The History of Philosophy|S01E73-Criticism-5

Criticism-5

"We must neither assume a standard of virtue which is above ordinary persons, nor an education which is exceptionally favored by nature and circumstance; 

but we must have regard to the life which the majority can share, and to the forms of government to which states in general can attain."

So far Plato's greatest (and most jealous) pupil; 

and most of the criticisms of later date strike the same chord. 

Plato underrated, we are told, the force of custom accumulated in the institution of monogamy, and in the moral code attached to that institution; 

he underestimated the possessive jealousy of males in supposing that a man would be content to have merely an aliquot portion of a wife; 

he minimized the maternal instinct in supposing that mothers would agree to have their children taken from them and brought up in a heartless anonymity. 

And above all he forgot that in abolishing the family he was destroying the great nurse of morals and the chief source of those coöperative and communistic habits which would have to be the psychological basis of his state. 

[ 00’40” ] exceptionally (特别地，尤其地) 

[ 02’45” ] later date (之后的日子) 

[ 02’48” ] strike the same chord (如出一辙) 

[ 03’27” ] institution of monogamy (一夫一妻制) 

[ 03’40” ] code (法则) 

[ 03’47” ] underestimate (低估；看轻)

[ 04’50” ] aliquot (能整除，能够有间隙的) 

[ 05’23” ] maternal instinct (母性本能) 

[ 05’38” ] anonymity (陌生人) 

[ 06’40” ] abolish (废除)