Problem description:

Who are they?

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Analysis:

Plato

427 BC ~ 347 BC

Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher, represents the starting point of western political philosophy and many of our moral and metaphysical thoughts. His thoughts on these topics have been read and studied for more than 2300 years. Therefore, Plato is one of the great founders of western thought.

In 427 BC, Plato was born into an aristocratic family in Athens. When he was young, he met the famous philosopher Socrates, who became his mentor. In 399 BC, Socrates, at the age of 20, was vaguely accused of not believing in God and corrupting Athenian youth, and was sentenced to death. Plato called Socrates "the smartest, most decent and best person I know". Socrates' death made Plato hate democracy.

Shortly after Socrates' death, Plato left Athens and wandered from 10 to 12. In about 387 BC, he returned to Athens, where he founded a school, Plato Academy, which has a history of more than 900 years. Plato spent most of the remaining 40 years in Athens, teaching philosophical theories and compiling philosophical works. His most famous disciple is Aristotle. When Aristotle 17 came to the Academy, Plato was already 60 years old. Plato died in 347 BC at the age of 80.

Plato wrote 36 books, most of which were about political and moral issues, theology and metaphysics. Obviously, these works can't be summarized in a few simple words, but I will risk oversimplifying Plato's thoughts to summarize the main political thoughts expressed in Plato's most famous book "The Republic". This book represents his ideal social outlook.

Plato pointed out that the best regime is the aristocratic regime. His formulation does not refer to the hereditary aristocratic regime, nor does it refer to the monarchy, but to the aristocratic regime that selects talents and appoints people-that is, it is ruled by the best and smartest people in the country. These people are not elected by referendum, but by selection and appointment (members of the Election Committee, new members who need to be voted by former members). Members who have become the ruling class, that is, the guardianship class, should recruit new people to join them completely according to their merits.

Plato believes that all people, both men and women, should be given the opportunity to display their talents and see if they are qualified to be members of the guardianship class (Plato was the first great philosopher to point out the basic equality between men and women, and in fact was the only one for a long time). In order to ensure equal opportunities, Plato advocated that all children should be raised and educated by the state. Children receive complete physical training first, but subjects such as music and mathematics can't be ignored. Extensive examinations should be conducted in several stages, so that people with poor grades can engage in economic work in society and those with good grades can continue their studies. Education during further study should include not only the usual subjects, but also the study of "philosophy". Plato's "philosophy" here refers to his ideal form of metaphysics.

By the age of 35, those who can convincingly prove that they have mastered the theoretical principles will have to continue studying 15 years before they can master the practical work experience. Only those who can apply book knowledge to the real world can be absorbed into the monitoring class. Only those who make it clear that they put people's happiness first can become guardians.

Being a member of the guardianship class is not attractive to everyone. A guardian can't have money. They are only allowed to own very little personal property, but they have no land and private houses. Their wages are fixed, but rarely, and they are not allowed to own gold or silver. Guardianship members are not allowed to have their own families, eat together, and have ordinary friends. The return of these philosophers and kings should not be material wealth, but the successful realization of public utilities. In short, this is Plato's ideal country.

For many centuries, The Republic has a wide audience, but it is worth noting that the political system advocated in the book has not been used as a model for the political system of any country in practice. From Plato's time to most of our time, most European countries practiced hereditary monarchy. In recent centuries, several countries have implemented democracy; There are also examples of military rule and demagogic tyrant rule, such as Hitler and Mussolini. None of these regimes is like Plato's utopia. Plato's theory has never been adopted by any political party, nor has it ever formed the basis of political movement like Karl Marx's theory. So, should we draw the conclusion that Plato's works are highly praised, but they are completely ignored in practice? I don't think so.

In fact, no country in Europe directly copied Plato's model, but the duties of the archbishop of medieval Europe were obviously similar to Plato's guardianship. The church in the Middle Ages was composed of a heroic group that constantly strives for self-improvement, and its members were trained by an orthodox philosophy. In principle, all men, regardless of their family background, are eligible to become priests (although women are not included). Pastors have no family in principle. Their purpose is to make them care about their own people, not to pursue fame and gain by themselves.

The role of the Soviet Union is also very similar to that of the guardian class in Plato's Republic. Here, we can see that the members of the self-improvement hero group have all received the training of orthodox philosophy.

Plato's thoughts also influenced the American system. Many representatives of the American Constitutional Convention are familiar with Plato's political thoughts. Of course, the purpose is to make the American Constitution a means to discover the people's will and make it work, and also to choose the wisest and best people to govern the country.

It is difficult to evaluate the importance of Plato, because his influence on generations is extensive and profound, but it is subtle and indirect. In addition to his political theory, his exposition of morality and metaphysics also influenced many later philosophers. If Plato ranks far below Aristotle in this volume, the main reason is that Aristotle is not only a philosopher, but also an important scientist. But Plato ranks higher than John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, Voltaire and other thinkers, because their philosophical works have only influenced the world for two or three centuries, while Plato's influence lasted for twenty-three centuries.

Thomas Moore was an important humanist in the Western Renaissance and a great founder of utopian socialism theory. His masterpiece Utopia is the first masterpiece of this theory. In this book, Moore combined with the reality of British society at that time, through a detailed description of a fictional "Utopia" island country, truly exposed the painful life of the broad masses of working people in primitive accumulation of capital, profoundly criticized the bloody evils of the bourgeoisie and feudal rulers, and expressed his outstanding views on the political and economic system of an ideal society. The significance of Moore's utopian socialism theory lies in that in the early stage of capitalist mode of production, it deeply saw many contradictions and disadvantages, and foresaw that the evil private ownership society would be replaced by the public ownership society without exploitation and oppression, thus playing an important role in the development of utopian socialism theory and the emergence of scientific socialism theory.

In the Republic, Moore not only conceived the political and economic system of an ideal society, but also put forward the ethical and moral thoughts that were suitable for this system. Although Moore's ethical thought here still contains obvious utopian elements and a lot of descriptions of religion and asceticism, it also contains many reasonable thoughts and genius predictions. These thoughts and predictions represent not the ideological system of bourgeois humanism, but the moral requirements of the early proletariat for the future society. Therefore, in today's socialist construction, it is of great significance for us to review Moore's exposition of future social ethics in The Republic.

Moore's ideal description of the future society is based on his profound criticism of the real society. In primitive accumulation of capital, England, Moore used a lot of space to expose the deep suffering brought by the enclosure movement to the working people. He pointed out angrily, "Your sheep used to be very docile, so it's enough to eat a little. Now they are said to be greedy and fierce, and even want to eat people and ravage your fields, homes and cities. " "Sheep eat people" is Moore's image description of the situation in Britain at that time. Moore showed deep sympathy for the poor working people. He wrote indignantly that those who farm, pull carts, do odd jobs, drive trucks and work hard at the bottom of society all day have worse lives than cattle and horses. It's hard to live on a small salary. When heavy labor exhausted their energy, they were old, sick and poor, and the country was ungrateful to them and let them die tragically. But those nobles who live above the society are idle like bees, living a life of exploiting the poor and spending money like water. In Moore's view, this society in which very few people enjoy themselves and most people suffer is unjust, and it completely violates human morality. He pointed out that everyone has the right to live a happy life, and all or the greatest happiness of mankind is happiness. Moore obviously regards the pursuit of happiness as the moral code of society. He said: "All our behaviors, even moral behaviors, ultimately take happiness as the goal and happiness." (Utopia, Commercial Press, 1982, p. 75) Moore's above statement clearly expresses the desire of poor working people to live a better and happier life.

It is worth noting that when Moore regards happiness as a universal moral criterion, he does not think that every kind of happiness constitutes happiness. He classified happiness and distinguished true happiness from false happiness. He believes that false happiness can not bring happiness to people, is immoral and should be abandoned. Only true happiness can constitute human happiness and be worth pursuing.

What is true happiness and what is false happiness? Moore gave a detailed description and regulations, from which we can clearly see Moore's ruthless lashing of the evil reality at that time and his yearning for the ideal social and moral life.

Moore believes that false happiness is happiness obtained by sacrificing the selfish behavior of others, or happiness obtained from vulgar desires and pleasures. Moore is firmly opposed to the behavior of harming others and benefiting themselves. He believes that all people in society are equal, and it is unfair to let others lose happiness in order to get happiness for themselves. Moore also listed various manifestations of vulgar false happiness: some people blindly pursue gorgeous clothes in order to satisfy their vanity, as if noble appearance could make them noble; Some people always regard the praise of others as happiness by virtue of their noble blood and wealth. Even though they have squandered their ancestral property, they still frantically demand people's respect. Some people are addicted to stupid games such as dice gambling, but they can't see that these are all caused by their unhealthy emotions and abnormal habits. What Moore described here was the behavior of the British nobility at that time.

Moore believes that, contrary to false happiness, true happiness is a kind of noble happiness, which is promoted by the universal spirit of human love and mutual assistance. When people pursue their own happiness, they should not only hinder the happiness of others, but also help others to get happiness. "Rational advice urges us to live a carefree and happy life as much as possible; Starting from the reason of loving my compatriots, help all others achieve the above goals ... It is commendable that we care about the well-being of others. " (Utopia, pp. 73-74) Moore divides real happiness into two kinds, one is material and the other is spiritual. Physical happiness includes all kinds of happiness that can cause physiological * * *, such as eating and drinking, scratching and sexual intercourse between husband and wife, as well as physical health and harmony. Moore believes that good health is the most important physical happiness and the foundation of all other physical happiness. Without health, there is no safe and comfortable life. If a person doesn't feel pain when he loses his health, he is insensitive. Moore further believes that when we pursue various sensory pleasures, we should first regard them as beneficial to health, so as to promote health. It is crazy and sad if we indulge in sensual pleasures and damage our health. Therefore, in the pursuit of sensory pleasure, we must abide by the principle that "small happiness will not hinder great happiness, and happiness will not cause painful consequences". (Utopia, 8 1 page)

However, compared with spiritual happiness, physical happiness is secondary. Moore believes that spiritual happiness is "the first and most important of all happiness" (Utopia, page 80). Spiritual happiness mainly comes from two aspects, one is from the thinking activities of developing rationality and exploring truth, and the other is from moral practice and self-awareness of noble life. In addition, when people recall the good life in the past and fantasize about the happy scenes in the future, they will also get happy spiritual enjoyment.

Through the comparative description of true and false happiness, Moore sharply exposed the despicable behavior of pursuing fame and fortune in real society, especially the irony and criticism of money worshippers, aiming at the insatiable rich. Moore wrote: In a society dominated by money, some people regard getting money as the greatest happiness, and they have completely become vassals of money. When they get valuable treasure, they will get carried away and pretend to be immortals. When they meet rich people, they bow and scrape. The worship of money distorts life: the value of a person is not whether he is talented or not, but whether he is rich or not. Whoever has money has everything, even if he is a complete fool, as long as he has money, he can turn a large number of people into slaves. But in Utopia, it's different. Utopians treat and use gold and silver according to their practical uses. They are no more valuable than iron and pottery. Thus, in Utopia, gold and silver were used to make urinals and other utensils, and prisoners also wore gold earrings, rings and collars to show their shame. Pearls and gems are extremely precious to foreigners, but they are just playthings in the hands of children in the eyes of Utopians. Therefore, when rich people from other countries come to Utopia wearing gorgeous clothes and jewels, they are immediately laughed at by Utopians and regarded as fools and clowns.

In a word, Moore believes that if human beings want to live a happy life, they should pursue happiness, not just any kind of happiness, but real happiness and abandon false happiness. Why can human beings live a happy life only by treating happiness in this way? Moore thinks this is the requirement of nature. He pointed out that it is nature that calls on us to help each other achieve happiness, and it is nature that requires us not to use improper means in the pursuit of happiness and not to cause great pain because of small happiness. Pursuing justice and noble happiness is completely in line with human nature, because living according to the requirements of nature can bring happiness. Therefore, Moore said that a life in line with nature is the best. Moore also unified the requirements of nature with human reason. He believes that obeying nature means obeying reason, and it is a rational principle not to lose happiness for small happiness and not to cause pain for small happiness. People who pursue false happiness are completely irrational. Moore finally turned to God for help to ensure the legitimacy of people's enjoyment of happiness. He said that God created people to live a happy life, and it was God's will to pursue true happiness. Moore also said through the mouth of Utopians that the so-called God is nature itself. In this way, in Moore's view, the requirements of God, nature and reason are completely consistent in moral behavior and norms.

The theoretical source of Moore's above viewpoints can be understood from his humanistic background. Most humanists in the Renaissance often look for theoretical weapons from ancient thoughts to serve reality, and Moore is no exception. In ancient Greek thought, Epicurus put forward the ethics of happiness. He regards happiness as the supreme good, and thinks that these happiness include not only physical happiness, but also happiness obtained from scientific research and seeking truth. He thinks that good health is his greatest happiness. Stoicism has long advocated living in obedience to nature, believing that obedience to nature is good. Stoicism also regards being born by nature and being born by reason as the same. Obviously, these ancient ideas are an important reference for Moore to form his ethics. However, Moore never completely copied the views of the ancients, but gave new content, that is, his attack on social reality and his interpretation of ideal social moral life.

It is worth noting that Moore put forward very profound ideas on how to realize the ideal life. He believes that the realization of ideal morality must depend on the reform of social system, especially economic system. He clearly pointed out that the evil and injustice in the real society are completely caused by private ownership, because as long as private ownership exists, people will wholeheartedly seek their own interests, money will become the yardstick to measure everything, and the final result will inevitably be oppression and inequality. Therefore, if we want to realize the moral ideal of human beings and everyone can live a happy life, we must establish a public ownership society in which all property belongs to the whole people. He wrote: "Where private ownership exists, everyone measures everything by cash value, so it is difficult for a country to have justice and prosperity ... I am convinced that if private ownership is not completely abolished, products cannot be distributed fairly and human beings cannot be happy. When private ownership exists, the vast majority and the best part of mankind will always bear the heavy and inevitable burden of poverty and disaster. " (Page 43-44 of Utopia) In Moore's works, Utopia is a public-owned society, and all property belongs to the whole people and everyone is equal. At the same time, because commodities are very rich, people can get what they need, and there is no need to turn them into private property, so there is no greed, oppression and any inequality in Utopia. Due to the implementation of public ownership, a broad democratic system is also possible. In utopia, officials are elected by the people. They are diligent and love the people, self-denial and dedication to public service, and are supervised and restricted by an effective system, so that they cannot abuse power for personal gain.

Among all Moore's utopian theories, his idea of establishing a public-owned society is the most valuable part, which has had a very far-reaching impact on the later utopian socialist theory. We can get a general understanding of this point from Etienne Kabe, a famous French utopian socialist in the19th century. Kebe thinks that although many details of wisdom in Utopia are flawed or outdated, his basic viewpoints, especially the viewpoint of establishing property system, are thought-provoking. He said: "The basic idea of this book deeply touched me, so that whenever I close the book, I always seriously think about the property system of * * * …" This book "is the first book describing how the property system of * * * is applied to a whole country, and it is a huge country. Relying on independent rational thinking, it made great progress in ethics, philosophy and politics. In my opinion, some basic principles of Utopia are the greatest contribution of human wisdom. " (The Travels of Igalia, Volumes 2 and 3, Commercial Press, 1978, pp. 367 and 253) Indeed, as far as its profundity is concerned, until the French bourgeois revolution of18th century, no utopian socialist works could surpass it.

Of course, Moore's ethical thought in The Republic also has many defects. For example, he regards happiness as the core concept of morality, which in itself is a sign of immature theory. There are many praises of religious asceticism in his description, which is related to Moore's being a devout Christian, but obviously contradicts the hedonistic ethics advocated in the book. Moore's description of public ownership is also one-sided, and the egalitarianism he advocated is based on manual labor with very low productivity, which is actually not feasible. More importantly, Moore did not point out the realistic way to realize moral ideal, which was caused by the limitations of his historical era. Therefore, although Moore painted a beautiful picture of an ideal society, it is still just a daydream.