Again, in another point of
view, this extreme unification of the state is clearly not good; for a
family is more self-sufficing than an individual, and a city than a
family, and a city only comes into being when the community is large
enough to be self-sufficing. If then self-sufficiency is to be
desired, the lesser degree of unity is more desirable than the
greater.
III
But, even supposing that it were best for the community to have
the greatest degree of unity, this unity is by no means proved to
follow from the fact 'of all men saying "mine" and "not mine" at the
same instant of time,' which, according to Socrates, is the sign of
perfect unity in a state. For the word 'all' is ambiguous. If the
meaning be that every individual says 'mine' and 'not mine' at the
same time, then perhaps the result at which Socrates aims may be in
some degree accomplished; each man will call the same person his own
son and the same person his wife, and so of his property and of all
that falls to his lot. This, however, is not the way in which people
would speak who had their had their wives and children in common; they
would say 'all' but not 'each.' In like manner their property would be
described as belonging to them, not severally but collectively.
There is an obvious fallacy in the term 'all': like some other
words, 'both,' 'odd,' 'even,' it is ambiguous, and even in abstract
argument becomes a source of logical puzzles.
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