The Republic · ¶4860

Community. [The communism of the Republic seems to have been suggested by Plato’s desire for the unity of the state (cp. 5. 462 foll.). If those ‘two small pestilent words, “meum” and “tuum,” which have engendered so much strife among men and created so much mischief in the world,’ could be banished from the lips and thoughts of mankind, the ideal state would soon be realized. The citizens would have parents, wives, children, and property in common; they would rejoice in each other’s prosperity, and sorrow at each other’s misfortune; they would call their rulers not ‘lords’ and ‘masters,’ but ‘friends’ and ‘saviours.’ Plato is aware that such a conception could hardly be carried out in this world; and he evades or adjourns, rather than solves, the difficulty by the famous assertion that only when the philosopher rules in the city will the ills of human life find an end [cp.…

Plato · translated by Benjamin Jowett · composite transcription based on the 1888 third edition
Benjamin Jowett, revised third edition (1888), with Stephanus numbering from the 1908 edition; composite transcription, Project Gutenberg #55201
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.