Politics

​But indeed, if he is to make the wives common and property private, who will manage the household, just as their husbands manage the affairs in the fields—and even if the property and the wives of the farmers are common? It is also absurd to draw the analogy from wild beasts, that women ought to pursue the same occupations as men, for whom there is no share in household management. And the way Socrates establishes the rulers is also dangerous. For he always makes the same persons rulers; and this becomes a cause of faction even among those who possess no dignity, and surely then among spirited and warlike men. And that it is necessary for him to make the same persons rulers is manifest; for the gold from the god has not been mixed into the souls of some at one time and of others at another time, but always into the same persons. And he says that [the god] mixed gold in some immediately at birth, and silver in others, and bronze and iron in those who are to be artisans and farmers. Furthermore, while depriving the guardians of happiness, he says that the legislator must make the whole city happy. But it is impossible for the whole to be happy, unless most or all or some of its parts possess happiness. For being happy does not belong to the same class of things as being even; for the latter may belong to the whole, while belonging to neither of its parts, but being happy is impossible [under such conditions]. But indeed, if the guardians are not happy, who else is? For surely not the artisans and the multitude of common laborers. Therefore, the constitution of which Socrates spoke has these difficulties and others no less than these. And the matter is almost similar concerning the *Laws* which were written later, wherefore it is also better to examine a little the constitution described there. For indeed in the *Republic* Socrates has defined only very few things: concerning the community of wives and children, how it ought to be, and concerning property, and the arrangement of the constitution (for the multitude of the inhabitants is divided into two parts: one into the farmers, and the other into the class that fights on behalf of the city; and a third class from these is the one which deliberates and is sovereign over the city), but concerning the farmers and the artisans, whether they will participate in no office or in some office, and whether these too ought to possess arms and join in the war or not, concerning these things Socrates has defined nothing, except that he thinks the women ought to join in the war and share in the same education as the guardians, while as for the rest, he has filled his discourse with external matters and with the discussion of the education, showing of what sort that of the guardians ought to be.