punishment. (Barker, Greek Political Theory, I, 388 ff., rightly emphasizes Plato's influence upon Rousseau. But he does not see the strong element of romanticism in Plato; and it is not generally appreciated that the rural romanticism which influenced both France and Shakespeare's England through the medium of Sanazzaro's Arcadia, has its origin in Plato's Dorian shepherds; cp. notes 11 (3), 26, and 32 to chapter 4, and note 14 to chapter 9.)

2. Cp. R. H. S. Crossman, Plato To-Day (1937), 132; the next quotation is from p. 111. This interesting book (like the works of Grote and T. Gomperz) has greatly encouraged me to develop my rather unorthodox views on Plato, and to follow them up to their rather unpleasant conclusions. For the quotations from C. E. M. Joad, cp. his Guide to the Philosophy of Morals and Politics (1938), 661, and 660. I may also refer here to the very interesting remarks on Plato's views on justice by C. L. Stevenson, in his article 'Persuasive Definitions' (Mind, N.S., vol. 47, 1938, pp. 331 ff ).

3. Cp. Crossman, op. cit, 132 f The next two quotations are: Field, Plato, etc., 91; cp. similar remarks in Barker, Greek Political Theory, etc. (see note 13 to chapter 5).

The idealization of Plato has played a considerable part in the debates on the genuineness of the various works transmitted under his name. Many of them have been rejected by some of the critics simply because they contained passages which did not fit in with their idealized view of Plato. A rather naive as well as typical expression of this attitude can be found in Davies' and Vaughan's 'Introductory Notice' (cp. the Golden Treasury edition of the Republic, p. vi): 'Mr. Grote, in his zeal to take Plato down from his super-human pedestal, may be somewhat too ready to attribute to him the compositions which have been judged unworthy of so divine a philosopher.' It does not seem to occur to the writers that their judgement of Plato should depend on what he wrote, and not vice versa; and that, if these compositions are genuine and unworthy, Plato was not quite so divine a philosopher. (For Plato's divinity, see also Simplicius in Arist. de coelo, 32b44, 319al5, etc.)

4. The formulation of (a) emulates one of Kant's, who describes a just constitution as 'a constitution that achieves the greatest possible freedom of human individuals by framing the laws in such a way that the freedom of each can co-exist with that of all others' (Critique of Pure Reason2, 373); see also his Theory of Right, where he says: 'Right (or justice) is the sum total of the conditions which are necessary for everybody's free choice to co-exist with that of everybody else, in accordance with a general law of liberty.' Kant believed that this was the aim pursued by Plato in the Republic; from which we may see that Kant was one of the many philosophers who either were deceived by Plato or who idealized him by imputing to him their own humanitarian ideas. I may remark, in this connection, that Kant's ardent liberalism is very little appreciated in English and American writings on political philosophy (in spite of Hastie's Principles of Politics). He is only too often claimed to be a forerunner of Hegel; but in view of the fact that he recognized in the romanticism of both Herder and Fichte a doctrine diametrically opposed to his own, this claim is grossly unjust to Kant, and there can be no doubt that he would have strongly resented it. It is the tremendous influence of Hegelianism that led to a wide acceptance of this, I believe, completely untenable claim.

5. Cp. text to notes 32/33 to chapter 5.

6. Cp. text to notes 25-29, chapter 5. The quotations in the present paragraph are: (1) Republic, 433a; (2) Republic, 434a/b; (3) Republic, 441d. With Plato's statement, in the first quotation, 'we have repeated over and again', cp. also esp. Republic, 397e, where the theory of justice is carefully prepared, and, of course. Republic, 369b-c, quoted in text to note 29, chapter 5. See also notes 23 and 40 to the present chapter.

7. As pointed out in chapter 4 (note 18 and text, and note 29), Plato does not say much about slaves in the Republic, although what he says is significant enough; but he dispels all doubts about his attitude in the Laws (cp. especially G. R. Morrow's article in Mind, referred to in note 29 to chapter 4).

8. The quotations are from Barker, Greek Political Theory, I, p. 180. Barker states (pp. 176 f) that 'Platonic Justice' is 'social justice', and correctly emphasizes its holistic nature. He mentions (178 f.) the possible criticism that this formula does 'not... touch the essence of what men generally mean by justice', i.e. 'a principle for dealing with the clash of wills', i.e. justice as pertaining to individuals. But he thinks that 'such an objection is beside the point', and that Plato's idea is 'not a matter of law' but 'a conception of social morality' (179); and he goes on to assert that this treatment of justice corresponded, in a way, to the current Greek ideas of justice: 'Nor was Plato, in conceiving justice in this sense, very far removed from the current ideas in Greece.' He does not even mention that there exists some evidence to the contrary, as here discussed in the next notes, and text.

9. Cp. Gorgias, 488e, ff.; the passage is more fully quoted and discussed in section VIII below (see note 48 to this chapter, and text). For Aristotle's theory of slavery, see note 3 to chapter II and text. The quotations from Aristotle in this paragraph are: (1) and (2) Nicom. Ethics, V, 4, 7, and 8; (3) Politics, III, 12, 1 (1282b; see also notes 20 and 30 to this chapter. The passage contains a reference to the Nicom. Eth.); (A) Nicom. Ethics, V, 4, 9; (5) Politics, IV (VI), 2, 1 (1317b).— In the Nicom. Ethics, V, 3, 7 (cp. also Pol, III, 9, 1; 1280a), Aristotle also mentions that the meaning of 'justice' varies in democratic, oligarchic, and aristocratic states, according to their different ideas of 'merit'. *(What follows here was first added in the American edition of 1950.)

For Plato's views, in the Laws, on political justice and equality, see especially the passage on the two kinds of equality (Laws, 757b-d) quoted below under (1). For the fact, mentioned here in the text, that not only virtue and breeding but also wealth should count in the distribution of honours and of spoils (and even size and good looks), see Laws, 744c, quoted in note 20 (1) to the present chapter, where other relevant passages are also discussed.

(1) In the Laws, 757b-d, Plato discusses 'two kinds of equality'. 'The one of these... is equality of measure, weight, or number [i.e. numerical or arithmetical equality]; but the truest and best equality... distributes more to the greater and less to the smaller, giving each his due measure, in accordance with nature... By granting the greater honour to those who are superior in virtue, and the lesser honour to those who are inferior in virtue and breeding, it distributes to each what is proper, according to this principle of [rational] proportions. And this is precisely what we shall call ""political justice'". And whoever may found a state must make this the sole aim of his legislation this justice alone which, as stated, is natural equality, and which is distributed, as the situation requires, to unequals.' This second of the two equalities which constitutes what Plato here calls 'political justice' (and what Aristotle calls 'distributive justice'), and which is described by Plato (and Aristotle) as 'proportionate equality' — the truest, best, and most natural equality — was later called 'geometrical' (Gorgias 508a; see also 465b/c, and Plutarch, Moralia 719b, f ), as opposed to the lower and democratic ' arithmetical equality. On this identification, the remarks under (2) may throw some light.

(2) According to tradition (see Comm. in Arist. Graeca, pars XV, Berlin, 1897, p. 117, 29, and pars XVIII, Berlin, 1900, p. 118, 18), an inscription over the door of Plato's academy said: 'Nobody untrained in geometry may enter my house!' I suspect that the meaning of this is not merely an emphasis upon the importance of mathematical studies, but that it means: 'Arithmetic (i.e. more precisely, Pythagorean number theory) is not enough; you must know geometry!' And I shall attempt to sketch the reasons which make me believe that the latter phrase adequately sums up one of Plato's most important contributions to science. See also Addendum, p. 319.

As is now generally believed, the earlier Pythagorean treatment of geometry adopted a method somewhat similar to the one nowadays called 'arithmetization'. Geometry was treated as part of the theory of integers (or 'natural' numbers, i.e. of numbers composed of monads or 'indivisible units'; cp. Republic, 525e) and of their 'logoi, i.e. their 'rational' proportions. For example, the Pythagorean rectangular triangles were those with sides in such rational proportions. (Examples are 3:4:5; or 5:12:13.) A general formula ascribed to Pythagoras is this: 2n + 1: 2n(n + 1): 2n (n + 1) + 1. But this formula, derived from the 'gnomon, is not general enough, as the example 8:15:17 shows. A general formula, from which the Pythagorean can be obtained by putting m = n + 1, is this: m2 - n2 : 2mn: m2 + n2 (where m > n). Since this formula is a close consequence of the so-called 'Theorem of Pythagoras' (if taken together with that kind of Algebra which seems to have been known to the early Pythagoreans), and since this formula was, apparently, not only unknown to Pythagoras but even to Plato (who proposed, according to Proclus, another non-general formula), it seems that the 'Theorem of Pythagoras' was not known, in its general form, to either Pythagoras or even to Plato. (See for a less radical view on this matter T. Heath, A History of Greek Mathematics, 1921, vol. I, pp. 80-2. The formula described by me as 'general' is essentially that of Euclid; it can be obtained from Heath's unnecessarily complicated formula on p. 82 by first obtaining the three sides of the triangle and by multiplying them by 2/mn, and then by substituting in the result m and n and p and q.)

The discovery of the irrationality of the square root of two (alluded to by Plato in the Greater Hippias and in the Meno; cp. note 10 to chapter 8; see also Aristotle, Anal. Priora, 41a26 f ) destroyed the Pythagorean programme of 'arithmetizing' geometry, and with it, it appears, the vitality of the Pythagorean Order itself. The tradition that this discovery was at first kept secret is, it seems, supported by the fact that Plato still calls the irrational at first 'arrhetos' i.e. the secret, the unmentionable mystery; cp. the Greater Hippias, 303b/c; Republic, 546c. (A later term is 'the non-commensurable'; cp. Theaetetus, 147c, din& Laws, 820c. The term 'alogos' seems to occur first in Democritus, who wrote two books On Illogical Lines and Atoms (or and Full Bodies) which are lost; Plato knew the term, as proved by his somewhat disrespectful allusion to Democritus' title in the Republic, 534d, but never used it himself as a synonym for 'arrhe-tos'. The first extant and indubitable use in this sense is in Aristotle's Anal. Post., 76b9. See also T. Heath, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 84 f , 156 f. and my first Addendum on p. 3 19, below.)

It appears that the breakdown of the Pythagorean programme, i.e. of the arithmetical method of geometry, led to the development of the axiomatic method of Euclid, that is to say, of a new method which was on the one side designed to rescue, from the breakdown, what could be rescued (including the method of rational proof), and on the other side to accept the irreducibility of geometry to arithmetic. Assuming all this, it would seem highly probable that Plato's role in the transition from the older Pythagorean method to that of Euclid was an exceedingly important one — in fact, that Plato was one of the first to develop a specifically geometrical method aiming at rescuing what could be rescued from, and at cutting the losses of, the breakdown of Pythagoreanism. Much of this must be considered as a highly uncertain historical hypothesis, but some confirmation may be found in Aristotle, Anal. Post., 76b9 (mentioned above), especially if this passage is compared with the Laws, 818c, 895e (even and odd), and 819e/820a, 820c (incommensurable). The passage reads: 'Arithmetic assumes the meaning of "odd" and "even", geometry that of "irrational"...'(Or 'incommensurable'; cp. Anal. Priora, 41a26 f, 50a37. See also Metaphysics, 983a20, 1061b1-3, where the problem of irrationality is treated as if it were the proprium of geometry, and 1089a, where, as in Anal. Post., 76b40, there is an allusion to the 'square foot' method of the Theaetetus, 147d.) Plato's great interest in the problem of irrationality is shown especially in two of the passages mentioned above, the Theaetetus, 147c-148a, and Laws, 819d-822d, where Plato declares that he is ashamed of the Greeks for not being alive to the great problem of incommensurable magnitudes.

Now I suggest that the 'Theory of the Primary Bodies' (in the Timaeus, 53c to 62c, and perhaps even down to 64a; see also Republic, 528b-d) was part of Plato's answer to the challenge. It preserves, on the one hand, the atomistic character of Pythagoreanism — the indivisible units ('monads') which also play a role in the school of the Atomists — and it introduces, on the other hand, the irrationalities (of the square roots of two and three) whose admission into the world had become unavoidable. It does so by taking two of the offending rectangular triangles — the one which is half of a square and incorporates the square root of two, and the one which is half of an equilateral triangle and incorporates the square root of three — as the units of which everything else is composed. Indeed, the doctrine that these two irrational triangles are the limits (peras; cp. Meno, 75d-76a) or Forms of all elementary physical bodies may be said to be one of the central physical doctrines of the Timaeus.

All this would suggest that the warning against those untrained in geometry (an allusion to it may perhaps be found in the Timaeus, 54a) might have had the more pointed significance mentioned above, and that it may have been connected with the belief that geometry is something of higher importance than is arithmetic. (Cp. Timaeus, 31c.) And this, in turn, would explain why Plato's 'proportionate equality', said by him to be something more aristocratic than the democratic arithmetical or numerical equality, was later identified with the 'geometrical equality', mentioned by Plato in the Gorgias, 508a (cp. note 48 to this chapter), and why (for example by Plutarch, loc. cit.) arithmetic and geometry were associated with democracy and Spartan aristocracy respectively — in spite of the fact, then apparently forgotten, that the Pythagoreans had been as aristocratically minded as Plato himself; that their programme had stressed arithmetic; and that 'geometrical', in their language, is the name of a certain kind of numerical (i.e. arithmetical) proportion.

(3) In the Timaeus, Plato needs for the construction of the Primary Bodies an Elementary Square and an Elementary Equilateral Triangle. These two, in turn, are composed of two different kinds of sub-elementary triangles -- the half-square which incorporates [sq.rt.]2, and the half-equilateral which incorporates [sq.rt.]3 respectively. The question why he chooses these two sub -elementary triangles, instead of the Square and the Equilateral itself, has been much discussed; and similarly a second question — see below under (4) — why he constructs his Elementary Squares out of four sub-elementary half-squares instead of two, and the Elementary Equilateral out of six sub-elementary half-equilaterals instead of two. (See the first two of the three figures below.)

Concerning the first of these two questions, it seems to have been generally overlooked that Plato, with his burning interest in the problem of irrationality, would not have introduced the two irrationalities [sq.rt.]2 and [sq.rt.]3 (which he explicitly mentions in 54b) had he not been anxious to introduce precisely these irrationalities as irreducible elements into his world. (Cornford, Plato's Cosmology , pp. 214 and 231 ff, gives a long discussion of both questions, but the common solution which he offers for both — ^his 'hypothesis' as he calls it on p. 234 — appears to me quite unacceptable; had Plato wanted to achieve some 'grading' like the one discussed by Cornford — note that there is no hint in Plato that anything smaller than what Cornford calls 'Grade B' exists — it would have been sufficient to divide into two the sides of the Elementary Squares and Equilaterals of what Cornford calls 'Grade B', building each of them up from four elementary figures which do not contain any irrationalities.) But if Plato was anxious to introduce these irrationalities into the world, as the sides of sub-elementary triangles of which everything else is composed, then he must have believed that he could, in this way, solve a problem; and this problem, I suggest, was that of 'the nature of (the commensurable and) the uncommensurable' (Laws, 820c). This problem, clearly, was particularly hard to solve on the basis of a cosmology which made use of anything like atomistic ideas, since irrationals are not multiples of any unit able to measure rationals; but if the unit measures themselves contain sides in 'irrational ratios', then the great paradox might be solved; for then they can measure both, and the existence of irrationals was no longer incomprehensible or 'irrational'.

But Plato knew that there were more irrationalities than [sq.rt.]2 and [sq.rt.]3, for he mentions in the Theaetetus the discovery of an infinite sequence of irrational square roots (he also speaks, 148b, of 'similar considerations concerning solids', but this need not refer to cubic roots but could refer to the cubic diagonal, i.e. to 03); and he also mentions in the Greater Hippias (303b-c; cp. Heath, op. cit, 304) the fact that by adding (or otherwise composing) irrationals, other irrational numbers may be obtained (but also rational numbers — probably an allusion to the fact that, for example, 2 minus [sq.rt.]2 is irrational; for this number, plus [sq.rt.]2, gives of course a rational number). In view of these circumstances it appears that, if Plato wanted to solve the problem of irrationality by way of introducing his elementary triangles, he must have thought that all irrationals (or at least their multiples) can be composed by adding up (a) units; (b) [sq.rt.]2; (c) [sq.rt.]3; and multiples of these. This, of course, would have been a mistake, but we have every reason to believe that no disproof existed at the time; and the proposition that there are only two kinds of atomic irrationalities — the diagonals of the squares and of cubes — and that all other irrationalities are commensurable relative to (a) the unit; (b) [sq.rt.]2; and (c) [sq.rt.]3, has a certain amount of plausibility in it if we consider the relative character of irrationalities. (I mean the fact that we may say with equal justification that the diagonal of a square with unit side is irrational or that the side of a square with a unit diagonal is irrational. We should also remember that Euclid, in Book X, def 2, still calls all incommensurable square roots 'commensurable by their squares'.) Thus Plato may well have believed in this proposition, even though he could not possibly have been in the possession of a valid proof of his conjecture. (A disproof was apparently first given by Euclid.) Now there is undoubtedly a reference to some unproved conjecture in the very passage in the Timaeus in which Plato refers to the reason for choosing his sub-elementary triangles, for he writes (Timaeus, 53c/d): 'all triangles are derived from two, each having one right angle of these triangles, one [the half-square] has on either side half of a right angle,... and equal sides; the other [the scalene]... has unequal sides. These two we assume as the first principles... according to an account which combines likelihood [or likely conjecture] with necessity [proof]. Principles which are still further removed than these are known to heaven, and to such men as heaven favours.' And later, after explaining that there is an endless number of scalene triangles, of which 'the best' must be selected, and after explaining that he takes the half-equilateral as the best, Plato says (Timaeus, 54a/b; Cornford had to emend the passage in order to fit it into his interpretation; cp. his note 3 to p. 214): 'The reason is too long a story; but if anybody puts this matter to the test, and proves that it has this property, then the prize is his, with all our good will.' Plato does not say clearly what 'this property' means; it must be a (provable or refutable) mathematical property which justifies that, having chosen the triangle incorporating [sq.rt.]2, the choice of that incorporating [sq.rt.]3 is 'the best'; and I think that, in view of the foregoing considerations, the property which he had in mind was the conjectured relative rationality of the other irrationals, i.e. relative to the unit, and the square roots of two and three.

(4) An additional reason for our interpretation, although one for which I do not find any further evidence in Plato's text, may perhaps emerge from the following consideration. It is a curious fact that [sq.rt.]2 + [sq.rt.]3 very nearly approximates p. (Cp. E. Borel, Space and Time, 1926, 1960, p. 216; my attention was drawn to this fact, in a different context, by W. Marinelli.) The excess is less than 0.0047, i.e. less than 1 1/2 pro mille of p, and a better approximation to 71 was hardly known at the time. A kind of explanation of this curious fact is that the arithmetical mean of the areas of the circumscribed hexagon and the inscribed octagon is a good approximation of the area of the circle. Now it appears, on the one hand, that Bryson operated with the means of circumscribed and inscribed polygons (cp. Heath, op. cit., 224), and we know, on the other hand (from the Greater Hippias), that Plato was interested in the adding of irrationals, so that he must have added [sq.rt.]2 + [sq.rt.]3. There are thus two ways by which Plato may have found out the approximate equation [sq.rt.]2 + [sq.rt.]3 = [pi], and the second of these ways seems almost inescapable. It seems a plausible hypothesis that Plato knew of this equation, but was unable to prove whether or not it was a strict equality or only an approximation.

Image
Plato's Elementary Square, composed of four sub-elementary isosceles rectangular triangles

Image
Plato's Elementary Equilateral, composed of six sub-elementary scalene rectangular triangles

Image
The rectangle ABCD has an area exceeding that of the circle by less than 1/2 pro mille.

But if this is so, then we can perhaps answer the 'second question' mentioned above under (3), i.e. the question why Plato composed his elementary square of four sub-elementary triangles (half-squares) instead of two, and his elementary equilateral of six sub-elementary triangles (half-equilaterals) instead of two. If we look at the first two of the figures above, then we see that this construction emphasizes the centre of the circumscribed and inscribed circles, and, in both cases, the radii of the circumscribed circle. (In the case of the equilateral, the radius of the inscribed circle appears also; but it seems that Plato had that of the circumscribed circle in mind, since he mentions it, in his description of the method of composing the equilateral, as the 'diagonal'; cp. the Timaeus, 54d/e; cp. also 54b.)

If we now draw these two circumscribed circles, or more precisely, if we inscribe the elementary square and equilateral into a circle with the radius r, then we find that the sum of the sides of these two figures approximates r[pi]; in other words, Plato's construction suggests one of the simplest approximate solutions of the squaring of the circle, as our three figures show. In view of all this, it may easily be the case that Plato's conjecture and his offer of 'a prize with all our good will', quoted above under (3), involved not only the general problem of the commensurability of the irrationalities, but also the special problem whether [sq.rt.]2 + [sq.rt.]3 squares the unit circle.

I must again emphasize that no direct evidence is known to me to show that this was in Plato's mind; but if we consider the indirect evidence here marshalled, then the hypothesis does perhaps not seem too far-fetched. I do not think that it is more so than Cornford's hypothesis; and if true, it would give a better explanation of the relevant passages.

(5) If there is anything in our contention, developed in section (2) of this note, that Plato's inscription meant 'Arithmetic is not enough; you must know geometry!' and in our contention that this emphasis was connected with the discovery of the irrationality of the square roots of 2 and 3, then this might throw some light on the Theory of Ideas, and on Aristotle's much debated reports. It would explain why, in view of this discovery, the Pythagorean view that things (forms, shapes) are numbers, and moral ideas ratios of numbers, had to disappear — perhaps to be replaced, as in the Timaeus, by the doctrine that the elementary forms, or limits ('peras'; cp. the passage from the Meno, 75d-76a, referred to above), or shapes, or ideas of things, are triangles. But it would also explain why, one generation later, the Academy could return to the Pythagorean doctrine. Once the shock caused by the discovery of irrationality had worn off, mathematicians began to get used to the idea that the irrationals must be numbers, in spite of everything, since they stand in the elementary relations of greater or less to other (rational) numbers. This stage reached, the reasons against Pythagoreanism disappeared, although the theory that shapes are numbers or ratios of numbers meant, after the admission of irrationals, something different from what it had meant before (a point which possibly was not fully appreciated by the adherents of the new theory). See also Addendum I, p. 319.*

10. The well-known representation of Themis as blindfolded, i.e. disregarding the suppliant's station, and as carrying scales, i.e. as distributing equality or as balancing the claims and interests of the contesting individuals, is a symbolic representation of the equalitarian idea of justice. This representation cannot, however, be used here as an argument in favour of the contention that this idea was current in Plato's time; for, as Prof E. H. Gombrich kindly informs me, it dates from the Renaissance, and is inspired by a passage in Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride, but not by classical Greece. *On the other hand, the representation of Dike - with scales is classical (for such a representation, by Timochares, one generation after Plato, see R. Eisler, The Royal Art of Astrology , 1946, pp. 100, 266, and Plate 5), and goes back, probably, to Hesiod's identification of the constellation of Virgo with Dike - (in view of the neighbouring scales). And in view of the other evidence given here to show the association of Justice or Dike - with distributive equality, the scales are likely to mean the same as in the case of Themis.*

11. Republic, 440c-d. The passage concludes with a characteristic sheep-dog metaphor: 'Or else, until he has been called back, and calmed down, by the voice of his own reason, like a dog by his shepherd?' Cp. note 32 (2) to chapter 4.

12. Plato, in fact, implies this when he twice presents Socrates as rather doubtful where he should now look out for justice. (Cp. 368b, ff., 432b, ff.)

13. Adam obviously overlooks (under the influence of Plato) the equalitarian theory in his note to Republic, 33 le, ff., where he, probably correctly, says that 'the view that Justice consists in doing good to friends and harm to enemies, is a faithful reflection of prevalent Greek morality'. But he is wrong when he adds that this was 'an all but universal view'; for he forgets his own evidence (note to 561e28), which shows that equality before the laws ('isonomy') 'was the proud claim of democracy'. See also notes 14 and 17 to this chapter.

One of the oldest (if not the oldest) reference to 'isonomy' is to be found in a fragment due to Alcmaeon the physician (early fifth century; see Diels5, chapter 24, fr. 4); he speaks of isonomy as a condition of health, and opposes it to 'monarchy' — the dominance of one over many. Here we have a political theory of the body, or more precisely, of human physiology. Cp. also notes 32 to chapter 5 and 59 to chapter 10.

14. A passing reference to equality (similar to that in the Gorgias, 483c/d; see also this note, below, and note 47 to this chapter) is made in Glaucon's speech in Republic, 359c; but the issue is not taken up. (For this passage cp. note 50 to this chapter.)

In Plato's abusive attack upon democracy (see text to notes 14-18, chapter 4), three scornful jocular references to equalitarianism occur. The first is a remark to the effect that democracy 'distributes equality to equals and to unequals alike' (558c; cp. Adam's note to 55 8c 16; see also note 21 to this chapter); this is intended as an ironical criticism. (Equality has been connected with democracy before, viz. in the description of the democratic revolution; cp. Rep., 557a, quoted in the text to note 13, chapter 4.) The second characterizes the 'democratic man' as gratifying all his desires 'equally', whether they may be good or bad; he is therefore called an 'equalitarianist' ('isonomist'), a punning allusion to the idea of 'equal laws for all' or 'equality before the law' ('isonomy'; cp. notes 13 and 17 to this chapter). This pun occurs in Republic, 56 le. The way for it is well paved, since the word 'equal' has already been used three times (Rep., 561b and c) to characterize an attitude of the man to whom all desires and whims are 'equal'. The third of these cheap cracks is an appeal to the reader's imagination, typical even nowadays of this kind of propaganda: 'I nearly forgot to mention the great role played by these famous "equal laws", and by this famous "liberty", in the interrelations between men and women (Rep., 563b).

Besides the evidence of the importance of equalitarianism mentioned here (and in the text to notes 9-10 to this chapter), we must consider especially Plato's own testimony in (1) the Gorgias, where he writes (488e/489a; see also notes 47, 48, and 50 to the present chapter): 'Does not the multitude (i.e. here: the majority of the people) believe... that justice is equality?'

(2) The Menexenus (238e-239a; see note 19 to this chapter, and text). The passages in the Laws on equality are later than the Republic, and cannot be used as testimony for Plato's awareness of the issue when writing the Republic; but see text to notes 9, 20 and 21 to this chapter.

15. Plato himself says, in connection with the third remark (563b; cp. the last note): 'Shall we utter whatever rises to our lips?'; by which he apparently wishes to indicate that he does not see any reason to suppress the joke.

16. I believe that Thucydides' (II, 37 ff ) version of Pericles' oration can be taken as practically authentic. In all likelihood, he was present when Pericles spoke; and in any case he would have reconstructed it as faithfully as possible. There is much reason to believe that in those times it was not extraordinary for a man to learn another's oration even by heart (cp. Plato's Phaedrus), and a faithful reconstruction of a speech of this kind is indeed not as difficult as one might think. Plato knew the oration, taking either Thucydides' version or another source, which must have been extremely similar to it, as authentic. Cp. also notes 3 1 and 34/35 to chapter 10. (It may be mentioned here that early in his career, Pericles had made rather dubious concessions to the popular tribal instincts and to the equally popular group egoism of the people; I have in mind the legislation concerning citizenship in 451 B.C. But later he revised his attitude towards these matters, probably under the influence of such men as Protagoras.)
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Re: The Open Society and Its Enemies, by Karl R. Popper

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Part 6 of 18

17. Cp. Herodotus, III, 80, and especially the eulogy on 'isonomy', i.e. equality before the law (III, 80, 6); see also notes 13 and 14 to this chapter. The passage from Herodotus, which influenced Plato in other ways also (cp. note 24 to chapter 4), is one which Plato ridicules in the Republic just as he ridicules Pericles' oration; cp. note 14 to chapter 4, and 34 to chapter 10.

18. Even the naturalist Aristotle does not always refer to this naturalistic version of equalitarianism; for instance, his formulation of the principles of democracy in Politics, 13 17b (cp. note 9 to this chapter, and text), is quite independent of it. But it is perhaps even more interesting that in the Gorgias, in which the opposition of nature and convention plays such an important role, Plato presents equalitarianism without burdening it with the dubious theory of the natural equality of all men (see 488e/489a, quoted in note 14 to this chapter, and 483d, 484a, and 508a).

19. Cp. Menexenus, 238e/239a. The passage immediately follows a clear allusion to Pericles' oration (viz., to the second sentence quoted in the text to note 17, in this chapter). — It seems not improbable that the reiteration of the term 'equal birth' in that passage is meant as a scornful allusion to the 'low' birth of Pericles' and Aspasia's sons, who were recognized as Athenian citizens only by special legislation in 429 B.C. (Cp. E. Meyer, Gesch. d. Altertums, vol. IV, p. 14, note to No. 392, and p. 323, No. 558.)

It has been held (even by Grote; cp. his Plato, III, p. 11) that Plato in the Menexenus, 'in his own rhetorical discourse,... drops the ironical vein', i.e. that the middle part of the Menexenus, from which the quotation in the text is taken, is not meant ironically. But in view of the quoted passage on equality, and in view of Plato's open scorn in the Republic when he deals with this point (cp. note 14 to this chapter), this opinion seems to me untenable. And it appears to me equally impossible to doubt the ironical character of the passage immediately preceding the one quoted in the text where Plato says of Athens (cp. 238c/d): 'In this time as well as at present... our government was always an aristocracy though it is sometimes called a democracy, it is really an aristocracy, that is to say, a rule of the best, with the approval of the many...' In view of Plato's hatred of democracy, this description needs no further comment. *Another undoubtedly ironical passage is 245c-d (cp. note 48 to chapter 8) where 'Socrates' praises Athens for its consistent hatred of foreigners and barbarians. Since elsewhere (in the Republic, 562e, f , quoted in note 48 to chapter 8) in an attack on democracy — and this means Athenian democracy — Plato scorns Athens because of its liberal treatment of foreigners, his praise in the Menexenus cannot be anything but irony; again the liberality of Athens is ridiculed by a pro-Spartan partisan. (Strangers were forbidden to reside in Sparta, by a law of Lycurgus; cp. Aristophanes' Birds, 1012.) It is interesting, in this connection, that in the Menexenus (236a; cp. note 15 (1) to chapter 10) where 'Socrates' is an orator who attacks Athens, Plato says of 'Socrates' that he was a pupil of the oligarchic party leader Antiphon the Orator (of Rhamnus; not to be confused with Antiphon the Sophist, who was an Athenian); especially in view of the fact that 'Socrates' produces a parody of a speech recorded by Thucydides, who in fact seems to have been a pupil of Antiphon whom he greatly admired.* For the genuineness of the Menexenus, see also note 35 to chapter 10.

20. Laws, 757a; cp. the whole passage, 757a-e, of which the main parts are quoted above, in note 9 (1) to this chapter.

(1) For what I call the standard objection against equalitarianism, cp. also Laws, 744b, ff. 'It would be excellent if everybody could... have all things equal; but since this is impossible ...', etc. The passage is especially interesting in view of the fact that Plato is often described as an enemy of plutocracy by many writers who judge him only by the Republic. But in this important passage of the Laws (i.e. 744b, ff.) Plato demands that 'political offices, and contributions, as well as distributions, should be proportional to the value of a citizen's wealth. And they should depend not only on his virtue or that of his ancestors or on the size of his body and his good looks, but also upon his wealth or his poverty. In this way, a man will receive honours and offices as equitably as possible, i.e. in proportion to his wealth, although according to a principle of unequal distribution.' *The doctrine of the unequal distribution of honour and, we may assume, of spoils, in proportion to wealth and bodily size, is probably a residue from the heroic age of conquest. The wealthy who are heavily and expensively armed, and those who are strong, contribute more to the victory than the others. (The principle was accepted in Homeric times, and it can be found, as R. Eisler assures me, in practically all known cases of conquering war hordes.)* The basic idea of this attitude, viz., that it is unjust to treat unequals equally, can be found, in a passing remark, as early as the Protagoras, 337a (see also Gorgias, 508a, f, mentioned in notes 9 and 48 to this chapter); but Plato did not make much use of the idea before writing the Laws.

(2) For Aristotle's elaboration of these ideas, cp. esp. his Politics, III, 9, 1, 1280a (see also 1282b-1284b and 1301b29), where he writes: 'All men cling to justice of some kind, but their conceptions are imperfect, and do not embrace the whole Idea. For example, justice is thought (by democrats) to be equality; and so it is, although it is not equality for all, but only for equals. And justice is thought (by oligarchs) to be inequality; and so it is, although it is not inequality for all, but only for unequals.' Cp. also Nichom. Eth., 1131b27, 1158b30 ff.

(3) Against all this anti-equalitarianism, I hold, with Kant, that it must be the principle of all morality that no man should consider himself more valuable than any other person. And I assert that this principle is the only one acceptable, considering the notorious impossibility of judging oneself impartially. I am therefore at a loss to understand the following remark of an excellent writer like Catlin (Principles, 314): 'There is something profoundly immoral in the morality of Kant which endeavours to roll all personalities level... and which ignores the Aristotelian precept to render equals to equals and unequals to unequals. One man has not socially the same rights as another... The present writer would by no means be prepared to deny that... there is something in "blood".' Now I ask: If there were something in 'blood', or in inequality of talents, etc.; and even if it were worth while to waste one's time in assessing these differences; and even if one could assess them; why, then, should they be made the ground of greater rights and not only of heavier duties? (Cp. text to notes 31/32 to chapter 4.) I fail to see the profound immorality of Kant's equalitarianism. And I fail to see on what Catlin bases his moral judgement, since he considers morals to be a matter of taste. Why should Kant's 'taste' be profoundly immoral? (It is also the Christian 'taste'.) The only reply to this question that I can think of is that Catlin judges from his positivistic point of view (cp. note 18 (2) to chapter 5), and that he thinks the Christian and Kantian demand immoral because it contradicts the positively enforced moral valuations of our contemporary society.

(4) One of the best answers ever given to all these anti-equalitarianists is due to Rousseau. I say this in spite of my opinion that his romanticism (cp. note 1 to this chapter) was one of the most pernicious influences in the history of social philosophy. But he was also one of the few really brilliant writers in this field. I quote one of his excellent remarks from the Origin of Inequality (see, for instance, the Everyman edition of the Social Contract, p. 174; the italics are mine); and I wish to draw the reader's attention to the dignified formulation of the last sentence of this passage. 'I conceive that there are two kinds of inequality among the human species; one, which I call natural or physical because it is established by nature, and consists in a difference of age, health, bodily strength, and the qualities of the mind or of the soul; and another, which may be called moral or political inequality, because it depends on a kind of convention, and is established, or at least authorized, by the consent of men. This latter consists of the different privileges, which some men enjoy...; such as that of being more rich, more honoured, or more powerful... It is useless to ask what is the source of natural inequality, because that question is answered by the simple definition of the word. Again, it is still more useless to inquire whether there is any essential connection between the two inequalities; for this would be only asking, in other words, whether those who command are necessarily better than those who obey, and whether strength of body or of mind, or wisdom, or virtue, are always found... in proportion to the power or wealth of a man; a question fit perhaps to be discussed by slaves in the hearing of their masters, but highly unbecoming to reasonable and free men in search of the truth.'

21. Republic, 558c; cp. note 14 to this chapter (the first passage in the attack on democracy).

22. Republic, 433b. Adam, who also recognizes that the passage is intended as an argument, tries to reconstruct the argument (note to 433b11); but he confesses that 'Plato seldom leaves so much to be mentally supplied in his reasoning'.

23. Republic, 433e/434a. — For a continuation of the passage, cp. text to note 40 to this chapter; for the preparation for it in earlier parts of the Republic, see note 6 to this chapter. — Adam comments on the passage which I call the 'second argument' as follows (note to 433e35): 'Plato is looking for a point of contact between his own view of Justice and the popular judicial meaning of the word...' (See the passage quoted in the next paragraph in the text.) Adam tries to defend Plato's argument against a critic (Krohn) who saw, though perhaps not very clearly, that there was something wrong with it.

24. The quotations in this paragraph are from Republic, 430d, ff.

25. This device seems to have been successful even with a keen critic such as Gomperz, who, in his brief criticism (Greek Thinkers, Book V, II, 10; Germ, edn, vol. II, pp. 378/379), fails to mention the weaknesses of the argument; and he even says, commenting upon the first two books (V, II, 5; p. 368): 'An exposition follows which might be described as a miracle of clarity, precision, and genuine scientific character adding that Plato's interlocutors Glaucon and Adeimantus, 'driven by their burning enthusiasm... dismiss and forestall all superficial solutions'.

For my remarks on temperance, in the next paragraph of the text, see the following passage from Davies' and Vaughan's 'Analysis' (cp. the Golden Treasury edition of the Republic, p. xviii; italics mine): 'The essence of temperance is restraint. The essence of political temperance lies in recognizing the right of the governing body to the allegiance and obedience of the governed.'' This may show that my interpretation of Plato's idea of temperance is shared (though expressed in a different terminology) by followers of Plato. I may add that 'temperance', i.e. being satisfied with one's place, is a virtue in which all three classes share, although it is the only virtue in which the workers may participate. Thus the virtue attainable by the workers or money-earners is temperance; the virtues attainable by the auxiliaries are temperance and courage; by the guardians, temperance, courage, and wisdom.

The 'lengthy preface', also quoted in the next paragraph, is from Republic, 432b, ff.

26. On the term 'collectivism', a terminological comment may be made here. What H. G. Wells calls 'collectivism' has nothing to do with what I call by that name. Wells is an individualist (in my sense of the word), as is shown especially by his Rights of Man and his Common Sense of War and Peace, which contain very acceptable formulations of the demands of an equalitarian individualism. But he also believes, rightly, in the rational planning of political institutions, with the aim of furthering the freedom and the welfare of individual human beings. This he calls 'collectivism'; to describe what I believe to be the same thing as his 'collectivism', I should use an expression like: 'rational institutional planning for freedom'. This expression may be long and clumsy, but it avoids the danger that 'collectivism' may be interpreted in the anti-individualistic sense in which it is often used, not only in the present book.

27. Laws, 903c; cp. text to note 35, chapter 5. The 'preamble' mentioned in the text ('But he needs... some words of counsel to act as a charm upon him', etc.) is Laws, 903b.

28. There are innumerable places in the Republic and in the Laws where Plato gives a warning against unbridled group egoism; cp., for instance, Republic, 519e, and the passages referred to in note 4 1 to this chapter.

Regarding the identity often alleged to exist between collectivism and altruism, I may refer, in this connection, to the very pertinent question of Sherrington, who asks in Man on His Nature (p. 388): 'Are the shoal and the herd altruism?'

29. For Dickens' mistaken contempt of Parliament, cp. also note 23 to chapter 7.

30. Aristotle's Politics, III, 12, 1 (1282b); cp. text to notes 9 and 20, to this chapter. (Cp. also Aristotle's remark in Pol, III, 9, 3, 1280a, to the effect that justice pertains to persons as well as to things.) With the quotation from Pericles later in this paragraph, cp. text to note 16 to this chapter, and to note 31 to chapter 10.

31. This remark is from a passage (Rep., 519e, f ) quoted in the text to note 35 to chapter 5.

32. The important passages from the Laws quoted (1) in the present and (2) in the next paragraph are:

(1)Laws, 739c, ff. Plato refers here to the Republic, and apparently especially to Republic, 462a ff, 424a, and 449e. (A list of passages on collectivism and holism can be found in note 35 to chapter 5. On his communism, see note 29 (2) to chapter 5 and other places there mentioned.) The passage here quoted begins, characteristically, with a quotation of the Pythagorean maxim 'Friends have in common all things they possess'. Cp. note 36 and text; also the 'common meals' mentioned in note 34.

(2) Laws, 942a, f ; see next note. Both these passages are referred to as anti- individualistic by Gomperz (op. cit., vol. II, 406). See also Laws, 807d/e.

33. Cp. note 42, chapter 4, and text. — The quotation which follows in the present paragraph is Laws, 942a, f (see the preceding note).

We must not forget that military education in the Laws (as in the Republic) obligatory for all those allowed to carry arms, i.e. for all citizens — for all those who have anything like civil rights (cp. Laws, 753b). All others are 'banausic', if not slaves (cp. Laws, 741e and 743d, and note 4 to chapter 11).

It is interesting that Barker, who hates militarism, believes that Plato held similar views (Greek Political Theory, 298-301). It is true that Plato did not eulogize war, and that he even spoke against war. But many militarists have talked peace and practised war; and Plato's state is ruled by the military caste, i.e. by the wise ex-soldiers. This remark is as true for the Laws (cp. 753b) as it is for the Republic.

34. Strictest legislation about meals — especially 'common meals' — and also about drinking habits plays a considerable part in Plato; cp., for instance, Republic, 416e, 458c, 547d/e; Laws, 625e, 633a (where the obligatory common meals are said to be instituted with a view to war), 762b, 780-783, 806c, f, 839c, 842b. Plato always emphasizes the importance of common meals, in accordance with Cretan and Spartan customs. Interesting also is the preoccupation of Plato's uncle Critias with these matters. (Cp. Diels2, Critias, fr. 33.)

With the allusion to the anarchy of the 'wild beasts', at the end of the present quotation, cp. also Republic, 563c.

35. Cp. E. B. England's edition of the Laws, vol. I, p. 514, note to 739b8 ff. The quotations from Barker are from op. cit.; pp. 149 and 148. Countless similar passages can be found in the writings of most Platonists. See however Sherrington's remark (cp. note 28 to this chapter) that it is hardly correct to say that a shoal or a herd is inspired by altruism. Herd instinct and tribal egoism, and the appeal to these instincts, should not be mixed up with unselfishness.

36. Cp. Republic, 424a, 449c; Phaedrus, 279c; Laws, 739c; see note 32 (1). (Cp. also Lysis, 207c, and Euripides, Orest., 725.) For the possible connection of this principle with early Christian and Marxian communism, see note 29 (2) to chapter 5.

Regarding the individualistic theory of justice and injustice of the Gorgias, cp. for instance the examples given in the Gorgias, 468b, ff., 508d/e. These passages probably still show Socratic influence (cp. note 56 to chapter 10). Socrates' individualism is most clearly expressed in his famous doctrine of the self-sufficiency of the good man; a doctrine which is mentioned by Plato in the Republic (387d/e) in spite of the fact that it flatly contradicts one of the main theses of the Republic, viz., that the state alone can be self-sufficient. (Cp. chapter 5, note 25, and the text to that and the following notes.)

37. Republic, 368b/c.

38. Cp. especially Republic, 344a, ff.

39. Cp. Laws, 923b.

40. Republic, 434a-c. (Cp. also text to note 6 and note 23 to this chapter, and notes 27 (3) and 31 to chapter 4.)

41. Republic, 466b/c. Cp. also the Laws, 715b/c, and many other passages against the anti- holistic misuse of class prerogatives. See also note 28 to this chapter, and note 25 (4) to chapter 7.

42. The problem here alluded to is that of the 'paradox of freedom'; cp. note 4 to chapter 7. — For the problem of state control in education, see note 13 to chapter 7.

43. Cp. Aristotle, Politics, III, 9, 6 ff. (1280a). Cp. Burke, French Revolution (edn 1815; vol. V, 184; the passage is aptly quoted by Jowett in his notes to the passage of Aristotle's; see his edition of Aristotle's Politics, vol. II, 126).

The quotation from Aristotle later in the paragraph is op. cit.. III, 9, 8, (1280b).

Field, for instance, proffers a similar criticism (in his Plato and His Contemporaries, 117): 'There is no question of the city and its laws exercising any educative effect on the moral character of its citizens.' However, Green has clearly shown (in his Lectures on Political Obligation) that it is impossible for the state to enforce morality by law. He would certainly have agreed with the formula: 'We want to moralize politics, and not to politicize morals.' (See end of this paragraph in the text.) Green's view is foreshadowed by Spinoza (Tract. Theol. Pol, chapter 20): 'He who seeks to regulate everything by law is more likely to encourage vice than to smother it.'

44. I consider the analogy between civil peace and international peace, and between ordinary crime and international crime, as fundamental for any attempt to get international crime under control. For this analogy and its limitations as well as for the poverty of the historicist method in such problems, cp. note 7 to chapter 9.

* Among those who consider rational methods for the establishment of international peace as a Utopian dream, H. J. Morgenthau may be mentioned (cp. his book. Scientific Man versus Power Politics, English edition, 1947). Morgenthau's position can be summed up as that of a disappointed historicist. He realizes that historical predictions are impossible; but since he assumes (with, for example, the Marxists) that the field of applicability of reason (or of the scientific method) is limited to the field of predictability, he concludes from the unpredictability of historical events that reason is inapplicable to the field of international affairs.

The conclusion does not follow, because scientific prediction and prediction in the sense of historical prophecy are not the same. (None of the natural sciences, with practically the sole exception of the theory of the solar system, attempts anything resembling historical prophecy.) The task of the social sciences is not to predict 'trends' or 'tendencies' of development, nor is this the task of the natural sciences. 'The best the so-called "social laws" can do is exactly the best the so-called "natural laws" can do, namely, to indicate certain trends... Which conditions will actually occur and help one particular trend to materialize, neither the natural nor the social sciences are able to foretell. Nor are they able to forecast with more than a high degree of probability that in the presence of certain conditions a certain trend will materialize', writes Morgenthau (pp. 120 ff; italics mine). But the natural sciences do not attempt the prediction of trends, and only historicists believe that they, and the social sciences, have such aims. Accordingly, the realization that these aims are not realizable will disappoint only the historicist. 'Many... political scientists, however, claim that they can... actually... predict social events with a high degree of certainty. In fact, they ... are the victims of... delusions', writes Morgenthau. I certainly agree; but this merely shows that historicism is to be repudiated. To assume, however, that the repudiation of historicism means the repudiation of rationalism in politics reveals a fundamentally historicist prejudice — the prejudice, namely, that historical prophecy is the basis of any rational politics. (I have mentioned this view as characteristic of historicism in the beginning of chapter 1.)

Morgenthau ridicules all attempts to bring power under the control of reason, and to suppress war, as springing from a rationalism and scientism which is inapplicable to society by its very essence. But clearly, he proves too much. Civil peace has been established in many societies, in spite of that essential lust for power which, according to Morgenthau's theory, should prevent it. He admits the fact, of course, but does not see that it destroys the theoretical basis of his romantic contentions.*

45. The quotation is from Aristotle's Politics, III, 9, 8, (1280).

(1) 1 say in the text 'furthermore' because I believe that the passages alluded to in the text, i.Q. Politics, III, 9, 6, and III, 9, 12, are likely to represent Lycophron's views also. My reasons for believing this are the following. From III, 9, 6, to III, 9, 12, Aristotle is engaged in a criticism of the doctrine I have called protectionism. In III, 9, 8, quoted in the text, he directly attributes to Lycophron a concise and perfectly clear formulation of this doctrine. From Aristotle's other references to Lycophron (see (2) in this note), it is probable that Lycophron's age was such that he must have been, if not the first, at least one of the first to formulate protectionism. Thus it seems reasonable to assume (although it is anything but certain) that the whole attack upon protectionism, i.e. Ill, 9, 6, to III, 9, 12, is directed against Lycophron, and that the various but equivalent formulations of protectionism are all his. (It may also be mentioned that Plato describes protectionism as a 'common view' in Rep., 358c.)

Aristotle's objections are all intended to show that the protectionist theory is unable to account for the local as well as the internal unity of the state. It overlooks, he holds (III, 9, 6), the fact that the state exists for the sake of the good life in which neither slaves nor beasts can have a share (i.e. for the good life of the virtuous landed proprietor, for everybody who earns money is by his 'banausic' occupation prevented from citizenship). It also overlooks the tribal unity of the 'true' state which is (III, 9, 12) 'a community of well-being in families, and an aggregation of families, for the sake of a complete and self-sufficient life... established among men who live in the same place, and who intermarry'.

(2) For Lycophron's equalitarianism, see note 13 to chapter 5. — Jowett (in Aristotle's Politics, II, 126) describes Lycophron as 'an obscure rhetorician'; but Aristotle must have thought otherwise, since in his extant writings he mentions Lycophron at least six times. (In Pol., Rhet., Fragm., Metaph., Phys., Soph. El.)

It is unlikely that Lycophron was much younger than Alcidamas, his colleague in Gorgias' school, since his equalitarianism would hardly have attracted so much attention if it had become known after Alcidamas had succeeded Gorgias as the head of the school.

Lycophron's epistemological interests (mentioned by Aristotle in Metaphysics, 1045b9, and Physics, 185b27) are also a case in point, since they make it probable that he was a pupil of Gorgias' earlier period, i.e. before Gorgias confined himself practically exclusively to rhetoric. Of course, any opinion on Lycophron must be highly speculative, owing to the scanty information we have.

46. Barker, Greek Political Theory, I, p. 160. For Hume's criticism of the historical version of the contract theory, see note 43 to chapter 4. Concerning Barker's further contention (p. 161) that Plato's justice, as opposed to that of the contract theory, is not 'something external', but rather, internal to the soul, I may remind the reader of Plato's frequent recommendations of most severe sanctions by which justice may be achieved; he always recommends the use of 'persuasion and force' (cp. notes 5, 10 and 18 to chapter 8). On the other hand, some modem democratic states have shown that it is possible to be liberal and lenient without increasing criminality.

With my remark that Barker sees in Lycophron (as I do) the originator of the contract theory, cp. Barker, op. cit., p. 63: 'Protagoras did not anticipate the Sophist Lycophron in founding the doctrine of Contract.' (Cp. with this the text to note 27 to chapter 5.)

47. Cp. Gorgias, 483b, f.

48. Cp. Gorgias, 488e-489b; see also 527b.

From the way in which Socrates replies here to Callicles, it seems possible that the historical Socrates (cp. note 56 to chapter 10) may have countered the arguments in support of a biological naturalism of Pindar's type by arguing like this: If it is natural that the stronger should rule, then it is also natural that equality should rule, since the multitude which shows its strength by the fact that it rules demands equality. In other words, he may have shown the empty, ambiguous character of the naturalistic demand. And his success might have inspired Plato to proffer his own version of naturalism.

I do not wish to assert that Socrates' later remark (508a) on 'geometrical equality' must necessarily be interpreted as anti-equalitarian, i.e. why it must mean the same as the 'proportionate equity' of the Laws, 744b, ff., and 757a-e (cp. notes 9 and 20 (1) to this chapter). This is what Adam suggests in his second note to Republic, 558cl5. But perhaps there is something in his suggestion; for the 'geometrical' equality of the Gorgias, 508a, seems to allude to Pythagorean problems (cp. note 56 (6) to chapter 10; see also the remarks in that note on the Cratylus) and may well be an allusion to 'geometrical proportions'.

49. Republic, 358e. Glaucon disclaims the authorship in 358c. In reading this passage, the reader's attention is easily distracted by the issue 'nature versus convention', which plays a major role in this passage as well as in Callicles' speech in the Gorgias. However, Plato's major concern in the Republic is not to defeat conventionalism, but to denounce the rational protectionist approach as selfish. (That the conventionalist contract theory was not Plato's main enemy emerges from notes 27-28 to chapter 5, and text.)

50. If we compare Plato's presentation of protectionism in the Republic with that in the Gorgias, then we find that it is indeed the same theory, although in the Republic much less emphasis is laid on equality. But even equality is mentioned, although only in passing, viz., in Republic, 359c: 'Nature by conventional law, is twisted round and compelled by force to honour equality.' This remark increases the similarity with Callicles' speech. (See Gorgias, esp. 483c/d.) But as opposed to the Gorgias, Plato drops equality at once (or rather, he does not even take the issue up) and never returns to it; which makes it only the more obvious that he was at pains to avoid the problem. Instead, Plato revels in the description of the cynical egoism which he presents as the only source from which protectionism springs. (For Plato's silence on equalitarianism, cp. especially note 14 to this chapter, and text.) A. E. Taylor, Plato: The Man and His Work (1926), p. 268, contends that while Callicles starts from 'nature', Glaucon starts from 'convention'.

51. Cp. Republic, 359a; my further allusions in the text are to 359b, 360d, ff.; see also 358c. For the 'rubbing in', cp. 359a-362c, and the elaboration down to 367e. Plato's description of the nihilistic tendencies of protectionism fills altogether nine pages in the Everyman edition of the Republic; an indication of the significance Plato attached to it. (There is a parallel passage in the Laws, 890a, f )

52. When Glaucon has finished his presentation, Adeimantus takes his place (with a very interesting and indeed most pertinent challenge to Socrates to criticize utilitarianism), yet not until Socrates has stated that he thinks Glaucon 's presentation an excellent one (362d).

Adeimantus' speech is an amendment of Glaucon's, and it reiterates the claim that what I call protectionism derives from Thrasymachus' nihilism (see especially 367a, ff). After Adeimantus, Socrates himself speaks, full of admiration for Glaucon as well as Adeimantus, because their belief in justice is unshaken in spite of the fact that they presented the case for injustice so excellently, i.e. the theory that it is good to inflict injustice as long as one can 'get away with it'. By emphasizing the excellence of the arguments proffered by Glaucon and Adeimantus, 'Socrates' (i.e. Plato) implies that these arguments are a fair presentation of the views discussed; and he ultimately states his own theory, not in order to show that Glaucon's representation needs emendation, but, as he emphasizes, in order to show that, contrary to the opinions of the protectionists, justice is good, and injustice evil. (It should not be forgotten — cp. note 49 to this chapter — that Plato's attack is not directed against the contract theory as such but solely against protectionism; for the contract theory is soon (Rep., 369b-c; cp. text to note 29 to chapter 5) adopted by Plato himself, at least partially; including the theory that people 'gather into settlements' because 'every one expects in this way to further his own interests'.)

It must also be mentioned that the passage culminates with the impressive remark of 'Socrates' quoted in the text to note 37 to this chapter. This shows that Plato combats protectionism only by presenting it as an immoral and indeed unholy form of egoism.

Finally, in forming our judgement on Plato's procedure, we must not forget that Plato likes to argue against rhetoric and sophistry; and indeed, that he is the man who by his attacks on the 'Sophists' created the bad associations connected with that word. I believe that we therefore have every reason to censor him when he himself makes use of rhetoric and sophistry in place of argument. (Cp. also note 10 to chapter 8.)

53. We may take Adam and Barker as representative of the Platonists mentioned here. Adam says (note to 358e, ff.) of Glaucon that he resuscitates Thrasymachus' theory, and he says (note to 373a, ff.) of Thrasymachus that his is 'the same theory which is afterwards (in 358e, ff.) represented by Glaucon'. Barker says (op. cit., 159) of the theory which I call protectionism and which he calls 'pragmatism', that it is 'in the same spirit as Thrasymachus'.

54. That the great sceptic Carneades believed in Plato's presentation can be seen from Cicero (De Republica, III, 8; 13; 23), where Glaucon's version is presented, practically without alteration, as the theory adopted by Carneades. (See also text to notes 65 and 66 and note 56 to chapter 10.)

In this connection I may express my opinion, that one can find a great deal of comfort in the fact that anti-humanitarians have always found it necessary to appeal to our humanitarian sentiments; and also in the fact that they have frequently succeeded in persuading us of their sincerity. It shows that they are well aware that these sentiments are deeply rooted in most of us, and that the despised 'many' are too good, too candid, and too guileless, rather than too bad; while they are even ready to be told by their often unscrupulous 'betters' that they are unworthy and materialistically minded egoists who only want to 'fill their bellies like the beasts'.
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Re: The Open Society and Its Enemies, by Karl R. Popper

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Part 7 of 18

Notes to Chapter Seven

The motto to this chapter is from the Laws, 690b. (Cp. note 28 to chapter 5.)

1. Cp. text to notes 2/3 to chapter 6.

2. Similar ideas have been expressed by J. S. Mill; thus he writes in his Logic (1st edn, p. 557 f.): 'Although the actions of rulers are by no means wholly determined by their selfish interests, it is as security against those selfish interests that constitutional checks are required.' Similarly he writes in The Subjection of Women (p. 251 of the Everyman edition; italics mine): 'Who doubts that there may be great goodness, and great happiness and great affection, under the absolute government of a good man? Meanwhile laws and institutions require to be adapted, not to good men, but to bad Much as I agree with the sentence in italics, I feel that the admission contained in the first part of the sentence is not really called for. (Cp. especially note 25 (3) to this chapter.) A similar admission may be found in an excellent passage of his Representative Government (1861; see especially p. 49) where Mill combats the Platonic ideal of the philosopher king because, especially if his rule should be a benevolent one, it will involve the 'abdication' of the ordinary citizen's will, and ability, to judge a policy.

It may be remarked that this admission of J. S. Mill's was part of an attempt to resolve the conflict between James Mill's Essay on Government and 'Macaulay's famous attack' on it (as J. S. Mill calls it; cp. his Autobiography, chapter V, One Stage Onward; 1st edition, 1873, pp. 157-61; Macaulay's criticisms were first published in the Edinburgh Review, March 1829, June 1829, and October 1829). This conflict played a great role in J. S. Mill's development; his attempt to resolve it determined, indeed, the ultimate aim and character of his Logic ('the principal chapters of what I afterwards published on the Logic of the Moral Sciences') as we hear from his Autobiography.

The resolution of the conflict between his father and Macaulay which J. S. Mill proposes is this. He says that his father was right in believing that politics was a deductive science, but wrong in believing that 'the type of deduction (was) that of... pure geometry', while Macaulay was right in believing that it was more experimental than this, but wrong in believing that it was like 'the purely experimental method of chemistry'. The true solution according to J. S. Mill (Autobiography, pp. 159 ff.) is this: the appropriate method of politics is the deductive one of dynamics — a method which, he believes, is characterized by the summation of effects as exemplified in the 'principle of the Composition of Forces'. (That this idea of J. S. Mill survived at any rate down to 1937 is shown in my The Poverty of Historicism, p. 63.)

I do not think that there is very much in this analysis (which is based, apart from other things, upon a misinterpretation of dynamics and chemistry). Yet so much would seem to be defensible.

James Mill, like many before and after him, tried to 'deduce the science of government from the principles of human nature' as Macaulay said (towards the end of his first paper), and Macaulay was right, I think, to describe this attempt as 'utterly impossible'. Also, Macaulay's method could perhaps be described as more empirical, in so far as he made full use of historical facts for the purpose of refuting J. Mill's dogmatic theories. But the method which he practised has nothing to do with that of chemistry or with that which J. S. Mill believed to be the method of chemistry (or with the Baconian inductive method which, irritated by J. Mill's syllogisms, Macaulay praised). It was simply the method of rejecting invalid logical demonstrations in a field in which nothing of interest can be logically demonstrated, and of discussing theories and possible situations, in the light of alternative theories and of alternative possibilities, and of factual historical evidence. One of the main points at issue was that J. Mill believed that he had demonstrated the necessity for monarchy and aristocracy to produce a rule of terror — a point which was easily refuted by examples. J. S. Mill's two passages quoted at the beginning of this note show the influence of this refutation.

Macaulay always emphasized that he only wanted to reject Mill's proofs, and not to pronounce on the truth or falsity of his alleged conclusions. This alone should have made it clear that he did not attempt to practise the inductive method which he praised.

3. Cp. for instance E. Meyer's remark (Gesch. d. Altertums, V, p. 4) that 'power is, in its very essence, indivisible'.

4. Cp. Republic, 562b-565e. In the text, I am alluding especially to 562c: 'Does not the excess' (of liberty) 'bring men to such a state that they badly want a tyranny?' Cp. furthermore 563d/e: 'And in the end, as you know well enough, they just do not take any notice of the laws, whether written or unwritten, since they want to have no despot of any kind over them. This then is the origin out of which tyranny springs.' (For the beginning of this passage, see note 19 to chapter 4.)

Other remarks of Plato's on the paradoxes of freedom and of democracy are: Republic, 564a: 'Then too much freedom is liable to change into nothing else but too much slavery, in the individual as well as in the state... Hence it is reasonable to assume that tyranny is enthroned by no other form of government than by democracy. Out of what I believe is the greatest possible excess of freedom springs what is the hardest and most savage form of slavery.' See also Republic, 565c/d: 'And are not the common people in the habit of making one man their champion or party leader, and of exalting his position and making him great?' — 'This is their habit.' — 'Then it seems clear that whenever a tyranny grows up, this democratic party-leadership is the origin from which it springs.'

The so-called paradox of freedom is the argument that freedom in the sense of absence of any restraining control must lead to very great restraint, since it makes the bully free to enslave the meek. This idea is, in a slightly different form, and with a very different tendency, clearly expressed by Plato.

Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.

Another of the less well-known paradoxes is the paradox of democracy, or more precisely, of majority-rule; i.e. the possibility that the majority may decide that a tyrant should rule. That Plato's criticism of democracy can be interpreted in the way sketched here, and that the principle of majority-rule may lead to self-contradictions, was first suggested, as far as I know, by Leonard Nelson (cp. note 25 (2) to this chapter). I do not think, however, that Nelson, who, in spite of his passionate humanitarianism and his ardent fight for freedom, adopted much of Plato's political theory, and especially Plato's principle of leadership, was aware of the fact that analogous arguments can be raised against all the different particular forms of the theory of sovereignty.

All these paradoxes can easily be avoided if we frame our political demands in the way suggested in section ii of this chapter, or perhaps in some such manner as this. We demand a government that rules according to the principles of equalitarianism and protectionism; that tolerates all who are prepared to reciprocate, i.e. who are tolerant; that is controlled by, and accountable to, the public. And we may add that some form of majority vote, together with institutions for keeping the public well informed, is the best, though not infallible, means of controlling such a government. (No infallible means exist.) Cp. also chapter 6, the last four paragraphs in the text prior to note 42; text to note 20 to chapter 17; note 7 (4) to chapter 24; and note 6 to the present chapter.

5. Further remarks on this point will be found in chapter 19, below.

6. Cp. passage (7) in note 4 to chapter 2.

The following remarks on the paradoxes of freedom and of sovereignty may possibly appear to carry the argument too far; since, however, the arguments discussed in this place are of a somewhat formal character, it may be just as well to make them more watertight, even if it involves something approaching hair-splitting. Moreover, my experience in debates of this kind leads me to expect that the defenders of the leader-principle, i.e. of the sovereignty of the best or the wisest, may actually offer the following counter-argument: (a) if 'the wisest' should decide that the majority should rule, then he was not really wise. As a further consideration they may support this by the assertion (b) that a wise man would never establish a principle which might lead to contradictions, like that of majority-rule. My reply to (b) would be that we need only to alter this decision of the 'wise' man in such a way that it becomes free from contradictions. (For instance, he could decide in favour of a government bound to rule according to the principle of equalitarianism and protectionism, and controlled by majority vote. This decision of the wise man would give up the sovereignty-principle; and since it would thereby become free from contradictions, it may be made by a 'wise' man. But of course, this would not free the principle that the wisest should rule from its contradictions. The other argument, namely (a), is a different matter. It comes dangerously close to defining the 'wisdom' or 'goodness' of a politician in such a way that he is called 'wise' or 'good' only if he is determined not to give up his power. And indeed, the only sovereignty-theory which is free from contradictions would be the theory which demands that only a man who is absolutely determined to cling to his power should rule. Those who believe in the leader-principle should frankly face this logical consequence of their creed. If freed from contradictions it implies, not the rule of the best or wisest, but the rule of the strong man, of the man of power. (Cp. also note 7 to chapter 24.)

7. * Cp. my lecture 'Towards a Rational Theory of Tradition' (first published in The Rationalist Yearbook, 1949; now in my Conjectures and Refutations), where I try to show that traditions play a kind of intermediate and intermediary role between persons (and personal decisions) and institutions *

8. For Socrates' behaviour under the Thirty, see Apology, 32c. The Thirty tried to implicate Socrates in their crimes, but he resisted. This would have meant death to him if the rule of the Thirty had continued a little longer. Cp. also notes 53 and 56 to chapter 10.

For the contention, later in the paragraph, that wisdom means knowing the limitations of one's knowledge, see the Charmides, 167 a, 170a, where the meaning of 'know thyself is explained in this way; the Apology (cp. especially 23a-b) exhibits a similar tendency (of which there is still an echo in the Timaeus, 72a). For the important modification in the interpretation of 'know thyself which takes place in the Philebus, see note 26 to the present chapter. (Cp. also note 15 to chapter 8.)

9. Cp. Plato's Phaedo, 96-99. The Phaedo is, I believe, still partly Socratic, but very largely Platonic. The story of his philosophical development told by the Socrates of the Phaedo has given rise to much discussion. It is, I believe, an authentic autobiography neither of Socrates nor of Plato. I suggest that it is simply Plato 5 interpretation of Socrates' development. Socrates' attitude towards science (an attitude which combined the keenest interest in rational argument with a kind of modest agnosticism) was incomprehensible to Plato. He tried to explain it by referring to the backwardness of Athenian science in Socrates' day, as opposed to Pythagoreanism. Plato thus presents this agnostic attitude in such a way that it is no longer justified in the light of his newly acquired Pythagoreanism. (And he tries to show how much the new metaphysical theories of the soul would have appealed to Socrates' burning interest in the individual; cp. notes 44 and 56 to chapter 10, and note 58 to chapter 8.)

10. It is the version that involves the square root of two, and the problem of irrationality; i.e. it is the very problem that precipitated the dissolution of Pythagoreanism. By refuting the Pythagorean arithmetization of geometry, it gave rise to the specific deductive-geometrical methods which we know from Euclid. (Cp. note 9 (2) to chapter 6.) The use of this problem in the Meno might be connected with the fact that there is a tendency in some parts of this dialogue to 'show off the author's (hardly Socrates') acquaintance with the 'latest' philosophical developments and methods.

11. Gorgias, 52 Id, f.

12. Cp. Grossman, Plato To-Day, 118. 'Faced by these three cardinal errors of Athenian Democracy...' — How truly Grossman understands Socrates may be seen from op. cit., 93: 'All that is good in our Western culture has sprung from this spirit, whether it is found in scientists, or priests, or politicians, or quite ordinary men and women who have refused to prefer political falsehoods to simple truth... in the end, their example is the only force which can break the dictatorship of force and greed... Socrates showed that philosophy is nothing else than conscientious objection to prejudice and unreason.'

13. Cp. Grossman, op. cit., 117 f. (first group of italics mine). It seems that Grossman has for the moment forgotten that, in Plato's state, education is a class monopoly. It is true that in the Republic the possession of money is not a key to higher education. But this is quite unimportant. The important point is that only the members of the ruling class are educated. (Gp. note 33 to chapter 4.) Besides, Plato was, at least in his later life, anything but an opponent of plutocracy, which he much preferred to a classless or equalitarian society: cp. the passage from the Laws, 744b, ff., quoted in note 20 (1) to chapter 6. For the problem of state control in education, cp. also note 42 to that chapter, and notes 39-41, chapter 4.

14. Burnet takes (Greek Philosophy , I, 178) the Republic to be purely Socratic (or even pre-Socratic — a view which may be nearer to the truth; cp. especially A. D. Winspear, The Genesis of Plato's Thought, 1940). But he does not even seriously attempt to reconcile this opinion with an important statement which he quotes from Plato's Seventh Letter (326a, cp. Greek Philosophy , I, 218) which he believes to be authentic. Cp. note 56 (5, d) to chapter 10.

15. Laws, 942c, quoted more fully in text to note 33, chapter 6.

16. Republic, 540c.

17. Cp. the quotations from the Republic, 473c-e, quoted in text to note 44, chapter 8.

18. Republic, 498b/c. Cp. the Laws, 634d/e, in which Plato praises the Dorian law that 'forbids any young man to question which of the laws are right and which are wrong, and makes them all unanimous in proclaiming that the laws are all good'. Only an old man may criticize a law, adds the old writer; and even he may do so only when no young man can hear him. See also text to note 21 to this chapter, and notes 17, 23 and 40 to chapter 4.

19. Republic, 497d.

20. Op. cit., 537c. The next quotations are from 537d-e, and 539d. The 'continuation of this passage' is 540b-c. Another most interesting remark is 536c-d, where Plato says that the persons selected (in the previous passage) for dialectical studies are decidedly too old for learning new subjects.

21. * Cp. H. Chemiss, The Riddle of the Early Academy, p. 79; and the Parmenides, 135c-d.*

Grote, the great democrat, strongly comments on this point (i.e. on the 'brighter' passages of the Republic, 537c-540): 'The dictum forbidding dialectic debate with youth... is decidedly anti-Socratic... It belongs indeed to the case of Meletus and Anytus, in their indictment against Socrates... It is identical with their charge against him, of corrupting the youth... And when we find him (= Plato) forbidding all such discourse at an earlier age than thirty years — we remark as a singular coincidence that this is the exact prohibition which Critias and Charicles actually imposed upon Socrates himself, during the short-lived dominion of the Thirty Oligarchs at Athens.' (Grote, Plato, and the Other Companions of Socrates, edn 1875, vol. III, 239.)

22. The idea, contested in the text, that those who are good in obeying will also be good in commanding is Platonic. Cp. Laws, 762e.

Toynbee has admirably shown how successfully a Platonic system of educating rulers may work — in an arrested society; cp. ^4 Study of History, III, especially 33 ff.; cp. notes 32 (3) and 45 (2) to chapter 4.

23. Some may perhaps ask how an individualist can demand devotion to any cause, and especially to such an abstract cause as scientific inquiry. But such a question would only reveal the old mistake (discussed in the foregoing chapter), the identification of individualism and egoism. An individualist can be unselfish, and he can devote himself not only to the help of individuals, but also to the development of the institutional means for helping other people. (Apart from that, I do not think that devotion should be demanded, but only that it should be encouraged.) I believe that devotion to certain institutions, for instance, to those of a democratic state, and even to certain traditions, may fall well within the realm of individualism, provided that the humanitarian aims of these institutions are not lost sight of. Individualism must not be identified with an anti-institutional personalism. This is a mistake frequently made by individualists. They are right in their hostility to collectivism, but they mistake institutions for collectives (which claim to be aims in themselves), and therefore become anti-institutional personalists; which leads them dangerously close to the leader-principle. (I believe that this partly explains Dickens' hostile attitude towards Parliament.) For my terminology ('individualism' and 'collectivism') see text to notes 26-29 to chapter 6.

24. Cp. Samuel Butler, Erewhon (1872), p. 135 of the Everyman's edition.

25. Cp. for these events: Meyer, Gesch. d. Altertums, V, pp. 522-525, and 488f; see also note 69 to chapter 10. The Academy was notorious for breeding tyrants. Among Plato's pupils were Chairon, later the tyrant of Pellene; Eurastus and Coriscus, the tyrants of Skepsis (near Atarneus); and Hermias, later tyrant of Atarneus and Assos. (Cp. Athen., XI, 508, and Strabo, XIII, 610.) Hermias was, according to some sources, a direct pupil of Plato's; according to the so-called 'Sixth Platonic Letter', whose authenticity is questionable, he was perhaps only an admirer of Plato's, ready to accept his advice. Hermias became a patron of Aristotle, and of the third head of the Academy, Plato's pupil Xenocrates.

For Perdiccas III, and his relations to Plato's pupil Euphacus, see Athen., XI, 508 ff., where Callippus is also referred to as Plato's pupil.

(1) Plato's lack of success as an educator is not very surprising if we look at the principles of education and selection developed in the First Book of the Laws (from 637d and especially 643a: 'Let me define the nature and meaning of education' to the end of 650b). For in this long passage he shows that there is one great instrument of educating, or rather, of selecting the man one can trust. It is wine, drunkenness, which will loose his tongue, and give you an idea of what he is really like. 'What is more fitting than to make use of wine, first of all to test the character of a man, and secondly, to train him? What is cheaper, and less objectionable?' (649d/e). So far, I have not seen the method of drinking discussed by any of the educationists who glorify Plato. This is strange, for the method is still widely in use, even though it is perhaps no longer so cheap, especially in the universities.

(2) In fairness to the leader-principle, it must be admitted, however, that others have been more fortunate than Plato in their selection. Leonard Nelson (cp. note 4 to this chapter), for instance, who believed in this principle, seems to have had a unique power both of attracting and of selecting a number of men and women who have remained true to their cause, in the most trying and tempting circumstances. But theirs was a better cause than Plato's; it was the humanitarian idea of freedom and equalitarian justice. *

(Some of Nelson's essays have just been published in an English translation, by Yale University Press, under the title Socratic Method and Critical Philosophy, 1949. The very interesting introductory essay is by Julius Kraft.)*

(3) There remains this fundamental weakness in the theory of the benevolent dictator, a theory still flourishing even among some democrats. I have in mind the theory of the leading personality whose intentions are for the best for his people and who can be trusted. Even if that theory were in order; even if we believe that a man can continue, without being controlled or checked, in such an attitude: how can we assume that he will detect a successor of the same rare excellence? (Cp. also notes 3 and 4 to chapter 9, and note 69 to chapter 10.)

(4) Concerning the problem of power, mentioned in the text, it is interesting to compare the Gorgias (525e, f) with the Republic (615d, f). The two passages are closely parallel. But the Gorgias insists that the greatest criminals are always 'men who come from the class which possesses power'; private persons may be bad, it is said, but not incurable. In the Republic, this clear warning against the corrupting influence of power is omitted. Most of the greatest sinners are still tyrants; but, it is said, 'there are also some private people among them'. (In the Republic, Plato relies on self-interest which, he trusts, will prevent the guardians from misusing their power; cp. Rep., 466b/c, quoted in text to note 41, chapter 6. It is not quite clear why self-interest should have such a beneficial effect on guardians, but not on tyrants.)

26. * In the early (Socratic) dialogues (e.g. in the Apology and the Charmides; cp. note 8 to the present chapter, note 15 to chapter 8 and note 56 (5) to chapter 10), the saying 'know thyself is interpreted as 'know how little you know'. The late (Platonic) dialogue Philebus, however, introduces a subtle but very important change. At first (48c/d, f ), the saying is here interpreted, by implication, in the same way; for the many who do not know themselves are said to be 'claiming,... and lying, that they are wise'. But this interpretation is now developed as follows. Plato divides men into two classes, the weak and the powerful. The ignorance and folly of the weak man is described as laughable, while 'the ignorance of the strong' is 'appropriately called "evil" and "hateful"...'. But this implies the Platonic doctrine that he who wields power ought to be wise rather than ignorant (or that only he who is wise ought to wield power); in opposition to the original Socratic doctrine that (everybody, and especially) he who wields power ought to be aware of his ignorance. (There is, of course, no suggestion in the Philebus that 'wisdom' in its turn ought to be interpreted as 'awareness of one's limitations'; on the contrary, wisdom involves here an expert knowledge of Pythagorean teaching, and of the Platonic Theory of Forms, as developed in the Sophist.)*  
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Part 8 of 18

Notes to Chapter Eight

With the motto for this chapter, taken from Republic 540c-d, cp. note 37 to this chapter, and note 12 to chapter 9, where the passage is quoted more fully.

1. Republic, 475e; cp. for instance also 485c, f., 501c.

2. Op. cit, 389b, f.

3. Op. cit., 389c/d; cp. also Laws, 730b, ff.

4. With this and the three following quotations, cp. Republic, 407e and 406c. See also Statesman, 293a, f , 295b-296e, etc.

5. Cp. Laws, 720c. It is interesting to note that the passage (718c-722b) serves to introduce the idea that the statesman should use persuasion, together with force (722b); and since by 'persuasion' of the masses, Plato means largely lying propaganda — cp. notes 9 and 10 to this chapter and the quotation from Republic , 414b/c, quoted there in the text — it turns out that Plato's thought in our passage from the Laws, in spite of this novel gentleness, is still pervaded by the old associations — the doctor-politician administering lies. Later on (Laws, 857c/d), Plato complains about an opposite type of doctor: one who talks too much philosophy to his patient, instead of concentrating on the cure. It seems likely enough that Plato reports here some of his experiences when he fell ill while writing the Laws.

6. Republic, 389b. — With the following short quotations cp. Republic, 459c.

7. Cp. Kant, On Eternal Peace, Appendix. (Werke, ed. Cassirer, 1914, vol. VI, 457.) Cp. M. Campbell Smith's translation (1903), pp. 162 ff.

8. Cp. Grossman, Plato To-Day (1937), 130; cp. also the immediately preceding pages. It seems that Grossman still believes that lying propaganda was intended only for the consumption of the ruled, and that Plato intended to educate the rulers to a full use of their critical faculties; for I find now (in The Listener, vol. 27, p. 750) that he writes: 'Plato believed in free speech, free discussion only for the select few.' But the fact is that he did not believe in it at all. Both in the Republic and in the Laws (cp. the passages quoted in notes 18-21 to chapter 7, and text), he expresses his fear lest anybody who is not yet on the verge of old age should think or speak freely, and thus endanger the rigidity of the arrested doctrine, and therefore the petrifaction of the arrested society. See also the next two notes.

9. Republic, 414b/c. In 414d, Plato reaffirms his hope of persuading 'the rulers themselves and the military class, and then the rest of the city', of the truth of his lie. Later he seems to have regretted his frankness; for in the Statesman, 269b, ff. (see especially 271b; cp. also note 6 (4) to chapter 3), he speaks as if he believed in the truth of the same Myth of the Earthborn which, in the Republic, he had been reluctant (see note 11 to this chapter) to introduce even as a lordly 'lie'.

* What I translate as a 'lordly lie' is usually translated 'noble lie' or 'noble falsehood' or even 'spirited fiction'.

The literal translation of the word 'gennaios' which I now translate by 'lordly' is 'high born' or 'of noble descent'. Thus 'lordly lie' is at least as literal as 'noble lie', but it avoids the associations which the term 'noble lie' might suggest, and which are in no way warranted by the situation, viz. a lie by which a man nobly takes something upon himself which endangers him — such as Tom Sawyer's lie by which he takes Becky's guilt upon himself and which Judge Thatcher (in chapter XXXV) describes as 'a noble, a generous, a magnanimous lie'. There is no reason whatever why the 'lordly lie' should be considered in this light; thus the translation 'noble lie' is just one of the typical attempts at idealizing Plato. — Cornford translates 'a... bold flight of invention', and argues in a footnote against the translation 'noble lie'; he gives passages where 'gennaios' means 'on a generous scale'; and indeed, 'big lie' or 'grand lie' would be a perfectly appropriate translation. But Cornford at the same time argues against the use of the term 'lie'; he describes the myth as 'Plato's harmless allegory' and argues against the idea that Plato 'would countenance lies, for the most part ignoble, now called propaganda'; and in the next footnote he says: 'Note that the Guardians themselves are to accept this allegory, if possible. It is not "propaganda" foisted on the masses by the Rulers.' But all these attempts at idealization fail. Plato himself makes it quite clear that the lie is one for which one ought to feel ashamed; see the last quotation in note 11, below. (In the first edition of this book, I translated 'inspired lie', alluding to its 'high birth', and suggested 'ingenious lie' as an alternative; this was criticized both as too free and as tendentious by some of my Platonic friends. But Cornford's 'bold flight of invention' takes 'gennaios' in precisely the same sense.)

See also notes 10 and 18 to this chapter.*

10. Cp. Republic, 519e, f, quoted in the text to note 35 to chapter 5; on persuasion and force, see also Republic, 366d, discussed in the present note, below, and the passages referred to in notes 5 and 18 to this chapter.

The Greek word ('peitho-'; its personification is an alluring goddess, an attendant of Aphrodite -) usually translated by persuasion can mean (a) 'persuasion by fair means' and (b) 'talking over by foul means', i.e. 'make-believe' (see below, sub. (D), i.e. Rep., 414c), and sometimes it means even 'persuasion by gifts', i.e. bribery (see below, sub. (D), i.e. Rep., 390e). Especially in the phrase 'persuasion and force', the term 'persuasion' is often (Rep. 548b) interpreted in sense (a), and the phrase is often (and often appropriately) translated 'by fair means or foul' (cp. Davies' and Vaughan's translation 'by fair means or foul', of the passage (C), Rep., 365d, quoted below). I believe, however, that Plato, when recommending 'persuasion and force' as instruments of political technique, uses the words in a more literal sense, and that he recommends the use of rhetorical propaganda together with violence. (Cp. Laws, 661c, 711c, 722b, 753a.)

The following passages are significant for Plato's use of the term 'persuasion' in sense (b), and especially in connection with political propaganda. (A) Gorgias, 453a to 466a, especially 45 4h-45 5 a; Phaedrus, 260b, ff, Theaetetus, 20la; Sophist, 222c; Statesman, 296b, ff., 304c/d; Philebus, 58a. In all these passages, persuasion (the 'art of persuasion' as opposed to the 'art of imparting true knowledge') is associated with rhetoric, make-believe, and propaganda. In the Republic, 364b, f , especially 364e-365d (cp. Laws, 909b), deserves attention. (B) In 364e ('they persuade', i.e. mislead into believing, 'not only individuals, but whole cities'), the term is used much in the same sense as in 414b/c (quoted in the text to note 9, this chapter), the passage of the 'lordly lie'. (Q 365d is interesting because it uses a term which Lindsay translates very aptly by 'cheating' as a kind of paraphrase for 'persuading'. ('In order not to be caught... we have the masters of persuasion at our disposal;... thus by persuasion and force, we shall escape punishment. But, it may be objected, one cannot cheat, or force, the gods...') Furthermore (D) in Republic, 390e, f., the term 'persuasion' is used in the sense of bribery. (This must be an old use; the passage is supposed to be a quotation from Hesiod. It is interesting that Plato, who so often argues against the idea that men can 'persuade' or bribe the gods, makes some concession to it in the next passage, 399a/b.) Next we come to 414b/c, the passage of the 'lordly lie'; immediately after this passage, in 414c (cp. also the next note in this chapter), 'Socrates' makes the cynical remark (E): 'It would need much persuading to make anybody believe in this story.' Lastly, I may mention (F) Republic, Slid and 533e, where Plato speaks of persuasion or belief or faith (the root of the Greek word for 'persuasion' is the same as that of our 'faith') as a lower cognitive faculty of the soul, corresponding to the formation of (delusive) opinion about things in flux (cp. note 21 to chapter 3, and especially the use of 'persuasion' in Tim., 51e), as opposed to rational knowledge of the unchanging Forms. For the problem of 'moral' persuasion, see also chapter 6. especially notes 52/54 and text, and chapter 10, especially text to notes 56 and 65, and note 69.

11. Republic, 415a. The next quotation is from 415c. (See also the Cratylus, 398a.) Cp. notes 12-14 to the present chapter and text, and notes 27 (3), 29, and 3 1 to chapter 4.

(1) For my remark in the text, earlier in this paragraph, concerning Plato's uneasiness, see Republic, 414c-d, and last note, (E): 'It would need much persuading to make anybody believe in this story,' says Socrates. — 'You seem to be rather reluctant to tell it,' replies Glaucon. — 'You will understand my reluctance', says Socrates, 'when I have told it.' — 'Speak and don't be frightened', says Glaucon. This dialogue introduces what I call the first idea of the Myth (proffered by Plato in the Statesman as a true story; cp. note 9 to this chapter; see also Laws, 740a). As mentioned in the text, Plato suggests that it is this 'first idea' which is the reason for his hesitation, for Glaucon replies to this idea: 'Not without reason were you so long ashamed to tell your lie.' No similar rhetorical remark is made after Socrates has told 'the rest of the story', i.e., the Myth of Racialism.

* (2) Concerning the autochthonous warriors, we must remember that the Athenian nobility claimed (as opposed to the Dorians) to be the aborigines of their country, born of the earth 'like grasshoppers' (as Plato says in the Symposium, 191b; see also end of note 52 to the present chapter). It has been suggested to me by a friendly critic that Socrates' uneasiness, and Glaucon's comment that Socrates had reason to be ashamed, mentioned here under (1), is to be interpreted as an ironical allusion of Plato's to the Athenians who, in spite of their claim to be autochthonous, did not defend their country as they would defend a mother. But this ingenious suggestion does not appear to me a tenable one. Plato, with his openly admitted preference of Sparta, would be the last to charge the Athenians with lack of patriotism; and there would be no justice in such a charge, for in the Peloponnesian war, the Athenian democrats never gave in to Sparta (as will be shown in chapter 10), while Plato's own beloved uncle Critias did give in, and became the leader of a puppet government under the protection of the Spartans. If Plato intended to allude ironically to an inadequate defence of Athens, then it could be only an allusion to the Peloponnesian war, and thus a criticism of Critias — the last person whom Plato would criticize in this way.

(3) Plato calls his Myth a 'Phoenician lie'. A suggestion which may explain this is due to R. Eisler. He points out that the Ethiopians, Greeks (the silver mines), Sudanese, and Syrians (Damascus) were in the Orient described, respectively, as golden, silver, bronze, and iron races, and that this description was utilized in Egypt for purposes of political propaganda (cp. also Daniel, ii. 31-45); and he suggests that the story of these four races was brought to Greece in Hesiod's time by the Phoenicians (as might be expected), and that Plato alludes to this fact.*

12. The passage is from the Republic, 546a, ff.; cp. text to notes 36-40 to chapter 5. The intermixture of classes is clearly forbidden in 434c also; cp. notes 27 (3), 31 and 34 to chapter 4, and note 40 to chapter 6.

The passage from the Laws (930d-e) contains the principle that the child of a mixed marriage inherits the caste of his lesser parent.

13. Republic, 547a. (For the mixture theory of heredity, see also text to note 39/40 to chapter 5, especially 40 (2), and to notes 39-43, and 52, to the present chapter.)

14- Op. cit, 415c.

15. Cp. Adam's note to Republic, 414b, ff., italics mine. The great exception is Grote (Plato, and the Other Companions of Socrates, London, 1875, III, 240), who sums up the spirit of the Republic, and its opposition to that of the Apology: 'In the... Apology, we find Socrates confessing his own ignorance... But the Republic presents him in a new character... He is himself on the throne of King Nomos: the infallible authority, temporal as well as spiritual, from which all public sentiment emanates, and by whom orthodoxy is determined... He now expects every individual to fall into the place, and contract the opinions, prescribed by authority; including among these opinions deliberate ethical and political fictions, such as about the... earthborn men... Neither the Socrates of the Apology, nor his negative Dialectic, could be allowed to exist in the Platonic Republic' (Italics mine; see also Grote, op. cit., p. 188.)

The doctrine that religion is opium for the people, although not in this particular formulation, turns out to be one of the tenets of Plato and the Platonists. (Cp. also note 17 and text, and especially note 18 to this chapter.) It is, apparently, one of the more esoteric doctrines of the school, i.e. it may be discussed only by sufficiently elderly members (cp. note 18 to chapter 7) of the upper class. But those who let the cat out of the bag are prosecuted for atheism by the idealists.

16. For instance Adam, Barker, Field.

17. Cp. Diels, Vorsokratiker5, Critias fragm. 25. (I have picked about eleven characteristic lines out of more than forty.) — It may be remarked that the passage commences with a sketch of the social contract (which even somewhat resembles Lycophron's equalitarianism; cp. note 45 to chapter 6). On Critias, cp. especially note 48 to chapter 10. Since Burnet has suggested that the poetic and dramatic fragments known under the name of Critias should be attributed to the grandfather of the leader of the Thirty, it should be noted that Plato attributes to the latter poetic gifts in the Charmides, 157e; and in 162d, he alludes even to the fact that Critias was a dramatist. (Cp. also Xenophon's Memorabilia, I, iv, 18.)

18. Cp. the Laws, 909e. It seems that Critias' view later even became part of the Platonic school tradition, as indicated by the following passage from Aristotle's Metaphysics (1074b3) which at the same time provides another example of the use of the term 'persuasion' for 'propaganda' (cp. notes 5 and 10 to this chapter). 'The rest... has been added in the form of a myth, with a view to the persuasion of the mob, and to legal and general (political) expediency Cp. also Plato's attempt in the Statesman, 271a, f., to argue in favour of the truth of a myth in which he certainly did not believe. (See notes 9 and 15 to this chapter.)

19. Laws, 908b.

20. Op. cit, 909a.

21. For the conflict between good and evil, see op. cit., 904-906. See especially 906a/b (justice versus injustice; 'justice' means here, still, the collectivist justice of the Republic). Immediately preceding is 903c, a passage quoted above in the text to note 35 to chapter 5 and to note 27 to chapter 6. See also note 32 to the present chapter.

22. Op. cit., 905d-907b.

23. The paragraph to which this note is appended indicates my adherence to an 'absolutist' theory of truth which is in accordance with the common idea that a statement is true ^/(and only if) it agrees with the facts it describes. This 'absolute' or 'correspondence theory of truth' (which goes back to Aristotle) was first clearly developed by A. Tarski ( Der Wahrheitsbegriff in den formalisierten Sprachen, Polish edn 1933, German translation 1936), and is the basis of a theory of logic called by him Semantics (cp. note 29 to chapter 3 and note 5 (2) to chapter 5); see also R. Carnap's Introduction to Semantics, 1942, which develops the theory of truth in detail. I am quoting from p. 28: 'It is especially to be noticed that the concept of truth in the sense just explained — we may call it the semantical concept of truth — is fundamentally different from concepts like "believed", "verified", "highly confirmed", etc' — A similar, though undeveloped view can be found in my Logik der Forschung (translated, 1959, as The Logic of Scientific Discovery), section 84; this was written before I became acquainted with Tarski's Semantics, which is the reason why my theory is only rudimentary. The pragmatist theory of truth (which derives from Hegelianism) was criticized by Bertrand Russell from the point of view of an absolutist theory of truth as early as 1907; and recently he has shown the connection between a relativist theory of truth and the creed of fascism. See Russell, Let the People Think, pp. 77, 79.

24. Especially Rep., 474c-502d. The following quotation is Rep., 475e.

25. For the seven quotations which follow, in this paragraph, see: (1) and (2), Republic, 476b; (3), (4), (5), op. cit., 500d-e; (6) and (7): op. cit., 501a/b; with (7), cp. also the parallel passage, op. cit., 484c. See, furthermore. Sophist, 253d/e; Laws, 964a-966a (esp. 965b/c).

26. Cp. op. cit., 501c.

27. Cp. especially Republic, 509a, f. — See 509b: 'The sun induces the sensible things to generate' (although he is not himself involved in the process of generation); similarly, 'you may say of the objects of rational knowledge that not only do they owe it to the Good that they can be known, but their reality and even their essence flows from it; although the Good is not itself an essence but transcends even essences in dignity and power.' (With 509b, cp. Aristotle, i)e Gen. et Corn, 336a 15, 31, 2ind Phys., 194b 13.) — In 510b, the Good is described as the absolute origin (not merely postulated or assumed), and in 511b, it is described as 'the first origin of everything'.

28. Cp. especially Republic, 508b, ff. — See 508b/c: 'What the Good has begotten in its own likeness' (viz. truth) 'is the link, in the intelligible world between reason and its objects' (i.e. the Ideas) 'in the same way as, in the visible world, that thing' (viz. light which is the offspring of the sun) 'which is the link between sight and its objects' (i.e. sensible things).

29. Cp. op. cit., 505a; 534b, ff.

30. Cp. op. cit., 505d.

31. Philebus, 66a.

32. Republic, 506d, ff , and 509-511.

The definition of the Good, here quoted, as 'the class of the determinate (or finite, or limited) conceived as a unity' is, I believe, not so hard to understand, and is in full agreement with others of Plato's remarks. The 'class of the determinate' is the class of the Forms or Ideas, conceived as male principles, or progenitors, as opposed to the female, unlimited or indeterminate space (cp. note 15 (2) to chapter 3). These Forms or primogenitors are, of course, good, in so far as they are ancient and unchanging originals, and in so far as each of them is one as opposed to the many sensible things which it generates. If we conceive the class or race of the progenitors as many, then they are not absolutely good; thus the absolute Good can be visualized if we conceive them as a unity, as One — as the One primogenitor. (Cp. also Arist, Met., 988a 10.)

Plato's Idea of the Good is practically empty. It gives us no indication of what is good, in a moral sense, i.e. what we ought to do. As can be seen especially from notes 27 and 28 to this chapter, all we hear is that the Good is highest in the realm of Form or Ideas, a kind of super-Idea, from which the Ideas originate, and receive their existence. All we could possibly derive from this is that the Good is unchangeable and prior or primary and therefore ancient (cp. note 3 to chapter 4), and One Whole; and, therefore, that those things participate in it which do not change, i.e., the good is what preserves (cp. notes 2 and 3 to chapter 4), and what is ancient, especially the ancient laws (cp. note 23 to chapter 4, note 7, paragraph on Platonism, to chapter 5, and note 18 to chapter 7), and that holism is good (cp. note 21 to the present chapter); i.e., we are again thrown back, in practice, to totalitarian morality (cp. text to notes 40/41 to chapter 6).

If the Seventh Letter is genuine, then we have there (314b/c) another statement by Plato that his doctrine of the Good cannot be formulated; for he says of this doctrine: 'It is not capable of expression like other branches of study.' (Cp. also note 57 to chapter 10.)

It is again Grote who clearly saw and criticized the emptiness of the Platonic Idea or Form of Good. After asking what this Good is, he says (Plato, III, 241 f.): 'This question is put... But unfortunately it remains unanswered... In describing the condition of other men's minds — that they divine a Real Good... do everything in order to obtain it, but puzzle themselves in vain to grasp and determine what it is — he' (Plato) 'has unconsciously described the condition of his own.' It is surprising to see how few modem writers have taken any notice of Grote 's excellent criticism of Plato.

For the quotations in the next paragraph of the text, see (1): Republic, 500b-c; (2): op. cit, 485a/b. This second passage is very interesting. It is, as Adam reaffirms (note to 485b9), the first passage in which 'generation' and 'degeneration' are employed in this half-technical sense. It refers to the flux, and to Parmenides' changeless entities. And it introduces the main argument in favour of the rule of the philosophers. See also note 26 (1) to chapter 3 and note 2 (2) to chapter 4. In the Laws, 689c-d, when discussing the 'degeneration' (688c) of the Dorian kingdom brought about by the 'worst ignorance' (the ignorance, namely, of not knowing how to obey those who are rulers by nature; see 689b), Plato explains what he means by wisdom: only such wisdom as aims at the greatest unity or 'unisonity' entitles a man to authority. And the term 'unisonity' is explained in the Republic, 591b and d, as the harmony of the ideas of justice (i.e. of keeping one's place) and of temperance (of being satisfied with it). Thus we are again thrown back to our starting point.

33. *A critic of this passage asserted that he could find no trace, in Plato, of any fear of independent thought. But we should remember Plato's insistence on censorship (see notes 40 and 41 to chapter 4) and his prohibition of higher dialectical studies for anybody under 50 years of age in the Republic (see notes 19 to 21 to chapter 7), to say nothing of the Laws (see note 18 to chapter 7, and many other passages).*

34. For the problem of the priest caste, see the Timaeus, 24a. In a passage which clearly alludes to the best or 'ancient' state of the Republic, the priest caste takes the place of the 'philosophic race' of the Republic. Cp. also the attacks on priests (and even on Egyptian priests), diviners, and shamans, in the Statesman, 290c, f ; see also note 57 (2) to chapter 8, and note 29 to chapter 4.

The remark of Adam's, quoted in the text in the paragraph after the next, is from his note to Republic, 547a3 (quoted above in text to note 43 to chapter 5).

35. Cp. for instance Republic, 484c, 500e, ff.

36 Republic, 535a/b. All that Adam says (cp. his note to 535b8) about the term which I have translated by 'awe-inspiring' supports the usual view that the term means 'stern' or 'awful', especially in the sense of 'inspiring terror'. Adam's suggestion that we translate 'masculine' or 'virile' follows the general tendency to tone down what Plato says, and it clashes strangely with Theaetetus 149a. Lindsay translates: 'of... sturdy morals'.

37. Op. cit., 540c; see also 500c-d: 'the philosopher himself... becomes godlike', and note 12 to chapter 9, where 540c, f , is quoted more fully. — It is most interesting to note how Plato transforms the Parmenidian One when arguing in favour of an aristocratic hierarchy. The opposition one — many is not preserved, but gives rise to a system of grades: the one Idea — the few who come close to it — the more who are their helpers — the many, i.e. the mob (this division is fundamental in the Statesman). As opposed to this, Antisthenes' monotheism preserves the original Eleatic opposition between the One (God) and the Many (whom he probably considered as brothers because of their equal distance from God). — Antisthenes was influenced by Parmenides through Zeno's influence upon Gorgias. Probably there was also the influence of Democritus, who had taught: 'The wise man belongs to all countries alike, for the home of a great soul is the whole world.'

38. Republic, 500d.

39. The quotations are from Republic, 459b, and ff.; cp. also notes 34 f. to chapter 4, and especially 40 (2) to chapter 5. Cp. also the three similes of the Statesman, where the ruler is compared with (1) the shepherd, (2) the doctor, (3) the weaver whose functions are explained as those of a man who blends characters by skilful breeding (3 10b, f ).

40. Op. cit., 460a. My statement that Plato considers this law very important is based on the fact that Plato mentions it in the outline of the Republic in the Timaeus, 18d/e.

41. Op. cit., 460b. The 'suggestion is taken up' in 468c; see the next note.

42. Op. cit., 468c. Though it has been denied by my critics, my translation is correct, and so is my remark about 'the latter benefit'. Shorey calls the passage 'deplorable'.

43. For the Story of the Number and the Fall, cp. notes 13 and 52 to this chapter, notes 39/40 to chapter 5, and text.

44. Republic, 473 c-e. Note the opposition between (divine) rest, and the evil, i.e. change in the form of corruption, or degeneration. Concerning the term translated here by 'oligarchs' cp. the end of note 57, below. It is equivalent to 'hereditary aristocrats'.

The phrase which, for stylistic reasons, I have put in brackets, is important, for in it Plato demands the suppression of all 'pure' philosophers (and unphilosophical politicians). A more literal translation of the phrase would be this: 'while the many' (who have) 'natures' (disposed or gifted) 'for drifting along, nowadays, in one alone of these two, are eliminated by force'. Adam admits that the meaning of Plato's phrase is 'that Plato refuses to sanction the exclusive pursuit of knowledge'; but his suggestion that we soften the meaning of the last words of the phrase by translating: 'are forcibly debarred from exclusively pursuing either' (italics his; cp. note to 473d24, vol. I, 330, of his edn of the Republic) has no foundation in the original, — only in his tendency to idealize Plato. The same holds for Lindsay's translation ('are forcibly debarred from this behaviour'). — Whom does Plato wish to suppress? I believe that 'the many' whose limited or incomplete talents or 'natures' Plato condemns here are identical (as far as philosophers are concerned) with the 'many whose natures are incomplete', mentioned in Republic, 495d; and also with the 'many' (professed philosophers) 'whose wickedness is inevitable', mentioned in 489e (cp. also 490e/491a); cp. notes 47, 56, and 59 to this chapter (and note 23 to chapter 5). The attack is, therefore, directed on the one hand against the 'uneducated' democratic politicians, on the other hand most probably mainly against the half-Thracian Antisthenes, the 'uneducated bastard', the equalitarian philosopher; cp. note 47, below.

45. Kant, On Eternal Peace, Second Supplement (Werke, ed. Cassirer, 1914, vol. VI, 456). Italics mine; I have also abbreviated the passage. (The 'possession of power' may well allude to Frederick the Great.)

46. Cp. for instance Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, V, 12, 2 (German edn, vol. II , 382); or Lindsay's translation of the Republic. (For a criticism of this interpretation, cp. note 50, below.)

47. It must be admitted that Plato's attitude towards Antisthenes raises a highly speculative problem; this is of course connected with the fact that very little is known about Antisthenes from first-rate sources. Even the old Stoic tradition that the Cynic school or movement can be traced back to Antisthenes is at present often questioned (cp., for instance, G. C. Field's Plato, 1930, or D. R. Dudley, A History of Cynicism, 1937) although perhaps not on quite sufficient grounds (cp. Fritz's review of the last-mentioned book in Mind, vol. 47, p. 390). In view of what we know, especially from Aristotle, about Antisthenes, it appears to me highly probable that there are many allusions to him in Plato's writings; and even the one fact that Antisthenes was, apart from Plato, the only member of Socrates' inner circle who taught philosophy at Athens, would be a sufficient justification for searching Plato's work for such allusions. Now it seems to me rather probable that a series of attacks in Plato's work first pointed out by Duemmler (especially , 495d/e, mentioned below in note 56 to this chapter; Rep., 535e, f.,Soph., 251b-e) represents these allusions. There is a definite resemblance (or so at least it appears to me) between these passages and Aristotle's scornful attacks on Antisthenes. Aristotle, who mentions Antisthenes' name, speaks of him as of a simpleton, and he speaks of 'uneducated people such as the Antistheneans' (cp. note 54 to chapter 11). Plato, in the passages mentioned, speaks in a similar way, but more sharply. The first passage I have in mind is from the Sophist, 251b, f, which corresponds very closely indeed to Aristotle's first passage. Regarding the two passages from the Republic, we must remember that, according to the tradition, Antisthenes was a 'bastard' (his mother came from barbarian Thrace), and that he taught in the Athenian gymnasium reserved for 'bastards'. Now we find, in Republic, 535e, f. (cp. end of note 52 to this chapter), an attack which is so specific that an individual person must be intended. Plato speaks of 'people who dabble in philosophy without being restrained by a feeling of their own unworthiness', and he contends that 'the baseborn should be debarred' from doing so. He speaks of the people as 'unbalanced' (or 'skew' or 'limping') in their love of work and of relaxation; and becoming more personal, he alludes to somebody with a 'crippled soul' who, though he loves truth (as a Socratic would), does not attain it, since he 'wallows in ignorance' (probably because he does not accept the theory of Forms); and he warns the city not to trust such limping 'bastards'. I think it likely that Antisthenes is the object of this undoubtedly personal attack; the admission that the enemy loves truth seems to me an especially strong argument, occurring as it does in an attack of extreme violence. But if this passage refers to Antisthenes, then it is very likely that a very similar passage refers to him also, viz. Republic, 495d/e, where Plato again describes his victim as possessing a disfigured or crippled soul as well as body. He insists in this passage that the object of his contempt, in spite of aspiring to be a philosopher, is so depraved that he is not even ashamed of doing degrading ('banausic'; cp. note 4 to chapter 11) manual labour. Now we know of Antisthenes that he recommended manual labour, which he held in high esteem (for Socrates' attitude, cp. Xenophon, Mem., II, 7, 10), and that he practised what he taught; a further strong argument that the man with the crippled soul is Antisthenes.

Now in the same passage, Republic, 495d, there is also a remark about 'the many whose natures are incomplete', and who nevertheless aspire to philosophy. This seems to refer to the same group (the 'Antistheneans' of Aristotle) of 'many natures' whose suppression is demanded in Republic, 473c-e, discussed in note 44 to this chapter. — Cp. also Republic, 489e, mentioned in notes 59 and 56 to this chapter.

48. We know (from Cicero, De Natura Deorum, and Philodemus, De Pietate) that Antisthenes was a monotheist; and the form in which he expressed his monotheism (there is only One God 'according to nature', i.e., to truth, although there are many 'according to convention') shows that he had in mind the opposition nature — convention which, in the mind of a former member of the school of Gorgias and contemporary of Alcidamas and Lycophron (cp. note 13 to chapter 5), must have been connected with equalitarianism. This in itself does not of course establish the conclusion that the half-barbarian Antisthenes believed in the brotherhood of Greeks and barbarians. Yet it seems to me extremely likely that he did.

W. W. Tarn ( Alexander the Great and the Unity of Mankind; cp. note 13 (2) to chapter 5) has tried to show — I once thought successfully — that the idea of the unity of mankind can be traced back at least to Alexander the Great. I think that by a very similar line of reasoning, we can trace it back farther; to Diogenes, Antisthenes, and even to Socrates and the 'Great Generation' of the Periclean age (cp. note 27 to chapter 10, and text). This seems, even without considering the more detailed evidence, likely enough; for a cosmopolitan idea can be expected to occur as a corollary of such imperialist tendencies as those of the Periclean age (cp. Rep., 494c/d, mentioned in note 50 (5) to this chapter, and the First Alcibiades, 105b, ff.; see also text to notes 9-22, 36 and 47 to chapter 10). This is especially likely if other equalitarian tendencies exist. I do not intend to belittle the significance of Alexander's deeds, but the ideas ascribed to him by Tarn seem to me, in a way, a renaissance of some of the best ideas of fifth-century Athenian imperialism. See also Addendum III, pp. 329 f. Proceeding to details, I may first say that there is strong evidence that at least in Plato's (and Aristotle's) time, the problem of equalitarianism was clearly seen to be concerned with two fully analogous distinctions, that between Greeks and barbarians on the one side and that between masters (or free men) and slaves on the other; cp. with this note 13 to chapter 5. Now we have very strong evidence that the fifth-century Athenian movement against slavery was not confined to a few intellectualists like Euripides, Alcidamas, Lycophron, Antiphon, Hippias, etc., but that it had considerable practical success. This evidence is contained in the unanimous reports of the enemies of Athenian democracy (especially the 'Old Oligarch', Plato, Aristotle; cp. notes 17, 18 and 29 to chapter 4, and 36 to chapter 10).

If we now consider in this light the admittedly scanty available evidence for the existence of cosmopolitism, it appears, I believe, reasonably strong — provided that we include the attacks of the enemies of this movement among the evidence. In other words, we must make full use of the attacks of the Old Oligarch, of Plato, and of Aristotle against the humanitarian movement, if we wish to assess its real significance. Thus the Old Oligarch (2, 7) attacks Athens for an eclectic cosmopolitan way of life. Plato's attacks on cosmopolitan and similar tendencies, although not frequent, are especially valuable. (I have in mind passages like Rep., 562e/563a — 'citizens, resident aliens, and strangers from abroad, are all on a footing of equality' — a passage which should be compared with the ironical description in Menexenus, 245c-d, in which Plato sarcastically eulogizes Athens for its consistent hatred of barbarians; Rep., 494c/d; of course, the passage Rep., 469b-471c, must be considered in this context too. See also end of note 19 to chapter 6.) Whether or not Tarn is right on Alexander, he hardly does full justice to the various extant statements of this fifth-century movement, for instance to Antiphon (cp. p. 149, note 6 of his paper) or Euripides or Hippias, or Democritus (cp. note 29 to chapter 10), or to Diogenes (p. 150, note 12) and Antisthenes. I do not think that Antiphon wanted only to stress the biological kinship between men, for he was undoubtedly a social reformer; and 'by nature' meant to him 'in truth'. It therefore seems to me practically certain that he attacked the distinction between Greeks and barbarians as being fictitious. Tarn comments on Euripides' fragment which states that a noble man can range the world like an eagle the air by remarking that 'he knew that an eagle has a permanent home-rock'; but this remark does not do full justice to the fragment; for in order to be a cosmopolitan, one need not give up one's permanent home. In the light of all this, I do not see why Diogenes' meaning was purely 'negative' when he replied to the question 'where are you from?' by saying that he was a cosmopolite, a citizen of the whole world; especially if we consider that a similar answer ('I am a man of the world') is reported of Socrates, and another ('The wise man belongs to all countries, for the home of a great soul is the whole world'; cp. Diels5, fr. 247; genuineness questioned by Tarn and Diels) of Democritus.

Antisthenes' monotheism also must be considered in the light of this evidence. There is no doubt that this monotheism was not of the Jewish, i.e. tribal and exclusive, type. (Should the story of Diog. Laert., VI, 13, that Antisthenes taught in the Cynosarges, the gymnasium for 'bastards', be true, then he must have deliberately emphasized his own mixed and barbarian descent.) Tarn is certainly right when he points out (p. 145) that Alexander's monotheism was connected with his idea of the unity of mankind. But the same should be said of the Cynic ideas, which were influenced, as I believe (see the last note), by Antisthenes, and in this way by Socrates. (Cp. especially the evidence of Cicero, Tuscul, V., 37, and of Epictetus, I, 9, 1, with D.L., VI, 2, 63-71; also Gorgias, 492e, with D.L., VI, 105. See also Epictetus, III, 22 and 24.)

All this made it once appear to me not too unlikely that Alexander may have been genuinely inspired, as the tradition reports, by Diogenes' ideas; and thus by the equalitarian tradition. But in view of E. Badian's criticism of Tarn (Historia, 7, 1958, pp. 425 ff.) I feel now inclined to reject Tarn's claim; but not, of course, my views on the fifth-century movement.

49. Cp. Republic, 469b-471c, especially 470b-d, and 469b/c. Here indeed we have (cp. the next note) a trace of something like the introduction of a new ethical whole, more embracing than the city; namely the unity of Hellenic superiority. As was to be expected (see the next note (1) (Z))), Plato elaborates the point in some detail. * (Cornford justly summarizes this passage when he says that Plato 'expresses no humanitarian sympathies extending beyond the borders of Hellas'; cp. The Republic of Plato, 1941, p. 165.)*

50. In this note, further arguments are collected bearing on the interpretation of Republic, 473e, and the problem of Plato s humanitarianism. I wish to express my thanks to my colleague. Prof H. D. Broadhead, whose criticism has greatly helped me to complete and clarify my argument.

(1) One of Plato's standard topics (cp. the methodological remarks. Rep., 368e, 445c, 577c, and note 32 to chapter 5) is the opposition and comparison between the individual and the whole, i.e. the city. The introduction of a new whole, even more comprehensive than the city, viz. mankind, would be a most important step for a holist to take; it would need (a) preparation and (b) elaboration, (a) Instead of such a preparation we get the above mentioned passage on the opposition between Greeks and barbarians (Rep., 469b-471c). (b) Instead of an elaboration, we find, if anything, a withdrawal of the ambiguous expression 'race of men'. First, in the immediate continuation of the key passage under consideration, i.e. of the passage of the philosopher king (Rep., 473d/e), there occurs a paraphrase of the questionable expression, in form of a summary or winding up of the whole speech; and in this paraphrase, Plato's standard opposition, city — individual, replaces that of city — human race. The paraphrase reads: 'No other constitution can establish a state of happiness, neither in private affairs nor in those of the city.' Secondly, a similar result is found if we analyse the six repetitions or variations (viz. 487e, 499b, 500e, 50 le, 536a-b, discussed in note 52 below, and the summary 540d/e with the afterthought 541b) of the key passage under consideration (i.e. of Rep., 473d/e). In two of them (487e, 500e) the city alone is mentioned; in all the others, Plato's standard opposition city — individual again replaces that of city — human race. Nowhere is there a further allusion to the allegedly Platonic idea that sophocracy alone can save, not only the suffering cities, but all suffering mankind. — In view of all this it seems clear that in all these places only his standard opposition lingered in Plato's mind (without, however, the wish to give it any prominence in this connection), probably in the sense that sophocracy alone can attain the stability and the happiness — the divine rest — of any state, as well as that of all its individual citizens and their progeny (in which otherwise evil must grow — the evil of degeneration).

(2) The term 'human' ('anthro- pinos') is used by Plato, as a rule, either in opposition to 'divine' (and, accordingly, sometimes in a slightly disparaging sense, especially if the limitations of human knowledge or human art are to be stressed, cp. Timaeus, 29c/d; 77a, or Sophist, 266c, 268d, or Laws, 69 le, f., 854a), or in a zoological sense, in opposition, or with reference to, animals, for example, eagles. Nowhere except in the early Socratic dialogues (for one further exception, see this note under (6), below) do I find this term (or the term 'man') used in a humanitarian sense, i.e. indicating something that transcends the distinction of nation, race, or class. Even a 'mental' use of the term 'human' is rare. (I have in mind a use such as in Laws, 737b: 'a humanly impossible piece of folly'.) In fact, the extreme nationalist views of Fichte and Spengler, quoted in chapter 12, text to note 79, are a pointed expression of the Platonic usage of the term 'human', as signifying a zoological rather than a moral category. A number of Platonic passages indicating this and similar usages may be given: Republic, 365d; 486a; 459b/c; 514b; 522c; 606e, f. (where Homer as a guide to human affairs is opposed to the composer of hymns to the gods); 620b. — Phaedo, 82b. — Cratylus, 392b. — Parmenides, 134e. — Theaetetus, 107b. — Crito, 46e. — Protagoras, 344c. — Statesman, 274d (the shepherd of the human flock who is a god, not a man). — Laws 673d; 688d; 737b (890b is perhaps another example of a disparaging use — 'the men' seems here nearly equivalent with 'the many').

(3) It is of course true that Plato assumes a Form or Idea of Man; but it is a mistake to think that it represents what all men have in common; rather, it is an aristocratic ideal of a proud super-Greek; and on this is based a belief, not in the brotherhood of men, but in a hierarchy of 'natures', aristocratic or slavish, in accordance with their greater or lesser likeness to the original, the ancient primogenitor of the human race. (The Greeks are more like him than any other race.) Thus 'intelligence is shared by the gods with only a very few men' (Tim., 51e; cp. Aristotle, in the text to note 3, chapter 11).

(4) The 'City in Heaven' (Rep., 592b) and its citizens are, as Adam rightly points out, not Greek; but this does not imply that they belong to 'humanity' as he thinks (note to 470e30, and others); they are rather super-exclusive, super-Greek (they are 'above' the Greek city of 470e, ff.) — more remote from the barbarians than ever. (This remark does not imply that the idea of the City in Heaven — as those of the Lion in Heaven, for example, and of other constellations — ^may not have been of oriental origin.)

(5) Finally, it may be mentioned that the passage 499c/d rescinds the distinction between Greeks and barbarians no more than that between the past, the present, and the future: Plato tries here to give drastic expression to a sweeping generalization in regard to time and space; he wishes to say no more than: 'If at any time whatever, or if at any place whatever' (we may add: even in such an extremely unlikely place as a barbarian country) 'such a thing did happen, then...' The remark. Republic, 494c/d, expresses a similar, though stronger, feeling of being faced with something approaching impious absurdity, a feeling here aroused by Alcibiades' hopes for a universal empire of Greeks and foreigners. (I agree with the views expressed by Field, Plato and His Contemporaries, 130, note 1, and by Tarn; cp. note 13 (2) to chapter 5.)

To sum up, I am unable to find anything but hostility towards the humanitarian idea of a unity of mankind which transcends race and class, and I believe that those who find the opposite idealize Plato (cp. note 3 to chapter 6, and text) and fail to see the link between his aristocratic and anti-humanitarian exclusiveness and his theory of Ideas. See also this chapter, notes 51, 52, and 57, below.

*(6) There is, to my knowledge, only one real exception, one passage which stands in flagrant contrast to all this. In a passage (Theaetetus, 174e, f), designed to illustrate the broad-mindedness and the universalistic outlook of the philosopher, we read: 'Every man has had countless ancestors, and among them are in any case rich and poor, kings and slaves, barbarians and Greeks.' I do not know how to reconcile this interesting and definitely humanitarian passage — its emphasis on the parallelism master v. slave and Greek v. barbarian is reminiscent of all those theories which Plato opposes — with Plato's other views. Perhaps it is, like so much in the Gorgias, Socratic; and the Theaetetus is perhaps (as against the usual assumption) earlier than the Republic. See also my Addendum Hp. 320.*

51. The allusion is, I believe, to two places in the Story of the Number where Plato (by speaking of 'your race') refers to the race of men: 'concerning your own race' (546a/b; cp. note 39 to chapter 5, and text) and 'testing the metals within your races' (546d/e, f; cp. notes 39 and 40 to chapter 5, and the next passage). Cp. also the arguments in note 52 to this chapter, concerning a 'bridge' between the two passages, i.e. the key passage of the philosopher king, and the Story of the Number.

52. Republic, 546d/e, f. The passage quoted here is part of the Story of the Number and the Fall of Man, 546a-547a, quoted in text to notes 39/40 to chapter 5; see also notes 13 and 43 to the present chapter. — My contention (cp. text to the last note) that the remark in the key passage of the philosopher king. Republic, 473e (cp. notes 44 and 50 to this chapter), foreshadows the Story of the Number, is strengthened by the observation that there exists a bridge, as it were, between the two passages. The Story of the Number is undoubtedly foreshadowed by Republic, 536a/b, a passage which, on the other hand, may be described as the converse (and so as a variation) of the philosopher king passage; for it says in effect that the worst must happen if the wrong men are selected as rulers, and it even finishes up with a direct reminiscence of the great wave: 'if we take men of another kind... then we shall bring down upon philosophy another deluge of laughter'. This clear reminiscence is, I believe, an indication that Plato was conscious of the character of the passage (which proceeds, as it were, from the end of 473c-e back to its beginning), which shows what must happen if the advice given in the passage of the philosopher king is neglected. Now this 'converse' passage (536a/b) may be described as a bridge between the 'key passage' (473e) and the 'Number-passage' (546a, ff.); for it contains unambiguous references to racialism, foreshadowing the passage (546d, f) on the same subject to which the present note is appended. (This may be interpreted as additional evidence that racialism was in Plato's mind, and alluded to, when he wrote the passage of the philosopher king.) I now quote the beginning of the 'converse' passage (536a/b): 'We must distinguish carefully between the true-born and the bastard. For if an individual or a city does not know how to look upon matters such as these, they will quite innocently accept the services of the unbalanced (or limping) bastards in any capacity; perhaps as friends, or even as rulers.' (Cp. also note 47 to this chapter.)

For something like an explanation of Plato's preoccupation with matters of racial degeneration and racial breeding, see text to notes 6, 7, and 63 to chapter 10, in connection with note 39 (3) and 40 (2) to chapter 5.

*For the passage about Codrus the martyr, quoted in the next paragraph of the text, see the Symposium, 208d, quoted more fully in note 4 to chapter 3. — R. R. Eisler (Caucasica, 5, 1928, p. 129, note 237) asserts that 'Codrus' is a pre-Hellenic word for 'king'. This would give some further colour to the tradition that Athens' nobility was autochthonous. (See note 1 1 (2) to this chapter; 52 to chapter 8; and Republic 368a and 580b/c.)*

53. A. E. Taylor, Plato (1908, 1914), pp. 122 f I agree with this interesting passage as far as it is quoted in the text. I have, however, omitted the word 'patriot' after 'Athenian' since I do not fully agree with this characterization of Plato in the sense in which it is used by Taylor. For Plato's 'patriotism' cp. text to notes 14-18 to chapter 4. For the term 'patriotism', and the 'paternal state', cp. notes 23-26 and 45 to chapter 10.

54. Republic, 494b: 'But will not one who is of this type be first in everything, from childhood on?'

55. Op. cit., 496c: 'Of my own spiritual sign, I need not speak.'

56. Cp. what Adam says in his edn of the Republic, notes to 495d23 and 495e31, and my note 47 to the present chapter. (See also note 59 to this chapter.)

57. Republic, 496c-d; cp. the Seventh Letter, 325d. (I do not think that Barker, Greek Political Theory, I, 107, n. 2, makes a good guess when he says of the passage quoted that 'it is possible... that Plato is thinking of the Cynics'. The passage certainly does not refer to Antisthenes; and Diogenes, whom Barker must have in mind, was hardly famous when it was written, quite apart from the fact that Plato would not have referred to him in this way.)

(1) Earlier in the same passage of the Republic, there is another remark which may be a reference to Plato himself Speaking of the small band of the worthy and those who belong to it, he mentions 'a nobly-born and well-bred character who was saved by flight' (or 'by exile'; saved, that is, from the fate of Alcibiades, who became a victim of flattery and deserted Socratic philosophy). Adam thinks (note to 496b9) that 'Plato was hardly exiled'; but the flight to Megara of Socrates' disciples after the death of their master may well stand out in Plato's memory as one of the turning-points of his life. That the passage refers to Dio is hardly possible since Dio was about 40 when he went into exile, and therefore well beyond the critical youthful age; and there was not (as in Plato's case) a parallelism with the Socratic companion Alcibiades (quite apart from the fact that Plato had resisted Dio's banishment, and had tried to get it rescinded). If we assume that the passage refers to Plato, then we shall have to assume the same of 502a: 'Who will doubt the possibility that kings or aristocrats may have a descendant who is a born philosopher?'; for the continuation of that passage is so similar to the previous one that they seem to refer to the same 'nobly-born character'. This interpretation of 502a is probable in itself, for we must remember that Plato always showed his family pride, for instance, in the eulogy on his father and on his brothers, whom he calls 'divine'. (Rep., 368a; I cannot agree with Adam, who takes the remark as ironical; cp. also the remark on Plato's alleged ancestor Codrus in Symp., 20 8d, together with his alleged descent from Attica's tribal kings.) If this interpretation is adopted, the reference in 499b-c to 'rulers, kings, or their sons', which fits Plato perfectly (he was not only a Codride, but also a descendant of the ruler Dropides), would have to be considered in the same light, i.e. as a preparation for 502a. But this would solve another puzzle. I have in mind 499b and 502a. It is difficult, if not impossible, to interpret these passages as attempts to flatter the younger Dionysius, since such an interpretation could hardly be reconciled with the unmitigated violence and the admittedly (576a) personal background of Plato's attacks (572-580) upon the older Dionysius. It is important to note that Plato speaks in all three passages (473d, 499b, 502a) about hereditary kingdoms (which he opposes so strongly to tyrannies) and about 'dynasties'; but we know from Aristotle's Politics, 1292b2 (cp. Meyer, Gesch. d. Altertums, V, p. 56) and 1293a11, that 'dynasties' are hereditary oligarchic families, and therefore not so much the families of a tyrant like Dionysius, but rather what we call now aristocratic families, like that of Plato himself. Aristotle's statement is supported by Thucydides, IV, 78, and Xenophon, Hellenica, V, 4, 46. (These arguments are directed against Adam's second note to 499bl3.) See also note 4 to chapter 3.

* (2) Another important passage which contains a revealing self-reference is to be found in the Statesman. Here the essential characteristic of the royal statesman is assumed (258b, 292c) to be his knowledge or science; and the result is another plea for sophocracy: 'The only right government is that in which the rulers are true Masters of Science' (293c). And Plato proves that 'the man who possesses the Royal Science, whether he rules or does not rule, must, as our argument shows, be proclaimed royal' (292e/293a). Plato certainly claimed to possess the Royal Science; accordingly, this passage implies unequivocally that he considered himself a 'man who must be proclaimed royal'. This illuminating passage must not be neglected in any attempt to interpret the Republic. (The Royal Science, of course, is again that of the romantic pedagogue and breeder of a master class which must provide the fabric for covering and holding together the other classes — the slaves, labourers, clerks, etc., discussed in 289c, ff The task of the Royal Science is thus described as that of 'interweaving' (blending, mixing) 'of the characters of temperate and courageous men, when they have been drawn together, by kingscraft, into a community life of unanimity and friendship'. See also notes 40 (2) to chapter 5; 29 to chapter 4; and note 34 to the present chapter.)*

58. In a famous passage in the Phaedo (89d) Socrates warns against misanthropy or hatred of men (with which he compares misology or distrust in rational argument). See also note 28 and 56 to chapter 10, and note 9 to chapter 7.

The next quotation in this paragraph is from Republic, 489b/c. — The connection with the previous passages is more obvious if the whole of 488 and 489 is considered, and especially the attack in 489e upon the 'many' philosophers whose wickedness is inevitable, i.e. the same 'many' and 'incomplete natures' whose suppression is discussed in notes 44 and 47 to this chapter.

An indication that Plato had once dreamt of becoming the philosopher king and saviour of Athens can be found, I believe, in the Laws, 704a-707c, where Plato tries to point out the moral dangers of the sea, of seafaring, trade, and imperialism. (Cp. Aristotle, Pol, 1326b- 1327a, and my notes 9-22 and 36 to chapter 10, and text.)

See especially Laws, 704d: 'If the city were to be built on the coast, and well supplied with natural harbours... then it would need a mighty saviour, and indeed, a super-human legislator, to make her escape variability and degeneration.' Does this not read as if Plato wanted to show that his failure in Athens was due to the super-human difficulties created by the geography of the place? (But in spite of all disappointments — cp. note 25 to chapter 7 — Plato still believes in the method of winning over a tyrant; cp. Laws, 710c/d, quoted in text to note 24 to chapter 4.)

59. There is a passage (beginning in Republic, 498d/e; cp. note 12 to chapter 9) in which Plato even expresses his hope that 'the many' may change their minds and accept philosophers as rulers, once they have learned (perhaps from the Republic!) to distinguish between the genuine philosopher and the pseudo-philosopher.

With the last two lines of the paragraph in the text, cp. Republic, 473e-474a, and 517a/b.

60. Sometimes such dreams have even been openly confessed. F. Nietzsche, The Will to Power (ed. 1911, Book IV, Aphor. 958; the reference is to Theages, 125e/126a), writes: 'In Plato's Theages it is written: "Every one of us wants to be the lord of all men, if it were only possible — and most of all he would like to be the Lord God Himself." This is the spirit which must come again.' I need not comment upon Nietzsche's political views; but there are other philosophers, Platonists, who have naively hinted that if a Platonist were, by some lucky accident, to gain power in a modem state, he would move towards the Platonic Ideal, and leave things at least nearer perfection than he found them. men born into an "oligarchy" or "democracy"', we read (in the context this may well be an allusion to England in 1939), with the ideals of Platonic philosophers and finding themselves, by some fortunate turn of circumstance, possessed of supreme political power, would certainly try to actualise the Platonic State, and even if they were not completely successful, as they might be, would at least leave the commonwealth nearer to that model than they found it.' (Quoted from A. E. Taylor, 'The Decline and Fall of the State in Republic, VIII', Mind, N.S. 48, 1939, p. 31.) The argument in the next chapter is directed against such romantic dreams.

* A searching analysis of the Platonic lust for power can be found in H. Kelsen's brilliant article Platonic Love (The American Imago, vol. Ill, 1942, pp. 1 ff.).*

61. Op. cit., 520a-521c, the quotation is from 520d.

62. Cp. G. B. Stern, The Ugly Dachshund, 1938.  
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Re: The Open Society and Its Enemies, by Karl R. Popper

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Part 9 of 18

Notes to Chapter Nine

The motto, from Les Thibaults, by Roger Martin du Gard, is quoted from p. 575 of the English edition (Summer 1914, London, 1940).

1. My description of Utopian social engineering seems to coincide with that kind of social engineering advocated by M. Eastman in Marxism: is it Science?; see especially pp. 22 ff. I have the impression that Eastman's views represent the swing of the pendulum from historicism to Utopian engineering. But I may possibly be mistaken, and what Eastman really has in mind may be more in the direction of what I call piecemeal engineering. Roscoe Pound's conception of 'social engineering' is clearly 'piecemeal'; cp. note 9 to chapter 3. See also note 18 (3) to chapter 5.

2. I believe that there is, from the ethical point of view, no symmetry between suffering and happiness, or between pain and pleasure. Both the greatest happiness principle of the Utilitarians and Kant's principle 'Promote other people's happiness ...' seem to me (at least in their formulations) wrong on this point which, however, is not completely decidable by rational argument. (For the irrational aspect of ethical beliefs, see note 11 to the present chapter, and for the rational aspect, sections II and especially III of chapter 24). In my opinion (cp. note 6 (2) to chapter 5) human suffering makes a direct moral appeal, namely, the appeal for help, while there is no similar call to increase the happiness of a man who is doing well anyway. (A further criticism of the Utilitarian formula 'Maximize pleasure' is that it assumes, in principle, a continuous pleasure-pain scale which allows us to treat degrees of pain as negative degrees of pleasure. But, from the moral point of view, pain cannot be outweighed by pleasure, and especially not one man's pain by another man's pleasure. Instead of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, one should demand, more modestly, the least amount of avoidable suffering for all; and further, that unavoidable suffering — such as hunger in times of an unavoidable shortage of food — should be distributed as equally as possible.) There is some kind of analogy between this view of ethics and the view of scientific methodology which I have advocated in my The Logic of Scientific Discovery. It adds to clarity in the field of ethics if we formulate our demands negatively, i.e. if we demand the elimination of suffering rather than the promotion of happiness. Similarly, it is helpful to formulate the task of scientific method as the elimination of false theories (from the various theories tentatively proffered) rather than the attainment of established truths.

3. A very good example of this kind of piecemeal engineering, or perhaps of the corresponding piecemeal technology, are C. G. F. Simkin's two articles on 'Budgetary Reform' in the Australian Economic Record (1941, pp. 192 ff., and 1942, pp. 16 ff.). I am glad to be able to refer to these two articles since they make conscious use of the methodological principles which I advocate; they thus show that these principles are useful in the practice of technological research.

I do not suggest that piecemeal engineering cannot be bold, or that it must be confined to 'smallish' problems. But I think that the degree of complication which we can tackle is governed by the degree of our experience gained in conscious and systematic piecemeal engineering.

4. This view has recently been emphasized by F. A. von Hayek in various interesting papers (cp. for instance his Freedom and the Economic System, Public Policy Pamphlets, Chicago, 1939). What I call 'Utopian engineering' corresponds largely, I believe, to what Hayek would call 'centralized' or 'collectivist' planning. Hayek himself recommends what he calls 'planning for freedom'. I suppose he would agree that this would take the character of 'piecemeal engineering'. One could, I believe, formulate Hayek's objections to collectivist planning somewhat like this. If we try to construct society according to a blueprint, then we may find that we cannot incorporate individual freedom in our blueprint; or if we do, that we cannot realize it. The reason is that centralized economic planning eliminates from economic life one of the most important functions of the individual, namely his function as a chooser of the product, as a free consumer. In other words, Hayek's criticism belongs to the realm of social technology. He points out a certain technological impossibility, namely that of drafting a plan for a society which is at once economically centralized and individualistic.

* Readers of Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944) may feel puzzled by this note; for Hayek's attitude in this book is so explicit that no room is left for the somewhat vague comments of my note. But my note was printed before Hayek's book was published; and although many of his leading ideas were foreshadowed in his earlier writings, they were not yet quite as explicit as in The Road to Serfdom. And many ideas which, as a matter of course, we now associate with Hayek's name were unknown to me when I wrote my note.

In the light of what I know now about Hayek's position, my summary of it does not appear to me to be mistaken, although it is, no doubt, an understatement of his position. The following modifications may perhaps put the matter right.

(a) Hayek would not himself use the word 'social engineering' for any political activity which he would be prepared to advocate. He objects to this term because it is associated with a general tendency which he has called 'scientism' — ^the naive belief that the methods of the natural sciences (or, rather, what many people believe to be the methods of the natural sciences) must produce similarly impressive results in the social field. (Cp. Hayek's two series of articles, Scientism and the Study of Society, Economica, IX-XI 1942-44, and The Counter-revolution of Science, ibid., VIII, 1941.)

If by 'scientism' we mean a tendency to ape, in the field of social science, what are supposed to be the methods of the natural sciences, then historicism can be described as a form of scientism. Atypical and influential scientistic argument in favour of historicism is, in brief, this: 'We can predict eclipses; why should we not be able to predict revolutions?'; or, in a more elaborate form: 'The task of science is to predict; thus the task of the social sciences must be to make social, i.e. historical, predictions.' I have tried to refute this kind of argument (cp. my The Poverty of Historicism, and 'Prediction and Prophecy, and their Significance for Social Theory', Proceedings of the Xth International Congress of Philosophy, Amsterdam, 1948; now in my Conjectures and Refutations); and in this sense, I am opposed to scientism.

But if by 'scientism' we should mean the view that the methods of the social sciences are, to a very considerable extent, the same as those of the natural sciences, then I should be obliged to plead 'guilty' to being an adherent of 'scientism'; indeed, I believe that the similarity between the social and the natural sciences can even be used for correcting wrong ideas about the natural sciences by showing that these are much more similar to the social sciences than is generally supposed.

It is for this reason that I have continued to use Roscoe Pound's term 'social engineering' in Roscoe Pound's sense, which as far as I can see, is free of that 'scientism' which, I think, must be rejected.

Terminology apart, I still think that Hayek's views can be interpreted as favourable to what I call 'piecemeal engineering'. On the other hand, Hayek has given a much clearer formulation of his views than my old outline indicates. The part of his views which corresponds to what I should call 'social engineering' (in Pound's sense) is his suggestion that there is an urgent need, in a free society, to reconstruct what he describes as its 'legal framework'.*

5. Bryan Magee has drawn my attention to what he rightly calls 'de Tocqueville's superbly put argument' in L 'ancien regime.

6. The problem whether or not a good end justifies bad means seems to arise out of such cases as whether one should lie to a sick man in order to set his mind at rest; or whether one should keep a people in ignorance in order to make them happy; or whether one should begin a long and bloody civil war in order to establish a world of peace and beauty.

In all these cases the action contemplated is to bring about first a more immediate result (called 'the means') which is considered an evil, in order that a secondary result (called 'the end') may be brought about which is considered a good.

I think that in all such cases three different kinds of questions arise.

(a) How far are we entitled to assume that the means will in fact lead to the expected end? Since the means are the more immediate result, they will in most cases be the more certain result of the contemplated action, and the end, which is more remote, will be less certain.

The question here raised is a factual question rather than one of moral valuations. It is the question whether, as a matter of fact, the assumed causal connection between the means and the end can be relied upon; and one might therefore reply that, if the assumed causal connection does not hold, the case was simply not one of means and ends.

This may be true. But in practice, the point here considered contains what is perhaps the most important moral issue. For although the question (whether the contemplated means will bring about the contemplated end) is a factual one, our attitude towards this question raises some of the most fundamental moral problems -- the problem whether we ought to rely, in such cases, on our conviction that such a causal connection holds; or in other words, whether we ought to rely, dogmatically, on causal theories, or whether we should adopt a sceptical attitude towards them, especially where the immediate result of our action is, in itself, considered evil.

This question is perhaps not so important in the first of our three examples, but it is so in the two others. Some people may feel very certain that the causal connections assumed in these two cases hold; but the connection may be a very remote one; and even the emotional certainty of their belief may itself be the result of an attempt to suppress their doubts. (The issue, in other words, is that between the fanatic and the rationalist in the Socratic sense — the man who tries to know his intellectual limitations.) The issue will be the more important the greater the evil of 'the means'. However that may be, to educate oneself so as to adopt an attitude of scepticism towards one's causal theories, and one of intellectual modesty, is, without doubt, one of the most important moral duties.

But let us assume that the assumed causal connection holds, or in other words, that there is a situation in which one can properly speak of means and ends. Then we have to distinguish between two further questions, (b) and (c).

(b) Assuming that the causal relation holds, and that we can be reasonably certain of it, the problem becomes, in the main, one of choosing the lesser of two evils — that of the contemplated means and that which must arise if these means are not adopted. In other words, the best of ends do not as such justify bad means, but the attempt to avoid results may justify actions which are in themselves producing bad results. (Most of us do not doubt that it is right to cut off a man's limb in order to save his life.)

In this connection it may become very important that we are not really able to assess the evils in question. Some Marxists, for example (cp. note 9 to chapter 19), believe that there would be far less suffering involved in a violent social revolution than in the chronic evils inherent in what they call 'Capitalism'. But even assuming that this revolution leads to a better state of affairs — how can they evaluate the suffering in the one state and in the other? Here, again, a factual question arises, and it is again our duty not to over-estimate our factual knowledge. Besides, granted that the contemplated means will on balance improve the situation — have we ascertained whether other means would not achieve better results, at a lesser price?

But the same example raises another very important question. Assuming, again, that the sum total of suffering under 'Capitalism' would, if it continues for several generations, outweigh the suffering of civil war — can we condemn one generation to suffer for the sake of later generations? (There is a great difference between sacrificing oneself for the sake of others, and between sacrificing others — or oneself and others — for some such end.)

(c) The third point of importance is that we must not think that the so-called 'end', as a final result, is more important than the intermediate result, the 'means'. This idea, which is suggested by such sayings as 'All is well that ends well', is most misleading. First, the so- called 'end' is hardly ever the end of the matter. Secondly, the means are not, as it were, superseded once the end is achieved. For example, 'bad' means, such as a new powerful weapon used in war for the sake of victory, may, after this 'end' is achieved, create new trouble. In other words, even if something can be correctly described as a means to an end, it is, very often, much more than this. It produces other results apart from the end in question; and what we have to balance is not the (past or present) means against (future) ends, but the total results, as far as they can be foreseen, of one course of action against those of another. These results spread over a period of time which includes intermediate results; and the contemplated 'end' will not be the last to be considered.

7. (1) I believe that the parallelism between the institutional problems of civil and of international peace is most important. Any international organization which has legislative, administrative and judicial institutions as well as an armed executive which is prepared to act should be as successful in upholding international peace as are the analogous institutions within the state. But it seems to me important not to expect more. We have been able to reduce crime within the states to something comparatively unimportant, but we have not been able to stamp it out entirely. Therefore we shall, for a long time to come, need a police force which is ready to strike, and which sometimes does strike. Similarly, I believe that we must be prepared for the probability that we may not be able to stamp out international crime. If we declare that our aim is to make war impossible once and for all, then we may undertake too much, with the fatal result that we may not have a force which is ready to strike when these hopes are disappointed. The failure of the League of Nations to take action against aggressors was, at least in the case of the attack on Manchukuo, due largely to the general feeling that the League had been established in order to end all wars and not to wage them. This shows that propaganda for ending all wars is self-defeating. We must end international anarchy, and be ready to go to war against any international crime. (Cp. especially H. Mannheim, War and Crime, 1941; and A. D. Lindsay, 'War to End War', in Background and Issues, 1940.)

But it is also important to search for the weak spot in the analogy between civil and international peace, that is to say, for the point where the analogy breaks down. In the case of civil peace, upheld by the state, there is the individual citizen to be protected by the state. The citizen is, as it were, a 'natural' unit or atom (although there is a certain 'conventional' element even in the conditions of citizenship). On the other hand, the members or units or atoms of our international order will be states. But a state can never be a 'natural' unit like the citizen; there are no natural boundaries to a state. The boundaries of a state change, and can be defined only by applying the principle of a status quo; and since every status quo must refer to an arbitrarily chosen date, the determination of the boundaries of a state is purely conventional.

The attempt to find some 'natural' boundaries for states, and accordingly, to look upon the state as a 'natural' unit, leads to the principle of the national state and to the romantic fictions of nationalism, racialism, and tribalism. But this principle is not 'natural', and the idea that there exist natural units like nations, or linguistic or racial groups, is entirely fictitious. Here, if anywhere, we should learn from history; for since the dawn of history, men have been continually mixed, unified, broken up, and mixed again; and this cannot be undone, even if it were desirable.

There is a second point in which the analogy between civil and international peace breaks down. The state must protect the individual citizen, its units or atoms; but the international organization also must ultimately protect human individuals, and not its units or atoms, i.e. states or nations.

The complete renunciation of the principle of the national state (a principle which owes its popularity solely to the fact that it appeals to tribal instincts and that it is the cheapest and surest method by which a politician who has nothing better to offer can make his way), and the recognition of the necessarily conventional demarcation of all states, together with the further insight that human individuals and not states or nations must be the ultimate concern even of international organizations, will help us to realize clearly, and to get over, the difficulties arising from the breakdown of our fundamental analogy. (Cp. also chapter 12, notes 51-64 and text, and note 2 to chapter 13.)

(2) It seems to me that the remark that human individuals must be recognized to be the ultimate concern not only of international organizations, but of all politics, international as well as 'national' or parochial, has important applications. We must realize that we can treat individuals fairly, even if we decide to break up the power-organization of an aggressive state or 'nation' to which these individuals belong. It is a widely held prejudice that the destruction and control of the military, political and even of the economic power of a state or 'nation' implies misery or subjugation for its individual citizens. But this prejudice is as unwarranted as it is dangerous.

It is unwarranted provided that an international organization protects the citizens of the thus weakened state against exploitation of their political and military weakness. The only damage to the individual citizen that cannot be avoided is one to his national pride; and if we assume that he was a citizen of an aggressor country, then this is a damage which will be unavoidable in any case, provided the aggression has been warded off. The prejudice that we cannot distinguish between the treatment of a state and of its individual citizens is also very dangerous, for when it comes to the problem of dealing with an aggressor country, it necessarily creates two factions in the victorious countries, viz., the faction of those who demand harsh treatment and those who demand leniency. As a rule, both overlook the possibility of treating a state harshly, and, at the same time, its citizens leniently.

But if this possibility is overlooked, then the following is likely to happen. Immediately after the victory the aggressor state and its citizens will be treated comparatively harshly. But the state, the power-organization, will probably not be treated as harshly as might be reasonable because of a reluctance to treat innocent individuals harshly, that is to say, because the influence of the faction for leniency will make itself felt somehow. In spite of this reluctance, it is likely that individuals will suffer beyond what they deserve. After a short time, therefore, a reaction is likely to occur in the victorious countries. Equalitarian and humanitarian tendencies are likely to strengthen the faction for leniency until the harsh policy is reversed. But this development is not only likely to give the aggressor state a chance for a new aggression; it will also provide it with the weapon of the moral indignation of one who has been wronged, while the victorious countries are likely to become afflicted with the diffidence of those who feel that they may have done wrong.

This very undesirable development must in the end lead to a new aggression. It can be avoided if, and only if, from the start, a clear distinction is made between the aggressor state (and those responsible for its acts) on the one hand, and its citizens on the other hand. Harshness towards the aggressor state, and even the radical destruction of its power apparatus, will not produce this moral reaction of humanitarian feelings in the victorious countries if it is combined with a policy of fairness towards the individual citizens.

But is it possible to break the political power of a state without injuring its citizens indiscriminately? In order to prove that this is possible I shall construct an example of a policy which breaks the political and military power of an aggressor state without violating the interests of its individual citizens.

The fringe of the aggressor country, including its sea-coast and its main (not all) sources of water power, coal, and steel, could be severed from the state, and administered as an international territory, never to be returned. Harbours as well as the raw materials could be made accessible to the citizens of the state for their legitimate economic activities, without imposing any economic disadvantages on them, on the condition that they invite international commissions to control the proper use of these facilities. Any use which may help to build up a new war potential is forbidden, and if there is reason for suspicion that the internationalized facilities and raw materials may be so used, their use has at once to be stopped. It then rests with the suspect party to invite and to facilitate a thorough investigation, and to offer satisfactory guarantees for a proper use of its resources.

Such a procedure would not eliminate the possibility of a new attack but it would force the aggressor state to make its attack on the internationalized territories prior to building up a new war potential. Thus such an attack would be hopeless provided the other countries have retained and developed their war potential. Faced with this situation the former aggressor state would be forced to change its attitude radically, and adopt one of co-operation. It would be forced to invite the international control of its industry and to facilitate the investigation of the international controlling authority (instead of obstructing them) because only such an attitude would guarantee its use of the facilities needed by its industries; and such a development would be likely to take place without any further interference with the internal politics of the state.

The danger that the internationalization of these facilities might be misused for the purpose of exploiting or of humiliating the population of the defeated country can be counteracted by international legal measures that provide for courts of appeal, etc.

This example shows that it is not impossible to treat a state harshly and its citizens leniently.

(I have left parts (1) and (2) of this note exactly as they were written in 1942. Only in part (3), which is non-topical, have I made an addition, after the first two paragraphs.)*

(3) But is such an engineering approach towards the problem of peace scientific? Many will contend, I am sure, that a truly scientific attitude towards the problems of war and peace must be different. They will say that we must first study the causes of war. We must study the forces that lead to war, and also those that may lead to peace. It has been recently claimed, for instance, that 'lasting peace' can come only if we consider fully the 'underlying dynamic forces' in society that may produce war or peace. In order to find out these forces, we must, of course, study history. In other words, we must approach the problem of peace by a historicist method, and not by a technological method. This, it is claimed, is the only scientific approach.

The historicist may, with the help of history, show that the causes of war can be found in the clash of economic interests; or in the clash of classes; or of ideologies, for instance, freedom versus tyranny; or in the clash of races, or of nations, or of imperialisms, or of militarist systems; or in hate; or in fear; or in envy; or in the wish to take revenge; or in all these things together, and in countless others. And he will thereby show that the task of removing these causes is extremely difficult. And he will show that there is no point in constructing an international organization, as long as we have not removed the causes of war, for instance the economic causes, etc. Similarly, psychologism may argue that the causes of war are to be found in 'human nature', or, more specifically, in its aggressiveness, and that the way to peace is that of preparing for other outlets for aggression. (The reading of thrillers has been suggested in all seriousness — in spite of the fact that some of our late dictators were addicted to them.)

I do not think that these methods of dealing with this important problem are very promising. And I do not believe, more especially, in the plausible argument that in order to establish peace we must ascertain the cause or the causes of war.

Admittedly, there are cases where the method of searching for the causes of some evil, and of removing them, may be successful. If I feel a pain in my foot I may find that it is caused by a pebble and remove it. But we must not generalize from this. The method of removing pebbles does not even cover all cases of pains in my foot. In some such cases I may not find 'the cause'; and in others I may be unable to remove it.

In general, the method of removing causes of some undesirable event is applicable only if we know a short list of necessary conditions (i.e. a list of conditions such that the event in question never happens except if one at least of the conditions on the list is present) and if all of these conditions can be controlled, or, more precisely, prevented. (It may be remarked that necessary conditions are hardly what one describes by the vague term 'causes'; they are, rather, what are usually called 'contributing causes'; as a rule, where we speak of 'causes' we mean a set of sufficient conditions.) But I do not think that we can hope to construct such a list of the necessary conditions of war. Wars have broken out under the most varying circumstances. Wars are not simple phenomena, such as, perhaps, thunderstorms. There is no reason to believe that by calling a vast variety of phenomena 'wars', we ensure that they are all 'caused' in the same way.

All this shows that the apparently unprejudiced and convincingly scientific approach, the study of the 'causes of war', is, in fact, not only prejudiced, but also liable to bar the way to a reasonable solution; it is, in fact, pseudo-scientific.

How far should we get if, instead of introducing laws and a police force, we approached the problem of criminality 'scientifically', i.e. by trying to find out what precisely are the causes of crime? I do not imply that we cannot here or there discover important factors contributing to crime or to war, and that we cannot avert much harm in this way; but this can well be done after we have got crime under control, i.e. after we have introduced our police force. On the other hand, the study of economic, psychological, hereditary, moral, etc., 'causes' of crime, and the attempt to remove these causes, would hardly have led us to find out that a police force (which does not remove the cause) can bring crime under control. Quite apart from the vagueness of such phrases as 'the cause of war', the whole approach is anything but scientific. It is as if one insisted that it is unscientific to wear an overcoat when it is cold; and that we should rather study the causes of cold weather, and remove them. Or, perhaps, that lubricating is unscientific, since we should rather find out the causes of friction and remove them. This latter example shows, I believe, the absurdity of the apparently scientific criticism; for just as lubrication certainly reduces the 'causes' of friction, so an international police force (or another armed body of this kind) may reduce an important 'cause' of war, namely the hope of 'getting away with it'.

8. I have tried to show this in my The Logic of Scientific Discovery. I believe, in accordance with the methodology outlined, that systematic piecemeal engineering will help us to build an empirical social technology, reached by the method of trial and error. Only in this way, I believe, can we begin to build an empirical social science. The fact that such a social science hardly exists so far, and that the historical method is incapable of furthering it much, is one of the strongest arguments against the possibility of large-scale or Utopian social engineering. See also my The Poverty of Historicism.

9. For a very similar formulation, see John Carruthers' lecture Socialism & Radicalism (published as a pamphlet by the Hammersmith Socialist Society, London, 1894). He argues in a typical manner against piecemeal reform:

'Every palliative measure brings its own evil with it, and the evil is generally greater than that it was intended to cure. Unless we make up our minds to have a new garment altogether, we must be prepared to go in rags, for patching will not improve the old one.' (It should be noted that by 'radicalism', used by Carruthers in the title of his lecture, he means about the opposite of what is meant here. Carruthers advocates an uncompromising programme of canvas-cleaning and attacks 'radicalism', i.e. the programme of 'progressive' reforms advocated by the 'radical liberals'. This use of the term 'radical' is, of course, more customary than mine; nevertheless, the term means originally 'going to the root' — of the evil, for instance — or 'eradicating the evil'; and there is no proper substitute for it.)

For the quotations in the next paragraph of the text (the 'divine original' which the artist- politician must 'copy'), see Republic, 500e/501a. See also notes 25 and 26 to chapter 8.

In Plato's Theory of Forms are, I believe, elements which are of great importance for the understanding, and for the theory, of art. This aspect of Platonism is treated by J. A. Stewart, in his book Plato s Doctrine of Ideas (1909), 128 ff. I believe, however, that he stresses too much the object of pure contemplation (as opposed to that 'pattern' which the artist not only visualizes, but which he labours to reproduce, on his canvas).

10 . Republic, 520c. For the 'Royal Art', see especially the Statesman; cp. note 57 (2) to chapter 8.  

11. It has often been said that ethics is only a part of aesthetics, since ethical questions are ultimately a matter of taste. (Cp. for instance G. E. G. Catlin, The Science and Methods of Politics, 315 ff.) If by saying this, no more is meant than that ethical problems cannot be solved by the rational methods of science, I agree. But we must not overlook the vast difference between moral 'problems of taste' and problems of taste in aesthetics. If I dislike a novel, a piece of music, or perhaps a picture, I need not read it, or listen to it, or look at it. Aesthetic problems (with the possible exception of architecture) are largely of a private character, but ethical problems concern men, and their lives. To this extent, there is a fundamental difference between them.

12 . For this and the preceding quotations, cp. Republic, 500d-501a (italics mine); cp. also notes 29 (end) to chapter 4, and 25, 26, 37, 38 (especially 25 and 38) to chapter 8.

The two quotations in the next paragraph are from ihQ Republic, 541a, and from the Statesman, 293c-e.

It is interesting (because it is, I believe, characteristic of the hysteria of romantic radicalism with its hubris -- its ambitious arrogance of godlikeness) to see that both passages of the Republic -- the canvas-cleaning of 500d, ff., and the purge of 541a — are preceded by reference to the godlikeness of the philosophers; cp. 500c-d, 'the philosopher becomes ... godlike himself, and 540c-d (cp. note 37 to chapter 8 and text), 'And the state will erect monuments, at the expense of the public, to commemorate them; and sacrifices will be offered to them, as demigods, ... or at least as men who are blessed by grace, and godlike.'

It is also interesting (for the same reasons) that the first of these passages is preceded by the passage (498d/e, f.; see note 59 to chapter 8) in which Plato expresses his hope that philosophers may become, as rulers, acceptable even to 'the many'.

* Concerning the term 'liquidate' the following modem outburst of radicalism may be quoted: 'Is it not obvious that if we are to have socialism — real and permanent socialism — all the fundamental opposition must be "liquidated" (i.e. rendered politically inactive by disfranchisement, and if necessary by imprisonment)?' This remarkable rhetorical question is printed on p. 18 of the still more remarkable pamphlet Christians in the Class Struggle, by Gilbert Cope, with a Foreword by the Bishop of Bradford. (1942; for the historicism of this pamphlet, see note 3 to chapter 1.) The Bishop, in his Foreword, denounces 'our present economic system' as 'immoral and un-Christian', and he says that 'when something is so plainly the work of the devil . . . nothing can excuse a minister of the Church from working for its destruction'. Accordingly, he recommends the pamphlet 'as a lucid and penetrating analysis'.

A few more sentences may be quoted from the pamphlet. 'Two parties may ensure partial democracy, but a full democracy can be established only by a single party ...' (p. 17). — 'In the period of transition ... the workers ... must be led and organized by a single party which tolerates the existence of no other party fundamentally opposed to it ...' (p. 19). — 'Freedom in the socialist state means that no one is allowed to attack the principle of common ownership, but everyone is encouraged to work for its more effective realization and operation ... The important matter of how the opposition is to be nullified depends upon the methods used by the opposition itself (p. 18).

Most interesting of all is perhaps the following argument (also to be found on p. 18) which deserves to be read carefully: 'Why is it possible to have a socialist party in a capitalist country if it is not possible to have a capitalist party in a socialist state? The answer is simply that the one is a movement involving all the productive forces of a great majority against a small minority, while the other is an attempt of a minority to restore their position of power and privilege by renewed exploitation of the majority.' In other words, a ruling 'small minority' can afford to be tolerant, while a 'great majority' cannot afford to tolerate a 'small minority'. This simple answer is indeed a model of 'a lucid and penetrating analysis', as the Bishop puts it.*

13 . Cp. for this development also chapter 13, especially note 7, and text.

14 . It seems that romanticism, in literature as well as in philosophy, may be traced back to Plato. It is well known that Rousseau was directly influenced by him (cp. note 1 to chapter 6). Rousseau also knew Plato's Statesman (cp. the Social Contract, Book II, ch. VII, and Book III, ch. VI) with its eulogy of the early hill-shepherds. But apart from this direct influence, it is probable that Rousseau derived his pastoral romanticism and love for primitivity indirectly from Plato; for he was certainly influenced by the Italian Renaissance, which had rediscovered Plato, and especially his naturalism and his dreams of a perfect society of primitive shepherds (cp. notes 11 (3) and 32 to chapter 4 and note 1 to chapter 6). — It is interesting that Voltaire recognized at once the dangers of Rousseau's romantic obscurantism; just as Kant was not prevented by his admiration for Rousseau from recognizing this danger when he was faced with it in Herder's 'Ideas' (cp. also note 56 to chapter 12, and text).  
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Re: The Open Society and Its Enemies, by Karl R. Popper

Postby admin » Tue Oct 08, 2019 7:33 am

Part 10 of 18

Notes to Chapter Ten

This chapter's motto is taken from the Symposium, 193d.

1. Cp. Republic, 419a, ff., 421b, 465c, ff., and 519e; see also chapter 6. especially sections II and IV.

2. I am thinking not only of the medieval attempts to arrest society, attempts that were based on the Platonic theory that the rulers are responsible for the souls, the spiritual welfare of the ruled (and on many practical devices developed by Plato in the Republic and in the Laws), but I am thinking also of many later developments.

3. I have tried, in other words, to apply as far as possible the method which I have described in my The Logic of Scientific Discovery.

4. Cp. especially Republic, 566e; see also below, note 63 to this chapter.

5. In my story there should be 'no villains... Crime is not interesting... It is what men do at their best, with good intentions... that really concerns us'. I have tried as far as possible to apply this methodological principle to my interpretation of Plato. (The formulation of the principle quoted in this note I have taken from G. B. Shaw's Preface to Saint Joan; see the first sentences in the section 'Tragedy, not Melodrama'.)

6. For Heraclitus, see chapter 2. For Alcmaeon's and Herodotus' theories of isonomy, see notes 13, 14, and 17, to chapter 6. For Phaleas of Chalcedon's economic equalitarianism, see Aristotle's Politics, 1266a, and Diels5, chapter 39 (also on Hippodamus). For Hippodamus of Miletus, see Aristotle's Politics, 1267b22, and note 9 to chapter 3. Among the first political theorists, we must, of course, also count the Sophists, Protagoras, Antiphon, Hippias, Alcidamas, Lycophron; Critias (cp. Diels5, fr. 6, 30-38, and note 17 to chapter 8), and the Old Oligarch (if these were two persons); and Democritus.

For the terms 'closed society' and 'open society', and their use in a somewhat similar sense by Bergson, see the Note to the Introduction. My characterization of the closed society as magical and of the open society as rational and critical of course makes it impossible to apply these terms without idealizing the society in question. The magical attitude has by no means disappeared from our life, not even in the most 'open' societies so far realized, and I think it unlikely that it can ever completely disappear. In spite of this, it seems to be possible to give some useful criterion of the transition from the closed society to the open. The transition takes place when social institutions are first consciously recognized as man-made, and when their conscious alteration is discussed in terms of their suitability for the achievement of human aims or purposes. Or, putting the matter in a less abstract way, the closed society breaks down when the supernatural awe with which the social order is considered gives way to active interference, and to the conscious pursuit of personal or group interests. It is clear that cultural contact through civilization may engender such a breakdown, and, even more, the development of an impoverished, i.e. landless, section of the ruling class.

I may mention here that I do not like to speak of 'social breakdown' in a general way. I think that the breakdown of a closed society, as described here, is a fairly clear affair, but in general the term 'social breakdown' seems to me to convey very little more than that the observer does not like the course of the development he describes. I think that the term is much misused. But I admit that, with or without reason, the member of a certain society might have the feeling that 'everything is breaking down'. There is little doubt that to the members of the ancien regime or of the Russian nobility, the French or the Russian revolution must have appeared as a complete social breakdown; but to the new rulers it appeared very differently.

Toynbee (cp. A Study of History, V, 23-35; 338) describes 'the appearance of schism in the body social' as a criterion of a society which has broken down. Since schism, in the form of class disunion, undoubtedly occurred in Greek society long before the Peloponnesian war, it is not quite clear why he holds that this war (and not the breakdown of tribalism) marks what he describes as the breakdown of Hellenic civilization. (Cp. also note 45 (2) to chapter 4, and note 8 to the present chapter.)

Concerning the similarity between the Greeks and the Maoris, some remarks can be found in Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy2, especially pp. 2 and 9.

7. I owe this criticism of the organic theory of the state, together with many other suggestions, to J. Popper-Lynkeus; he writes (Die allgemeine Nahrpflicht, 2nd edn, 1923, pp. 71 f): 'The excellent Menenius Agrippa... persuaded the insurgent plebs to return' (to Rome) 'by telling them his simile of the body's members who rebelled against the belly... Why did not one of them say: "Right, Agrippa! If there must be a belly, then we, the plebs, want to be the belly from now on; and you... may play the role of the members!'" (For the simile, see Livy II, 32, and Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Act 1, Scene 1.) It is perhaps interesting to note that even a modem and apparently progressive movement like 'Mass-Observation' makes propaganda for the organic theory of society (on the cover of its pamphlet, First Year's Work, 1937-38). See also note 31 to chapter 5.

On the other hand, it must be admitted that the tribal 'closed society' has something like an 'organic' character, just because of the absence of social tension. The fact that such a society may be based on slavery (as it was the case with the Greeks) does not create in itself a social tension, because slaves sometimes form no more part of society than its cattle; their aspirations and problems do not necessarily create anything that is felt by the rulers as a problem within society. Population growth, however, does create such a problem. In Sparta, which did not send out colonies, it led first to the subjugation of neighbouring tribes for the sake of winning their territory, and then to a conscious effort to arrest all change by measures that included the control of population increase through the institution of infanticide, birth control, and homosexuality. All this was seen quite clearly by Plato, who always insisted (perhaps under the influence of Hippodamus) on the need for a fixed number of citizens, and who recommended in the Laws colonization and birth control, as he had earlier recommended homosexuality (explained in the same way in Aristotle's Politics, 1272a23) as means for keeping the population constant; see Laws, 740d-741a, and 838e. (For Plato's recommendation of infanticide in the Republic, and for similar problems, see especially note 34 to chapter 4; furthermore, notes 22 and 63 to chapter 10, and 39 (3) to chapter 5.)

Of course, all these practices are far from being completely explicable in rational terms; and the Dorian homosexuality, more especially, is closely connected with the practice of war, and with the attempts to recapture, in the life of the war horde, an emotional satisfaction which had been largely destroyed by the breakdown of tribalism; see especially the 'war horde composed of lovers', glorified by Plato in the Symposium, 178e. In the Laws, 636b, f, 836b/c, Plato deprecates homosexuality (cp., however, 83 8e).

8. I suppose that what I call the 'strain of civilization' is similar to the phenomenon which Freud had in mind when writing Civilization and its Discontents. Toynbee speaks of a Sense of Drift (A Study of History, V, 412 ff.), but he confines it to 'ages of disintegration', while I find my strain very clearly expressed in Heraclitus (in fact, traces can be found in Hesiod) — long before the time when, according to Toynbee, his 'Hellenic society' begins to 'disintegrate'. Meyer speaks of the disappearance of 'The status of birth, which had determined every man's place in life, his civil and social rights and duties, together with the security of earning his living' (Geschichte des Altertums, III, 542). This gives an apt description of the strain in Greek society of the fifth century B.C.

9. Another profession of this kind which led to comparative intellectual independence, was that of a wandering bard. I am thinking here mainly of Xenophanes, the progressivist; cp. the paragraph on 'Protagoreanism' in note 7 to chapter 5. (Homer also may be a case in point.) It is clear that this profession was accessible to very few men.

I happen to have no personal interest in matters of commerce, or in commercially minded people. But the influence of commercial initiative seems to me rather important. It is hardly an accident that the oldest known civilization, that of Sumer, was, as far as we know, a commercial civilization with strong democratic features; and that the arts of writing and arithmetic, and the beginnings of science, were closely connected with its commercial life. (Cp. also text to note 24 to this chapter.)

10. Thucydides, I, 93 (I mostly follow Jowett's translation). For the problem of Thucydides' bias, cp. note 15 (1) to this chapter.

11. This and the next quotation: op. cit., I, 107. Thucydides' story of the treacherous oligarchs can hardly be recognized in Meyer's apologetic version (Gesch. d. Altertums, III, 594), in spite of the fact that he has no better sources; it is simply distorted beyond recognition. (For Meyer's partiality, see note 15 (2) to the present chapter.) — For a similar treachery (in 479 B.C. on the eve of Plataea) cp. Plutarch's Aristides, 13.

12. Thucydides, III, 82-84. The following conclusion of the passage is characteristic of the element of individualism and humanitarianism present in Thucydides, a member of the Great Generation (see below, and note 27 to this chapter) and, as mentioned above, a moderate: 'When men take revenge, they are reckless; they do not consider the future, and do not hesitate to annul those common laws of humanity on which every individual must rely for his own deliverance should he ever be overtaken by calamity; they forget that in their own hour of need they will look for them in vain.' For a further discussion of Thucydides' bias see note 15 (1) to this chapter.

13. Aristotle, Politics, VIII, (V), 9, 10/11; 1310a. Aristotle does not agree with such open hostility; he thinks it wiser that 'true Oligarchs should affect to be advocates of the people's cause'; and he is anxious to give them good advice: 'They should take, or they should at least pretend to take, the opposite line, by including in their oath the pledge: I shall do no harm to the people.'

14. Thucydides, II, 9.

15. Cp. E. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, IV (1915), 368.

(1) In order to judge Thucydides' alleged impartiality, or rather, his involuntary bias, one must compare his treatment of the most important affair of Plataea which marked the outbreak of the first part of the Peloponnesian war (Meyer, following Lysias, calls this part the Archidamian war; cp. Meyer, Gesch. d. Altertums, IV, 307, and V, p. vii) with his treatment of the Melian affair, Athens' first aggressive move in the second part (the war of Alcibiades). The Archidamian war broke out with an attack on democratic Plataea — a lightning attack made without declaration of war by Thebes, a partner of totalitarian Sparta, whose friends inside Plataea, the oligarchic fifth column, had by night opened the doors of Plataea to the enemy. Though most important as the immediate cause of the war, the incident is comparatively briefly related by Thucydides (II, 1-7); he does not comment upon the moral aspect, apart from calling 'the affair of Plataea a glaring violation of the thirty years truce'; but he censures (II, 5) the democrats of Plataea for their harsh treatment of the invaders, and even expresses doubts whether they did not break an oath. This method of presentation contrasts strongly with the famous and most elaborate, though of course fictitious, Melian Dialogue (Thuc, V, 85-113) in which Thucydides tries to brand Athenian imperialism. Shocking as the Melian affair seems to have been (Alcibiades may have been responsible; cp. Plutarch, Alc, 16), the Athenians did not attack without warning, and tried to negotiate before using force.

Another case in point, bearing on Thucydides' attitude, is his eulogy (in VIII, 68) of the oligarchic party leader, the orator Antiphon (who is mentioned in Plato's Menexenus, 236a, as a teacher of Socrates; cp. end of note 19 to chapter 6).

(2) E. Meyer is one of the greatest modern authorities on this period. But to appreciate his point of view one must read the following scornful remarks on democratic governments (there are a great many passages of this kind): 'Much more important' (viz., than to arm) 'was it to continue the entertaining game of party-quarrels, and to secure unlimited freedom, as interpreted by everybody according to his particular interests.' (V, 61.) But is it more, I ask, than an 'interpretation according to his particular interests' when Meyer writes: 'The wonderful freedom of democracy, and of her leaders, have manifestly proved their inefficiency.' (V, 69.) About the Athenian democratic leaders who in 403 B.C. refused to surrender to Sparta (and whose refusal was later even justified by success — although no such justification is necessary), Meyer says: 'Some of these leaders might have been honest fanatics;... they might have been so utterly incapable of any sound judgement that they really believed' (what they said, namely:) 'that Athens must never capitulate.' (IV, 659.) Meyer censures other historians in the strongest terms for being biased. (Cp. e.g. the notes in V, 89 and 102, where he defends the older tyrant Dionysius against allegedly biased attacks, and 113 bottom to 114 top, where he is also exasperated by some anti-Dionysian 'parroting historians'.) Thus he calls Grote 'an English radical leader', and his work 'not a history, but an apology for Athens', and he proudly contrasts himself with such men: 'It will hardly be possible to deny that we have become more impartial in questions of politics, and that we have arrived thereby at a more correct and more comprehensive historical judgement. ' (All this in III, 239.)

Behind Meyer's point of view stands — Hegel. This explains everything (as will be clear, I hope, to readers of chapter 12). Meyer's Hegelianism becomes obvious in the following remark, which is an unconscious but nearly literal quotation from Hegel; it is in III, 256, when Meyer speaks of a 'flat and moralizing evaluation, which judges great political undertakings with the yardstick of civil morality' (Hegel speaks of 'the litany of private virtues'), 'ignoring the deeper, the truly moral factors of the state, and of historical responsibilities'. (This corresponds exactly to the passages from Hegel quoted in chapter 12, below; cp. note 75 to chapter 12.) I wish to use this opportunity once more to make it clear that I do not pretend to be impartial in my historical judgement. Of course I do what I can to ascertain the relevant facts. But I am aware that my evaluations (like anybody else's) must depend entirely on my point of view. This I admit, although I fully believe in my point of view, i.e. that my evaluations are right.

16. Cp. Meyer, op. cit., IV, 367.

17. Cp. Meyer, op. cit., IV, 464.

18. It must however be kept in mind that, as the reactionaries complained, slavery was in Athens on the verge of dissolution. Cp. the evidence mentioned in notes 17, 18 and 29 to chapter 4; furthermore, notes 13 to chapter 5, 48 to chapter 8, and 27-37 to the present chapter.

19. Cp. Meyer, op. cit., IV, 659.

Meyer comments upon this move of the Athenian democrats: 'Now when it was too late they made a move towards a political constitution which later helped Rome... to lay the foundations of its greatness.' In other words, instead of crediting the Athenians with a constitutional invention of the first order, he reproaches them; and the credit goes to Rome, whose conservatism is more to Meyer's taste.

The incident in Roman history to which Meyer alludes is Rome's alliance, or federation, with Gabii. But immediately before, and on the very page on which Meyer describes this federation (in V, 135) we can read also: 'All these towns, when incorporated with Rome, lost their existence... without even receiving a political organization of the type of Attica's "demes".' A little later, in V, 147, Gabii is again referred to, and Rome in her generous 'liberality' again contrasted with Athens; but at the turn of the same page Meyer reports without criticism Rome's looting and total destruction of Veil, which meant the end of Etruscan civilization.

The worst perhaps of all these Roman destructions is that of Carthage. It took place at a moment when Carthage was no longer a danger to Rome, and it robbed Rome, and us, of most valuable contributions which Carthage could have made to civilization. I only mention the great treasures of geographical information which were destroyed there. (The story of the decline of Carthage is not unlike that of the fall of Athens in 404 B.C., discussed in this chapter below; see note 48. The oligarchs of Carthage preferred the fall of their city to the victory of democracy.)

Later, under the influence of Stoicism, derived indirectly from Antisthenes, Rome began to develop a very liberal and humanitarian outlook. It reached the height of this development in those centuries of peace after Augustus (cp. for instance Toynbee, A Study of History, V, pp. 343-346), but it is here that some romantic historians see the beginning of her decline.

Regarding this decline itself, it is, of course, naive and romantic to believe, as many still do, that it was due to the degeneration caused by long-continued peace, or to demoralization, or to the superiority of the younger barbarian peoples, etc.; in brief, to over-feeding. (Cp. note 45 (3) to chapter 4.) The devastating result of violent epidemics (cp. H. Zinsser, Rats, Lice, and History, 1937, pp. 131 ff.) and the unchecked and progressive exhaustion of the soil, and with it a breakdown of the agricultural basis of the Roman economic system (cp. V. G. Simkhovitch, 'Hay and History', and 'Rome's Fall Reconsidered', in Towards the Understanding of Jesus, 1927), seem to have been some of the main causes. Cp. also W. Hegemann, Entlarvte Geschichte (1934).

20. Thucydides, VII, 28; cp. Meyer, op. cit., IV, 535. The important remark that 'this would yield more' enables us, of course, to fix an approximate upper limit for the ratio between the taxes previously imposed and the volume of trade.

21. This is an allusion to a grim little pun which I owe to R Milford: 'A Plutocracy is preferable to a Lootocracy.'

22. Plato, Republic, 423b. For the problem of keeping the size of the population constant, cp. note 7, above.

23. Cp. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, IV, 577.

24. Op. cit., V, 27. Cp. also note 9 to this chapter, and text to note 30 to chapter 4. *For the passage from the Laws, see 742a-c. Plato elaborates here the Spartan attitude. He lays down 'a law that forbids private citizens to possess any gold or silver... Our citizens should be allowed only such coins as are legal tender among ourselves, but valueless elsewhere... For the sake of an expeditionary force, or official visit abroad, such as embassies or other necessary missions... it is necessary that the state should always possess Hellenic (gold) coinage. And if a private citizen should ever be obliged to go abroad, he may do so, provided he has duly obtained permission from the magistrates. And should he have, upon his return, any foreign money left, then he must surrender it to the state, and accept its equivalent in home currency. And should anybody be found to keep it, then it must be confiscated, and he who imported it, and anybody who failed to inform against him, should be liable to curses and condemnations, and, in addition, to a fine of not less than the amount of the money involved.' Reading this passage, one wonders whether one does not wrong Plato in describing him as a reactionary who copied the laws of the totalitarian township of Sparta; for here he anticipates by more than 2000 years the principles and practices which nowadays are nearly universally accepted as sound policy by the most progressive Western European democratic governments (who, like Plato, hope that some other government will look after the 'Universal Hellenic gold currency').

A later passage (Laws, 950d) has, however, less of a liberal Western ring. 'First, no man under forty years shall obtain permission for going abroad to whatever place it may be. Secondly, nobody shall obtain such permission in a private capacity: in a public capacity, permission may be granted only to heralds, ambassadors, and to certain missions of inspection... And these men, after their return, will teach the young that the political institutions of other countries are inferior to their own.'

Similar laws are laid down for the reception of strangers. For 'intercommunication between states necessarily results in a mixing of characters... and in importing novel customs; and this must cause the greatest harm to people who enjoy... the right laws' (949e/950a).*

25. This is admitted by Meyer (op. cit, IV, 433 f), who in a very interesting passage says of the two parties: 'each of them claims that it defends "the paternal state" and that the opponent is infected with the modern spirit of selfishness and revolutionary violence. In reality, both are infected... The traditional customs and religion are more deeply rooted in the democratic party; its aristocratic enemies who fight under the flag of the restoration of the ancient times, are... entirely modernized.' Cp. also op. cit., V, 4 f., 14, and the next note.

26. From Aristotle's Athenian Constitution, ch. 34, §3, we learn that the Thirty Tyrants professed at first what appeared to Aristotle a 'moderate' programme, viz., that of the 'paternal state'. — For the nihilism and the modernity of Critias, cp. his theory of religion discussed in chapter 8 (see especially note 17 to that chapter) and note 48 to the present chapter.

27. It is most interesting to contrast Sophocles' attitude towards the new faith with that of Euripides. Sophocles complains (cp. Meyer, op. cit, IV, III): 'It is wrong that... the lowly born should flourish, while the brave and nobly born are unfortunate.' Euripides replies (with Antiphon; cp. note 13 to chapter 5) that the distinction between the nobly and the low born (especially slaves) is merely verbal: 'The name alone brings shame upon the slave.' — For the humanitarian element in Thucydides, cp. the quotation in note 12 to this chapter. For the question how far the Great Generation was connected with cosmopolitan tendencies, see the evidence marshalled in note 48 to chapter 8 — especially the hostile witnesses, i.e. the Old Oligarch, Plato, and Aristotle.

28. 'Misologists', or haters of rational argument, are compared by Socrates to 'misanthropists', or haters of men; cp. the Phaedo, 89c. In contrast, cp. Plato's misanthropic remark in the Republic, 496c-d (cp. notes 57 and 58 to chapter 8).

29. The quotations in this paragraph are from Democritus' fragments, Diels, Vorsokratiker5, fragments number 41; 179; 34;261; 62; 55;251;247 (genuineness questioned by Diels and by Tarn, cp. note 48 to chapter 8); 118.

30. Cp. text to note 16, chapter 6.

31. Cp. Thucydides, II, 37-41. Cp. also the remarks in note 16 to chapter 6.

32. Cp. T. Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, Book V, ch. 13,3 (Germ, edn, II, 407).

33. Herodotus' work with its pro-democratic tendency (cp. for example. III, 80) appeared about a year or two after Pericles' oration (cp. Meyer, Gesch. d. Altertums, IV, 369).

34. This has been pointed out for instance by T. Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, V, 13, 2 (Germ. edn, II, 406 f.); the passages in the Republic to which he draws attention are: 557d and 561c, ff. The similarity is undoubtedly intentional. Cp. also Adam's edition of the Republic, vol. II, 235, note to 557d26. See also the Laws, 699d/e, ff., and 704d-707d. For a similar observation regarding Herodotus III, 80, see note 17 to chapter 6.

35. Some hold the Menexenus to be spurious, but I believe that this shows only their tendency to idealize Plato. The Menexenus is vouched for by Aristotle, who quotes a remark from it as due to the 'Socrates of the Funeral Dialogue' (Rhetoric, I, 9, 30 = 1367b8; and III, 14, 11 = 1415b30). See especially also end of note 19 to chapter 6; also note 48 to chapter 8 and notes 15(1) and 61 to the present chapter.

36. The Old Oligarch's (or the Pseudo-Xenophon's) Constitution of Athens was published in 424 B.C. (according to Kirchhoff, quoted by Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, Germ, edn, I, 477). For its attribution to Critias, cp. J. E. Sandys, Aristotle's Constitution of Athens , Introduction IX, especially note 3. See also notes 18 and 48 to this chapter. Its influence upon Thucydides is, I think, noticeable in the passages quoted in notes 10 and 11 to this chapter. For its influence upon Plato, see especially note 59 to chapter 8, and Laws, 704a-707d. (Cp. Aristotle, Politics, 1326b-1327a; Cicero, De Republica, II, 3 and 4.)

37. I am alluding to M. M. Rader's book. No Compromise — The Conflict between Two Worlds (1939), an excellent criticism of the ideology of fascism.

With the allusion, later in this paragraph, to Socrates' warning against misanthropy and misology, cp. note 28, above.

38. *(1) For the theory that what may be called 'the invention of critical thought' consists in the foundation of a new tradition — the tradition of critically discussing the traditional myths and theories — see my 'Towards a Rational Theory of Tradition,' The Rationalist Annual , 1949; now in Conjectures and Refutations. (Only such a new tradition can explain the fact that, in the Ionian School, the three first generations produced three different philosophies.)*

(2) Schools (especially Universities) have retained certain aspects of tribalism ever since. But we must think not only of their emblems, or of the Old School Tie with all its social implications of caste, etc., but also of the patriarchal and authoritarian character of so many schools. It was not just an accident that Plato, when he had failed to re-establish tribalism, founded a school instead; nor is it an accident that schools are so often bastions of reaction, and school teachers dictators in pocket edition.

As an illustration of the tribalistic character of these early schools, I give here a list of some of the taboos of the early Pythagoreans. (The list is from Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy2, 106, who takes it from Diels; cp. Vorsokratiker5, vol. I, pp. 97 ff.; but see also Aristoxenus' evidence in op. cit, p. 101.) Burnet speaks of 'genuine taboos of a thoroughly primitive type'. — To abstain from beans. — Not to pick up what has fallen. — Not to touch a white cock. — Not to break bread. — Not to step over a crossbar. — Not to stir the fire with iron. — Not to eat from a whole loaf — Not to pluck a garland. — Not to sit on a quart measure. — Not to eat the heart. — Not to walk on highways. — Not to let the swallows share one's roof — When the pot is taken off the fire, not to leave the mark of it in the ashes, but to stir them together. — Not to look in a mirror beside a light. — After rising from the bedclothes, to roll them together and to smooth out the impress of the body.

39. An interesting parallelism to this development is the destruction of tribalism through the Persian conquests. This social revolution led, as Meyer points out (op. cit. vol. Ill, 167 ff), to the emergence of a number of prophetic, i.e. in our terminology, of historicist, religions of destiny, degeneration, and salvation, among them that of the 'chosen people', the Jews (cp. chapter 1).

Some of these religions were also characterized by the doctrine that the creation of the world is not yet concluded, but still going on. This must be compared with the early Greek conception of the world as an edifice and with the Heraclitean destruction of this conception, described in chapter 2 (see note 1 to that chapter). It may be mentioned here that even Anaximander felt uneasy about the edifice. His stress upon the boundless or indeterminate or indefinite character of the building-material may have been the expression of a feeling that the building may possess no definite framework, that it may be in flux (cp. next note).

The development of the Dionysian and the Orphic mysteries in Greece is probably dependent upon the religious development of the east (cp. Herodotus, II, 81). Pythagoreanism, as is well known, had much in common with Orphic teaching, especially regarding the theory of the soul (see also note 44 below). But Pythagoreanism had a definitely 'aristocratic' flavour, as opposed to the Orphic teaching which represented a kind of 'proletarian' version of this movement. Meyer (op. cit. III, p. 428, § 246) is probably right when he describes the beginnings of philosophy as a rational counter-current against the movement of the mysteries; cp. Heraclitus' attitude in these matters (fragm. 5, 14, 15; and 40, 129, Diels5; 124-129; and 16-17, Bywater). He hated the mysteries and Pythagoras; the Pythagorean Plato despised the mysteries. (Rep., 364e, f; cp. however Adam's Appendix IV to Book IX of the Republic, vol. II, 378 ff., of his edition.)

40. For Anaximander (cp. the preceding note), see Diels5, fragm. 9: 'The origin of things... is some indeterminate (or boundless) nature;... out of those things from which existing things are generated, into these they dissolve again, by necessity. For they do penance to one another for their offence (or injustice), according to the order of time.' That individual existence appeared to Anaximander as injustice was the interpretation of Gomperz (Greek Thinkers, Germ, edn, vol. I, p. 46; note the similarity to Plato's theory of justice); but this interpretation has been severely criticized.

41. Parmenides was the first to seek his salvation from this strain by interpreting his dream of the arrested world as a revelation of true reality, and the world of flux in which he lived as a dream. 'The real being is indivisible. It is always an integrated whole, which never breaks away from its order; it never disperses, and thus need not re-unite.' (D5, fragm. 4.) For Parmenides, cp. also note 22 to chapter 3, and text.

42. Cp. note 9 to the present chapter (and note 7 to chapter 5).

43. Cp. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, III, 443, and IV, 120 f.

44. J. Burnet, 'The Socratic Doctrine of the Soul, Proceedings of the British Academy, VIII (1915/16), 235 ff. I am the more anxious to stress this partial agreement since I cannot agree with Burnet in most of his other theories, especially those that concern Socrates' relations to Plato; his opinion in particular that Socrates is politically the more reactionary of the two (Greek Philosophy, I, 210) appears to me untenable. Cp. note 56 to this chapter.

Regarding the Socratic doctrine of the soul, I believe that Burnet is right in insisting that the saying 'care for your souls' is Socratic; for this saying expresses Socrates' moral interests. But I think it highly improbable that Socrates held any metaphysical theory of the soul. The theories of the Phaedo, the Republic, etc., seem to me undoubtedly Pythagorean. (For the Orphic-Pythagorean theory that the body is the tomb of the soul, cp. Adam, Appendix IV to Book IX of the Republic; see also note 39 to this chapter.) And in view of Socrates' clear statement in the Apology, 19c, that he had 'nothing whatever to do with such things' (i.e. with speculations on nature; see note 56 (5) to this chapter), I strongly disagree with Burnet's opinion that Socrates was a Pythagorean; and also with the opinion that he held any definite metaphysical doctrine of the 'nature' of the soul.

I believe that Socrates' saying 'care for your souls' is an expression of his moral (and intellectual) individualism. Few of his doctrines seem to be so well attested as his individualistic theory of the moral self-sufficiency of the virtuous man. (See the evidence mentioned in notes 25 to chapter 5 and 36 to chapter 6.) But this is most closely connected with the idea expressed in the sentence 'care for your souls'. In his emphasis on self- sufficiency, Socrates wished to say: They can destroy your body, but they cannot destroy your moral integrity. If the latter is your main concern, they cannot do any really serious harm to you.

It appears that Plato, when becoming acquainted with the Pythagorean metaphysical theory of the soul, felt that Socrates' moral attitude needed a metaphysical foundation, especially a theory of survival. He therefore substituted for 'they cannot destroy your moral integrity' the idea of the indestructibility of the soul. (Cp. also notes 9f. to chapter 7.)

Against my interpretation, it may be contended by both metaphysicians and positivists that there can be no such moral and non-metaphysical idea of the soul as I ascribe to Socrates, since any way of speaking of the soul must be metaphysical. I do not think that I have much hope of convincing Platonic metaphysicians; but I shall attempt to show positivists (or materialists, etc.) that they too believe in a 'soul', in a sense very similar to that which I attribute to Socrates, and that most of them value that 'soul' more highly than the body.

First of all, even positivists may admit that we can make a perfectly empirical and 'meaningful', although somewhat unprecise, distinction between 'physical' and 'psychical' maladies. In fact, this distinction is of considerable practical importance for the organization of hospitals, etc. (It is quite probable that one day it may be superseded by something more precise, but that is a different question.) Now most of us, even positivists, would, if we had to choose, prefer a mild physical malady to a mild form of insanity. Even positivists would moreover probably prefer a lengthy and in the end incurable physical illness (provided it was not too painful, etc.) to an equally lengthy period of incurable insanity, and perhaps even to a period of curable insanity. In this way, I believe, we can say without using metaphysical terms that they care for their 'souls' more than for their 'bodies'. (Cp. Phaedo, 82d: they 'care for their souls and are not servants of their bodies'; see also Apology, 29d- 30b.) And this way of speaking would be quite independent of any theory they might have concerning the 'soul'; even if they should maintain that, in the last analysis, it is only part of the body, and all insanity only a physical malady, our conclusion would still hold. (It would come to something like this: that they value their brains more highly than other parts of their bodies.)

We can now proceed to a similar consideration of an idea of the 'soul' which is closer still to the Socratic idea. Many of us are prepared to undergo considerable physical hardship for the sake of purely intellectual ends. We are, for example, ready to suffer in order to advance scientific knowledge; and also for the sake of furthering our own intellectual development, i.e. for the sake of attaining 'wisdom'. (For Socrates' intellectualism, cp. for instance the Crito, 44d/e, and 47b.) Similar things could be said of the furthering of moral ends, for instance, equalitarian justice, peace, etc. (Cp. Crito, 47e/48a, where Socrates explains that he means by 'soul' that part of us which is 'improved by justice and depraved by injustice'.) And many of us would say, with Socrates, that these things are more important to us than things like health, even though we like to be in good health. And many may even agree with Socrates that the possibility of adopting such an attitude is what makes us proud to be men, and not animals.

All this, I believe, can be said without any reference to a metaphysical theory of the 'nature of the soul'. And I see no reason why we should attribute such a theory to Socrates in the face of his clear statement that he had nothing to do with speculations of that sort.

45. In the Gorgias, which is, I believe, Socratic in parts (although the Pythagorean elements which Gomperz has noted show, I think, that it is largely Platonic; cp. note 56 to this chapter), Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates an attack on 'the ports and ship-yards and walls' of Athens, and on the tributes or taxes imposed upon her allies. These attacks, as they stand, are certainly Plato's, which may explain why they sound very much like those of the oligarchs. But I think it quite possible that Socrates may have made similar remarks, in his anxiety to stress the things which, in his opinion, mattered most. But he would, I believe, have loathed the idea that his moral criticism could be turned into treacherous oligarchic propaganda against the open society, and especially, against its representative, Athens. (For the question of Socrates' loyalty, cp. esp. note 53 to this chapter, and text.)

46. The typical figures, in Plato's works, are Callicles and Thrasymachus. Historically, the nearest realizations are perhaps Theramenes and Critias; Alcibiades also, whose character and deeds, however, are very hard to judge.

47. The following remarks are highly speculative and do not bear upon my arguments.

I consider it possible that the basis of the First Alcibiades is Plato's own conversion by Socrates, i.e. that Plato may in this dialogue have chosen the figure of Alcibiades to hide himself. There might have been a strong inducement for him to tell the story of his conversion; for Socrates, when accused of being responsible for the misdeeds of Alcibiades, Critias, and Charmides (see below), had referred, in his defence before the court, to Plato as a living example, and as a witness, of his true educational influence. It seems not unlikely that Plato with his urge to literary testimony felt that he had to tell the tale of Socrates' relations with himself, a tale which he could not tell in court (cp. Taylor, Socrates, note 1 to p. 105). By using Alcibiades' name and the special circumstances surrounding him (e.g. his ambitious political dreams which might well have been similar to those of Plato before his conversion) he would attain his apologetic purpose (cp. text to notes 49-50), showing that Socrates' moral influence in general, and in particular on Alcibiades, was very different from what his prosecutors maintained it to be. I think it not unlikely that the Charmides is also, largely, a self-portrait. (It is not without interest to note that Plato himself undertook similar conversions, but as far as we can judge, in a different way; not so much by direct personal moral appeal, but rather by an institutional teaching of Pythagorean mathematics, as a pre- requisite for the dialectical intuition of the Idea of the Good. Cp. the stories of his attempted conversion of the younger Dionysius.) For the First Alcibiades and related problems, see also Grote's Plato, I, especially pp. 351-355.

48. Cp. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums , V, 38 (and Xenophon's Hellenica, II, 4, 22). In the same volume, on pp. 19-23 and 36-44 (see especially p. 36) can be found all the evidence needed for justifying the interpretation given in the text. The Cambridge Ancient History (1927, vol. V; cp. especially pp. 369 ff.) gives a very similar interpretation of the events.

It may be added that the number of full citizens killed by the Thirty during the eight months of terror approached probably 1,500, which is, as far as we know, not much less than one- tenth (probably about 8 per cent.) of the total number of full citizens left after the war, or 1 per cent, per month — an achievement hardly surpassed even in our own day.

Taylor writes of the Thirty (Socrates, Short Biographies, 1937, p. 100, note 1): 'It is only fair to remember that these men probably "lost their heads" under the temptation presented by their situation. Critias had previously been known as a man of wide culture whose political leanings were decidedly democratic' I believe that this attempt to minimize the responsibility of the puppet government, and especially of Plato's beloved uncle, must fail. We know well enough what to think of the shortlived democratic sentiments professed in those days at suitable occasions by the young aristocrats. Besides, Critias' father (cp. Meyer, vol. IV, p. 579, and Lys., 12, 43, and 12, 66), and probably Critias himself, had belonged to the oligarchy of the Four Hundred; and Critias' extant writings show his treacherous pro- Spartan leanings as well as his oligarchic outlook (cp., for instance, Diels5, 45) and his blunt nihilism (cp. note 17 to chapter 8) and his ambition (cp. Diels5, 15; cp. also Xenophon's Memorabilia, I, 2, 24; and his Hellenica, II, 3, 36 and 47). But the decisive point is that he simply tried to give consistent effect to the programme of the 'Old Oligarch', the author of the Pseudo-Xenophontic Constitution of Athens (cp. note 36 to the present chapter): to eradicate democracy; and to make a determined attempt to do so with Spartan help, should Athens be defeated. The degree of violence used is the logical result of the situation. It does not indicate that Critias lost his head; rather, that he was very well aware of the difficulties, i.e. of the democrats' still formidable power of resistance.

Meyer, whose great sympathy for Dionysius I proves that he is at least not prejudiced against tyrants, says about Critias (op. cit., V, p. 17), after a sketch of his amazingly opportunistic political career, that 'he was just as unscrupulous as Lysander', the Spartan conqueror, and therefore the appropriate head of Lysander' s puppet government.

It seems to me that there is a striking similarity between the characters of Critias, the soldier, esthete, poet, and sceptical companion of Socrates, and of Frederick II of Prussia, called 'the Great', who also was a soldier, an aesthete, a poet, and a sceptical disciple of Voltaire, as well as one of the worst tyrants and most ruthless oppressors in modem history. (On Frederick, cp. W. Hegemann, Entlarvte Geschichte, 1934; see especially p. 90 on his attitude towards religion, reminiscent of that of Critias.)

49. This point is very well explained by Taylor, Socrates, Short Biographies, 1937, p. 103, who follows here Burnet's note to Plato's Euthyphro, 4c, 4. — The only point in which I feel inclined to deviate, but only very slightly, from Taylor's excellent treatment (op. cit., 103, 120) of Socrates' trial is in the interpretation of the tendencies of the charge, especially of the charge concerning the introduction of 'novel religious practices' (op. cit., 109 and 111 f).

50. Evidence to show this can be found in Taylor's Socrates, 113-115; cp. especially 115, note 1, where Aeschines, I, 173, is quoted: 'You put Socrates the Sophist to death because he was shown to have educated Critias.'

51. It was the policy of the Thirty to implicate as many people in their acts of terrorism as they could; cp. the excellent remarks by Taylor in Socrates, 101 f (especially note 3 to p. 101). For Chaerephon, see note 56, (5) e 6 to the present chapter.

52. As Crossman and other do; cp. Crossman, Plato To-Day, 91/92. I agree in this point with Taylor, Socrates, 116; see also his notes 1 and 2 to that page.

That the plan of the prosecution was not to make a martyr of Socrates; that the trial could have been avoided, or managed differently, had Socrates been prepared to compromise, i.e. to leave Athens, or even to promise to keep quiet, all this seems fairly clear in view of Plato's (or Socrates') allusions in the Apology as well as in the Crito. (Cp. Crito, 45e and especially 52b/c, where Socrates says that he would have been permitted to emigrate had he offered to do so at the trial.)

53. Cp. especially Crito, 53b/c, where Socrates explains that, if he were to accept the opportunity for escape, he would confirm his judges in their belief; for he who corrupts the laws is likely to corrupt the young also.

The Apology and Crito were probably written not long after Socrates' death. The Crito (possibly the earlier of the two) was perhaps written upon Socrates' request that his motives in declining to escape should be made known. Indeed, such a wish may have been the first inspiration of the Socratic dialogues. T. Gomperz (Greek Thinkers, V, 11, 1, Germ, edn, II, 358) believes the Crito to be of later date and explains its tendency by assuming that it was Plato who was anxious to stress his loyalty. 'We do not know' writes Gomperz, 'the immediate situation to which this small dialogue owes its existence; but it is hard to resist the impression that Plato is here most interested in defending himself and his group against the suspicion of harbouring revolutionary views.' Although Gomperz's suggestion would easily fit into my general interpretation of Plato's views, I feel that the Crito is much more likely to be Socrates' defence than Plato's. But I agree with Gomperz's interpretation of its tendency. Socrates had certainly the greatest interest in defending himself against a suspicion which endangered his life's work. — Regarding this interpretation of the contents of the Crito, I again agree fully with Taylor (Socrates, 124 f ). But the loyalty of the Crito and its contrast to the obvious disloyalty of the Republic which quite openly takes sides with Sparta against Athens seems to refute Burnet's and Taylor's view that the Republic is Socratic, and that Socrates was more strongly opposed to democracy than Plato. (Cp. note 56 to this chapter.)

Concerning Socrates' affirmation of his loyalty to democracy, cp. especially the following passages of the Crito: 51d/e, where the democratic character of the laws is stressed, i.e. the possibility that the citizen might change the laws without violence, by rational argument (as Socrates puts it, he may try to convince the laws); — 52b, f., where Socrates insists that he has no quarrel with the Athenian constitution; — 53c/d, where he describes not only virtue and justice but especially institutions and laws (those of Athens) as the best things among men; — 54c, where he says that he may be a victim of men, but insists that he is not a victim of the laws.

In view of all these passages (and especially of Apology, 32c; cp. note 8 to chapter 7), we must, I believe, discount the one passage which looks very different, viz. 52e, where Socrates by implication praises the constitutions of Sparta and Crete. Considering especially 52b/c, where Socrates said that he was not curious to know other states or their laws, one may be tempted to suggest that the remark on Sparta and Crete in 52e is an interpolation. made by somebody who attempted to reconcile the Crito with later writings, especially with the Republic. Whether that is so or whether the passage is a Platonic addition, it seems extremely unlikely that it is Socratic. One need only remember Socrates' anxiety not to do anything which might be interpreted as pro-Spartan, an anxiety of which we know from Xenophon's Anabasis, III, 1, 5. There we read that 'Socrates feared that he' (i.e. his friend, the young Xenophon — another of the young black sheep) 'might be blamed for being disloyal; for Cyrus was known to have assisted the Spartans in the war against Athens.' (This passage is certainly much less suspect than the Memorabilia; there is no influence of Plato here, and Xenophon actually accuses himself, by implication, of having taken his obligations to his country too lightly, and of having deserved his banishment, mentioned in op. cit, V, 3, 7, and VII, 7, 57.)

54. Apology, 30e/31 a.

55. Platonists, of course, would all agree with Taylor who says in the last sentence of his Socrates: 'Socrates had just one "successor" — Plato.' Only Grote seems sometimes to have held views similar to those stated in the text; what he says, for instance, in the passage quoted here in note 2 1 to chapter 7 (see also note 15 to chapter 8) can be interpreted as at least an expression of doubt whether Plato did not betray Socrates. Grote makes it perfectly clear that the Republic (not only the Laws) would have furnished the theoretical basis for condemning the Socrates of the Apology, and that this Socrates would never have been tolerated in Plato's best state. And he even points out that Plato's theory agrees with the practical treatment meted out to Socrates by the Thirty. (An example showing that the perversion of his master's teaching by a pupil is a thing that can succeed, even if the master is still alive, famous, and protests in public, can be found in note 58 to chapter 12.)

For the remarks on the Laws, made later in this paragraph, see especially the passages of the Laws referred to in notes 19-23 to chapter 8. Even Taylor, whose opinions on these questions are diametrically opposed to those presented here (see also the next note), admits: 'The person who first proposed to make false opinions in theology an offence against the state, was Plato himself, in the tenth Book of the Laws.' (Taylor, op. cit., 108, note 1.)

In the text, I contrast especially Plato's Apology and Crito with his Laws. The reason for this choice is that nearly everybody, even Burnet and Taylor (see the next note), would agree that the Apology and the Crito represent the Socratic doctrine, and that the Laws may be described as Platonic. It seems to me therefore very difficult to understand how Burnet and Taylor could possibly defend their opinion that Socrates' attitude towards democracy was more hostile than Plato's. (This opinion is expressed in Burnet's Greek Philosophy, I, 209 f , and in Taylor's Socrates, 150 f , and 170 f ) I have seen no attempt to defend this view of Socrates, who fought for freedom (cp. especially note 53 to this chapter) and died for it, and of Plato, who wrote the Laws.

Burnet and Taylor hold this strange view because they are committed to the opinion that the Republic is Socratic and not Platonic; and because it may be said that the Republic is slightly less anti-democratic than the Platonic Statesman and the Laws. But the differences between the Republic and the Statesman as well as the Laws are very slight indeed, especially if not only the first books of the Laws are considered but also the last; in fact, the agreement of doctrine is rather closer than one would expect in two books separated by at least one decade, and probably by three or more, and most dissimilar in temperament and style (see note 6 to chapter 4, and many other places in this book where the similarity, if not identity, between the doctrines of the Laws and the Republic is shown). There is not the slightest internal difficulty in assuming that the Republic and the Laws are both Platonic; but Burnet's and Taylor's own admission that their theory leads to the conclusion that Socrates was not only an enemy of democracy but even a greater enemy than Plato shows the difficulty if not absurdity of their view that not only the Apology and the Crito are Socratic but the Republic as well. For all these questions, see also the next note, and the Addenda, III, B(2), below.
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