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PARTISAN REVIEW
chord" which sounds in its endless modulations through the whole
history of Western thought. Only beginning and end are, so to speak,
pure or unmodulated; and the fundamental chord therefore never
strikes its listeners more forcefully and more beautifully than when
it first sends its harmonizing sound into the world and never more
irritatingly and jarringly than when it still continues to be heard in
a world whose sounds-and thought- it can no longer bring into
harmony. A random remark which Plato madc in his last work: "The
beginning is like a god which as long as it dwells among men saves
all things"
(arche gar kai theos en anthropois hidrymene sodzei panta,
Laws VI, 775), is true of our tradition; as long as its beginning was
alive, it could save and bring all things into harmony. By the same
token, it became destructive as it came to its end- to say nothing
of the aftermath of confusion and helplessness which came after the
tradition ended and in which we live today.
In Marx's philosophy, which did not so much turn Hegel upside
down as invert the traditional hierarchy of thought and action, of
contemplation and labor, and of philosophy and politics, the begin–
ning made by Plato and Aristotle proves its vitality by leading Marx
into flagrantly contradictory statements, mostly in that part of his
teachings usually called utopian. The most important are his predic–
tion that under conditions of a "socialized humanity" the "state wiII
wither away," and that the productivity of labor wiII become so
great that labor somehow will abolish itself, thus guaranteeing an
almost unlimited amount of leisure time to each member of the so–
ciety. These statements, in addition to being predictions, contain of
course Marx's ideal of the best form of society. As such they are not
utopian, but rather reproduce the political and social conditions of
the same Athenian city-state which was the model of experience for
Plato .and Aristotle, and therefore the foundation on which our tra–
dition rests. The Athenian
polis
functioned without a division between
rulers and ruled, and thus was not a state if we use this term, as
Marx did, in accordance with the traditional definitions of forms
of government, that is, one-man rule or monarchy, rule by the few
or oligarchy, and rule by the majority or democracy. Athenian citi–
zens, moreover, were citizens only insofar as they possessed leisure
time, had that freedom from labor which Marx predicts for the
future . Not only in Athens, but throughout antiquity and up to
