Tate Plato's Political Philosophy

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THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 241

There is a time-chart of Old Comedy, and indexes of playwrights, plays


(Greek and English titles) and a general index.
Much devoted labour and lively original thought has gone into this book;
although, however, it contains much matter of the greatest interest, the
inaccuracies, omissions, and freedom in conjecture preclude its acceptance as
definitive. But it is most challenging and stimulating.1
Exeter College, Oxford D. MERVYN JONES

PLATO'S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY


K. R. P O P P E R : The Open Society and its Enemies. Vol. i : The Spell of
Plato. Vol. ii: The High Tide of Prophecy: Hegel, Marx, and the Aftermath.
Pp. xi+322; v+391. London: Routledge, 1957. Cloth, £2. 10s. net.
THIS is the third edition of a work which was first published in 1945. Review-
ing the first volume in C.R. lxi (1947), 55, the late Professor Hackforth
criticized it for certain fundamental misunderstandings of Plato. Those criti-
cisms still stand, together with most of those which have been published by
other classical scholars (in particular, the late Professor G. C. Field, Philosophy,
1946) who have given careful and sympathetic consideration to Professor
Popper's thesis. For this edition modifies nothing, except for a very few small
corrections, and some additions to the notes, which do not affect the main
picture. (Even the habit of referring to the text by note numbers instead of
page numbers persists, though the excuse for it has gone.) Plato still appears
as 'a totalitarian party-politician' who wished to revive a 'magic tribalism',
with himself as patriarchal king; and his writings are still 'poisonous'. Even
when Plato condemns what Popper also dislikes, for example, the lust for
power, Popper 'cannot but feel' (p. 155) that Plato is actually 'inspired' by the
motives which he condemns. On this level of 'feeling'—the level of physical
revulsion—philosophic argument is as futile as the bandying of texts in which
some of Popper's critics (notably De Vries) have indulged; no argument can
cope with antiperistasis. For Popper, therefore, fair-seeming words from Plato
point sometimes to self-deception, but more frequently to a cunning attempt
to condition the reader for the acceptance of some impending feudal-fascist
perversity; for Plato's standards of intellectual honesty are low indeed.
The second volume explains the purpose of the attack on Plato; it was 'to
show the role Plato and Aristotle have played in the rise of historicism' (both
when they were understood and when they were not understood—Popper has
it both ways) and in the fight against equalitarianism. Thus Aristotle is ad-
mitted to be no historicist but is somehow to blame for the Hegelian worship
of History as 'the World's Court of Justice'. This seems partly because of his
insistence on definitions. It is curious that Socrates, who is one of Popper's
favourites in the first volume, escapes all reproof for putting Aristotle on this
wrong road. It is perhaps worth remarking that early in the first volume the
treatment of Heraclitus provides a miniature model for what comes later: one
1
The above review was in the press at sion of the gap that has been left—a gap
the time of Mr. Edmonds's death. The that will be felt and lamented by classical
tribute to the original and stimulating scholars everywhere,
qualities of the book now becomes an expres-

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242 T H E CLASSICAL REVIEW
notes the oddity, in the first place, of the translations (fr. 40: 'Much learning
teaches not understanding' appears as 'Who knows many things need not have
many brains'); secondly, of the interpretation of the text (this fragment is an
attack on 'the more empirically minded scientists'); and, thirdly, of the
treatment of the historical background (the 'scientists' in question comprise
'Hesiod and Pythagoras and also Xenophanes').
J. TATE

PLUTARCH'S LIVES
Plutarchi Vitae Parallelae: recognoverunt Cl. Lindskog et K. Ziegler.
Vol. i, fasc. 1 iterum recensuit K. ZIEGLER. Pp. xiv+423. Leipzig:
Teubner, 1957. Cloth, DM. 19.20.
LINDSKOG'S text of the Lives contained in this volume {Theseus, Romulus;
Solon, Publicola; Themistocles, Camillus; Aristides, Cato Maior; Cimon, Lucullus) was
published in 1914 and is no longer available. Ziegler's revision brings no new
manuscript evidence, but few pages are without a place or two in which his
decision differs from his predecessor's. These differences are mostly due to
greater readiness to emend, combined with a rather greater respect for UMA
when they agree against the Seitenstettensis, for which Lindskog had, as
Ziegler now thinks, too much regard. A separate discussion of this problem is
promised.
The result here is a text with a slightly fuller (still very concise) apparatus,
with the merit of forcing on one's attention the usefulness of the way in which
Reiske and Corais used to go about Plutarch, questioning the tradition at
every point in the light of sense and usage, and being ready to emend—a way
which the editor of Plutarch must still, though cautiously, follow. Ziegler's
immense experience and skill have made useful gleanings (I single out p. 53,
26 (if) (avTasy eloeXdetv) and the numerous suggestions which he makes but
does not promote from the apparatus to the text deserve careful attention.
This is not to say that there are not some which appear gratuitous—just as
there are passages still in need of treatment. The important point is that this is
a better edition for a reader of inquiring mind than was Lindskog's.
Of passages still needing change, I select only two. At p. 95, 26 (Solon, 12.
11) Ziegler, like Lindskog, retains KeXevaai . . . irpoenrdjv, which is surely
ungrammatical. Wilamowitz's eKeXevcre is one obvious correction: another is
•npoeivovO' <Ls. P. 198, 18 ff. (Camillus 2. 6): this sentence is lame, and one
should read either OP Se TTpooxtP0- (cf- Kiihner-Gerth, § 369, for attractions
of this kind) or noXXovs <Se> /ecu in 1. 21.
The number of misprints and small oversights in the volume is considerable.
In the Preface and list of sigla we find y as the symbol used for the UMA
group: in the apparatus this becomes Y. There is a similar confusion between
S' and Sz (e.g. p. 84, first line of apparatus). Corrections which should be
made include the following. P. 13, 26 note: read [fte/jo?]. P. 16, 26: e<j>9acrev.
P. 18, 7: dpyvpovv. P. 20, 12: <Ls. P. 68, 7 note: 56, 4. P. 101, 29: fr. 23, 16 d.
P. 112, 12 : fjLerot.K^ofj,evois. P. 172, 7 : Ilepmris (for Sipgrjs). P . 230, 21 : Tedap-
prjKOTas. P. 245, 8 - 9 : Kara<f>opds. P . 305, 21 : rod. P . 318, 1 3 :
adai (for airohia-, a false form taken over from Lindskog).

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