Key Arguments

• Announces the law that wives and children are common and parentage unknown.
• Asserts great utility; acknowledges possibility is disputable.
• Requests to assume possibility temporarily to demonstrate benefits and administrative method.

Source Quotes

Go on; let me see. The law, I said, which is the sequel of this and of all that has preceded, is to the following effect,—'that the wives of our guardians are to be common, and their children are to be common, and no parent is to know his own child, nor any child his parent.' Yes, he said, that is a much greater wave than the other; and the possibility as well as the utility of such a law are far more questionable.

Yes, he said, that is a much greater wave than the other; and the possibility as well as the utility of such a law are far more questionable. I do not think, I said, that there can be any dispute about the very great utility of having wives and children in common; the possibility is quite another matter, and will be very much disputed. I think that a good many doubts may be raised about both.

Now I myself am beginning to lose heart, and I should like, with your permission, to pass over the question of possibility at present. Assuming therefore the possibility of the proposal, I shall now proceed to enquire how the rulers will carry out these arrangements, and I shall demonstrate that our plan, if executed, will be of the greatest benefit to the State and to the guardians. First of all, then, if you have no objection, I will endeavour with your help to consider the advantages of the measure; and hereafter the question of possibility.

Key Concepts

• the wives of our guardians are to be common, and their children are to be common, and no parent is to know his own child, nor any child his parent.
• I do not think, I said, that there can be any dispute about the very great utility of having wives and children in common; the possibility is quite another matter
• Assuming therefore the possibility of the proposal, I shall now proceed to enquire how the rulers will carry out these arrangements, and I shall demonstrate that our plan, if executed, will be of the greatest benefit to the State and to the guardians.

Context

Transition from first reform to the more radical communal family policy; sets agenda to prove utility, then possibility.

Perspectives

Plato

Treats communal family as a device to maximize unity among guardians; endorses utility-first dialectic before feasibility.

Socrates

Strategically brackets feasibility to expound benefits and administrative design, acknowledging controversy.