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Communism of Property and Wives

Plato advocated for two forms of communism in The Republic - communism of property and communism of wives. For the guardians, he proposed they live in barracks and eat at a common table without private property to remove economic desires. He also proposed abolishing permanent monogamous relationships and instituting state-controlled breeding to produce the best offspring. However, Plato's communism had limitations and was unlikely to work in practice due to issues like neglect of common children and disorder from an undefined marriage system.

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UDAY MAHESHWARI
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749 views7 pages

Communism of Property and Wives

Plato advocated for two forms of communism in The Republic - communism of property and communism of wives. For the guardians, he proposed they live in barracks and eat at a common table without private property to remove economic desires. He also proposed abolishing permanent monogamous relationships and instituting state-controlled breeding to produce the best offspring. However, Plato's communism had limitations and was unlikely to work in practice due to issues like neglect of common children and disorder from an undefined marriage system.

Uploaded by

UDAY MAHESHWARI
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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communism of property and wives

• communism of property is a logical corollary conception of justice.


• Justice is a habit of man’s mind and true justice can be realised only
when the mind acquires its true habit. This habit is affected by
material conditions for better or worse. Under communism of
property, spirit could thrive in better way.
• This was not something altogether new, communism was practiced in
some city states like Sparta
• Justice was the very objective of the ideal state. Two reasons for justification
of communism
• Justice would be ushered in if the guardians do away with property, for
property represents the elements of appetite, and to do away with property
demands the communism of families.
• Another justification is practical one. The universal experience has shown that
it is fatal for the unity and order to put these two powers in single hand. He
even traces the degeneration of ideal state to the union of these two powers
• Those who exercise political power should have no economic motives, and
those who are engaged in economic activities should have no share in political
power
• Plato's communism takes two forms The first is the prohibition of
private property, whether houses as land or money, to the guardians
and the provision that they shall live in barracks and have their meals
at a common table
• The second is the abolition of a permanent monogamous sexual
relation and the substitution of regulated breeding at the behest of
the rulers for the purpose of securing the best possible offspring
• Plato’s communism is different from Marx’s communism. Former is
economic solution to political problem and later is political solution to
economic problem.
• Platonic communism is ascetic as well as aristocratic.
• For the overall welfare of state the guardian class has to give up
economic desires (sources of happiness as the world understands
them)
• Aristocratic in the sense that it is applicable only upon the best in the
society. It exists for the sake of whole society but not for the whole
society. The producers are to have property rights.
• It is political communism not economic communism as advocated by
Marx
• It is half communism.
• Plato advocates communism of wives or family. Family postulates
property for its maintenance. As a result it puts one under the
influence of desire for property (fathers anxiety for future of children)
• Plato like other Greeks considered marriage not as consortium vitae,
but as a means for production of children.
• The confinement of the houses deprives them to perform their
function to the best of their virtues. Also it devoid the state of the
services of half of the citizens
• Limitations
• It is doubtful if communism of families would bring greater degree of
unity by making the guardian a single family
• Communism of wives and families was bound to create confusion if
not disorder
• Common children would tend to be neglected, for everybody's child
would be nobody's baby.
• It is aIso doubtful if the state-controlled mating would ever be
workable
• The whole scheme of communism is too rigid, too strict, and too
stringent.
• Plato's communism of families suggests a system of marriage which is
neither monogamy, nor bigamy, nor polygamy, nor polyandry.
• Plato's theory of communism is too idealistic, too utopian, too
imaginary, and accordingly, far away from the realities of life

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