Political Philosophy: From Plato to Mao / Edition 2

by Martin Cohen

Overview

Guiding the reader through the key arguments of the classic figures of Western political philosophy, from Plato through to the modern era, this revised edition includes new essays on Aristotle's 'Politics', Confucianism, Islamic social philosophy and Nazism, as well as additional material on 'Roman Law', Anarchism and 'anti-capitalism'.

Cohen moves chronologically through the development of political philosophy. He presents key texts in their own terms, before offering short, precise analyses of their strengths, weaknesses and influence. The book finishes with a discussion of modern liberalism and conservatism.

Providing both a broad overview and precise summaries of key ideas, this is an invaluable guide for all students of political thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745324708
Publisher:	Pluto Press
Publication date:	11/20/2008
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Martin Cohen is Research Fellow at University College of St. Mark and St. John, Plymouth, and author of 101 Philosophy Problems (Routledge, 1999), and editor of The Philosopher and author of the bestselling 101 Philosophy Problems.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Plato's Vegetarian Republic

It has been said that all subsequent philosophy is merely a footnote to Plato, and this is certainly true of political philosophy. But much of Plato is in fact a retelling of Pythagoras, who founded a mysterious cult of vegetarian mathematicians. With this in mind, much of Plato's Republic makes more sense. The origins of society, it suggests, are in practical self-interest. But although the pursuit of wealth motivates all, it must not motivate the rulers – the Guardians. Plato sees two main threats to society, either external – requiring a military response, or internal – requiring a political response. Internal threats are minimised by ensuring the ruling class are there solely on merit, and receive no rewards other than satisfaction from performing their duty and achieving a well-ordered society.

THE CONTEXT

The origins of human society may be, as they say, obscured in the mists of antiquity, but they certainly lie outside Europe, probably with the ancient African cultures. The first theorising that left written records only seems to have been about 5,000 years ago. But these early cultures and records are by no means primitive. In China, the great sages Confucius and Lao Tzu were teaching the virtues of the well-ordered, harmonious society, whilst in the south-west coastal strip of what is now modern Turkey, the trading ports that would later grow into the city states of Asia Minor were founded, and with them an unparalleled period of innovation in art, literature, architecture, politics – and philosophy.

It was here, in the fifth century bce, that Democritus described the shadows cast by the mountains on the moon, and realised that the pool of celestial light in the night sky – the Milky Way – was in fact made up of thousands upon thousands of stars. And it was here too that Democritus observed that 'one should think it of greater moment than anything else that the affairs of state are conducted well', neither being 'contentious beyond what is proper' nor 'allotting strength to oneself beyond the common good'. For a state which is conducted well is the best means to success: 'everything depends on this, and if this is preserved, everything is preserved and if this is destroyed everything is destroyed'.

It was whilst Democritus was devising a theory of atoms in Mesopotamia that Socrates, in Athens, was holding the philosophical discussions that, through the Republic, and many other writings of Plato, have come not merely to influence but to determine much of western culture, education and society. Socrates' position in European thought, it has been said, is like that of a religious leader, who, although he himself wrote nothing, has had the kind of influence normally reserved only for messiahs, spread through the accounts of his followers, of whom Plato is only the most immediate and direct. And the style of Plato's political philosophy is also religious in tone, set out in the form of dialogues in the Republic. Socrates is portrayed there as the wise one, extolling the need to come to know the 'Good', or to be precise 'the Form of the Good'. This some see as indistinguishable from 'God', and it certainly has many similarities.

Plato was born about 40 years after Socrates, and knew him only in his last years. He grew up during the Peloponnesian wars, which ended in 401 bce with the defeat of Athens and was followed by a putsch by a small group of aristocrats. After only eight months, this degenerated into a tyranny, counting in due course among its victims Socrates himself, on charges of 'impiety' and 'corrupting the young'.

Plato writes as a member of a highly distinguished family, and had both the means and the inclination to be a member of the governing elite. That he never did govern, in fact, having to content himself with setting out his blueprint for society in the Republic, was due, he felt, to his inability to find others with whom to share the burden of government. Like the British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, who is reported to have once said that she needed just six men, good and true, to govern the United Kingdom, but could never find them all at the same time, Plato found human capital to be the critical factor lacking, and decided instead that education was the key to society. Rulers, in particular, would need special training, if there were ever to be enough of them.

On the other hand, in addition to Socrates himself, there were many others around to influence Plato in the design of his 'republic'. As well as Democritus, there was Parmenides, advising that 'truth must be eternal and unchanging', and Heraclitus, who had conversely concluded (it is said after standing in the river) that 'all is flux' – the two views being reconciled and reflected in a tradition in which the earthly, visible world was seen as being illusory and impermanent, whilst the world of the intellect and truth was eternal and timeless. For Plato, it followed that the ideal state would be designed not to continually adapt and evolve, but rather to have a fixed and unalterable structure controlling and directing changes.

But it is Pythagoras who evidently cast the longest shadow over Plato's dialogues. For example, at a time when such thoughts were rare, Pythagoras insisted that men and women were equal, that property should be held in common, and that his followers should live and eat communally. All of this reappears in the Republic as Plato's recommended lifestyle for the Guardians, alongside the Pythagorean doctrines of the heavenly forms and the split between the world of knowledge and the world of matter (of which last, philosophers must remain aloof).

In addition:

• In the Meno, Pythagoras' view of how learning is really recollection appears, as the 'slave boy' recalls the geometrical theorem that bears Pythagoras' name.

• In the Gorgias, there is the Pythagorean doctrine that the better one knows something, the more one becomes like it.

• The Timaeus is a Pythagorean description of the universe in terms of (musical) harmonies and matter, which is revealed mystically here as being made up of geometrical shapes, notably triangles.

• In the Phaedo is the Pythagorean view that philosophy is a preparation for death and immortality.

But perhaps the most distinctive thing that Plato takes from Pythagoras is the need for his Guardians to have strict rules and to live by them. And for Pythagoras' followers, the first rule was silence. 'He, Pythagoras, says it' was the only thing they needed to know in their search for wisdom. Similarly, the citizens of Plato's ideal state are not required to participate in decisions.

The Republic then is a serious bid to sketch out the ideal society, an effort which partly reflects Plato's frustration at being unable to play a significant political role in his own society. Its main recommendation, coming from a philosopher, is that philosophers should be in charge of governments. The rule of philosophers had already been tried in other city states, and it was common practice to employ a sage to draw up laws. Plato would certainly have agreed with Marx, in believing that the point is not only to understand the world – but to change it.

His writings are in the form of conversations, or dialogues, between historical characters, the most important of whom is Socrates. The title is misleading – the Republic is really about any form of political organisation that a community the size of a Greek city could take. Similarly, Plato's preoccupation with 'justice' – dikaiosyne in the Greek – is not so much with the administration of the law, with seeing that criminals get their just deserts, but with the right way to behave. It is justice in a moral, not a legal sense, and is closely linked to the idea of wisdom. Justice is to Plato the 'correct ordering' of the organism.

THE TEXT

Plato starts by making the equation, strange to modern eyes, of justice in the workings of the state with justice observed in the behaviour of the human individual. Indeed, Plato believes that because it is easier to see justice at work in the larger organism, we should look at the ordering of society in order to find the answer to the question of how to live ourselves.

We think of justice as a quality that may exist in a whole community as well as in an individual, and the community is the bigger of the two. Possibly, then, we may find justice there in larger proportions, easier to make out.

In this way, Plato's politics is based on the philosophical and ethical question, 'What should I do?' His concern at the deterioration of morals in Greek society is the wellspring of the Republic, and strengthens his conviction that there can be no escape from injustice and the many ills of society until it is guided by those who have come to a knowledge of the 'Good'.

Plato, like Marx, is actually a materialist in this, saying that a state comes into existence because no individual is self-sufficient. We all have many needs – for food and shelter, for heat and tools, for roads and paths, and for protection from attack. We call on one another's help to satisfy our various requests and when we have collected a number of others together to live in one place, helping and supporting each other, we call that settlement a state, he says. It is here that we find the origin of society, in the free exchange of goods and services between people. But this coming together of people is not a social contract, nor even an enlightened act. For 'one man gives a share of his produce to another, if he does, or accepts a share of the other's produce, thinking it is better for himself to do so'. Economic need and self-interest comes first; this is the defining feature of Plato's society.

Let us build our imaginary state from the beginning. Apparently, it will owe its existence to our needs, the first and greatest need being the provision of food to keep us alive. Next we shall want a house; and thirdly, such things as clothing.

How can the state supply this? Plato suggests, through the division of labour. 'We shall need at least one man to be a farmer, another a builder, and a third a weaver.' In fact, as Socrates and his audience then apparently realise, at least two more will be useful: namely a shoemaker and someone to provide for 'personal' wants, the like of which are not specified. This 'minimum state' works best when each member of it is making only the things for which he or she is best suited (Plato is very egalitarian, giving women the same employment opportunities as men, because, after all, the only important part of human beings, the soul, is neither male nor female). And that means specialisation. 'The work goes easier and is better done when everyone is set free from all other occupations to do, at the right time, the one thing for which they are naturally fitted.'

As Socrates goes on to say (at least according to Plato's dialogues), a bigger organisation, encompassing carpenters and blacksmiths, shepherds and weavers, builders and masons, is in fact more efficient and successful still. Indeed, Socrates even suggests a middle class of sorts, composed of shopkeepers and bankers, managing and selling goods. After all, as his companion puts it, perhaps rather unkindly: 'In well-ordered communities there are generally men not strong enough to be of use in any other occupation.' These middle classes stay in the marketplace, whilst the farmers are out farming and the craftsmen crafting, to take money from those who wish to buy, and to purchase goods from those who wish to sell.

Both Plato and his pupil Aristotle, who would later categorise the natural world, rather obsessively, into the various species and genera that we still use today, saw social life as a means to enable individuals with particular skills to achieve their proper 'function': the businessman to produce wealth, the doctor, health and the soldier, victory. The ruler's art of 'politics' is in turn fulfilled when the state is in balance and human happiness and the 'Good' are maximised. When, on the other hand, a ruler believes the nation should concentrate on generating wealth to the detriment of this, or tries to pursue power and military adventure, then the political art is perverted.

It has to be remembered here, as elsewhere, that in the Republic there is always that slight, but vital, distinction to be drawn between the views of its main character, Socrates, and its author, Plato. For the historical Socrates, the only sort of happiness that counts is that which comes through wisdom – specifically, the realisation that the only thing worthwhile is knowledge of the 'Good'. It could quite easily be suffering that brings about this discovery and illumination. However, for Plato himself, the 'Good' is a slightly broader notion, rooted in the social and political context, although still not solely the materialist concept it is often taken for today.

Let us begin, then, with a picture of our citizens' manner of life, with the provision that we have made for them. They will be producing corn and wine, and making clothes and shoes. When they have built their houses, they will mostly work without their coats or shoes in summer, and in winter be well shod and clothed. For their food, they will prepare flour and barley-meal for kneading and baking, and set out a grand spread of loaves and cakes on rushes or fresh leaves. They will lie on beds of myrtle-boughs and bryony and make merry with their children, drinking their wine after the feast with garlands on their heads and singing the praises of the gods. So they will live pleasantly together and a prudent fear of poverty or war will keep them from begetting children beyond their means.

If we recognise the material impulse, Plato argues that we must also recognise that, 'in time, the desire for a life of idle luxury will inevitably lead to conflict', and the land which was once large enough to support the original inhabitants will now be too small.

If we are to have enough pasture and plough land, we shall have to cut off a slice of our neighbour's territory; and if they too are not content with necessities, but give themselves up to getting unlimited wealth, they will want a slice of ours.

This will mean a considerable addition to the community – a whole army – 'to go out to battle with any invader, in defence of all this property and of the citizens we have been describing'. For as Plato records in another dialogue, the Phaedo, 'All wars are made for the sake of getting money.'

By now the state has become unable to manage itself. Who will run the new society? Who will be in charge? A small group of philosophers known as the 'Guardians' are Plato's (self-serving) choice. The Guardians are appointed primarily to protect the state, and are specialists in the arts of war, but are also skilled in the arts of ruling, and in management. They must be 'gentle to their own people yet dangerous to others', like a well-trained guard dog. Dogs, says Plato, extending the metaphor (presumably humorously), are philosophical creatures. They distinguish friend from enemy by the simple test of deciding whether they know the person or not. The dog, like the philosopher, likes only that which he knows.

In Plato's republic, the bringing up of the 'guard dogs' is the key to sound government. The young are selected for aptitude, and brought up in a tightly controlled environment by older Guardians. It is a community of Spartan simplicity, free of the distractions of family ties and bonds. Goods are held in common, unlike the situation for the lowly industrious classes of the republic, who are allowed to accumulate private property. But the Guardians will step in to prevent extremes of either great wealth or great poverty from occurring, as such extremes set rich against poor, disturbing the equilibrium of society. For unity is all important, and the Guardians must further protect it by ensuring that the state does not grow too large, and by preserving the principle of promotion only on merit – there must be no hereditary governing class. Generally the balance of the state is akin to the balance needed in the individual.

When a man surrenders himself to music, allowing his soul to be flooded through the channels of his ears with those sweet and soft and mournful airs we spoke of, and gives up all his time to the delights of song and melody, then at first he tempers the high-spirited part of his nature, like iron whose brittleness is softened to make it serviceable; but if he persists in subduing to such an incantation, he will end by melting away altogether.

He will have 'cut the sinews of his soul'. Likewise, if there is no attempt to cultivate the mind, but an overemphasis on training the body, it leads to a soul that is blind and deaf, because 'the darkness that clouds perception is never cleared away' and the man becomes a dull beast 'in a stupor of ignorance without harmony or grace'. Balance, says Socrates, mirroring the conclusions of the Eastern philosophers and mystics, is the key for the individual, and equally, for the state.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Political Philosophy"
by .
Copyright © 2008 Martin Cohen.
Excerpted by permission of Pluto Press.
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Table of Contents

Note to the Second Edition
Introduction
Context: The Story of Human Society
1: Plato’s Vegetarian Republic
Key Text: Republic
2. Confucius’s Polite Society
Key Text: Analects
3: Aristotle and the Hierarchy of Nature
Key Text: Politics
4: Mohammed’s Message of Doom
Key Text: Koran
5: Machiavelli’s Psychopathic State
Key text: Discourses
6: Hobbes’ Wicked World
Key Text: Leviathan
7: Locke’s Feudal Freedom
Key Text: Essay Concerning the True, Original Extent and End of Civil Government
8: Rousseau’s Ode to Liberty
Key Text: Discourse on Inequality
9: The Founding Fathers’ Constitutional Recipe
Key Texts: The U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence
10: Mr Smith’s Excellent Inquiry into Money
Key Text: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
11: Marx’s Messianic Materialism
Key Text: The Communist Manifesto
12. Mill’s Optimistic Liberalism
Key text: The Principles of Political Economy]
13: Durkheim’s Strange Science
Key text: Social Rituals and Sacred Objects
14: The Philosophical Dance with Fascism
Key Text: The Doctrines and Institutions of Fascism, by Benito Mussolini
15. Hitler’s Doctrine of Hate
Key text: Mein Kampf
16: Mao’s Little Red Book
Key text: The Red Book
Epilogue: Karl Popper and the search for the End of History
References and Sources for Further Reading
Index

Editorial Reviews

...a broad sweep covered with surprising agility and clarity... The central advantages are undoubtably its lucidity, range and unorthodox approach.

Times Higher Education Supplement

...something of a stylistic achievement: clear, relaxed, jargon-free and often attractively witty.
— The Philospher

Zenon Stavrinides