Book reviews

Citation

(2002), "Book reviews", European Business Review, Vol. 14 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr.2002.05414fab.005

Book reviews

The Power of Plato

Stephen HillDuckworthLondon2002126 pp.ISBN 0715 631 608£9.99 (paperback)

If, as the publishers claim, "Plato is one of the most important thinkers who ever lived", then this is clearly one of the most important books published in the modern era. It is usual for reviewers to moderate the hyperbole of publishers. In this case, however, I have no hesitation in echoing their opinion.

Many of us who have, like myself, picked up through casual reading elements of the Greek philosophy which has inspired Roman civilisation, the Middle Ages through the neoplatonists – in particular St Augustine's City of God – as well as much of earlier modern civilisation, will prize this book as a special contribution to establishing the essence of the works of Socrates and Plato in a single brief volume. A substantial essay by Stephen Hill introduces these new translations and a chapter on the controversy with Aristotle, Plato's pupil, concludes the book. Even the busy modern or lazy postmodern might read so concise a work and catch the ancient message. The late George Bull saw the beginning of Europe – the true Europe – as being in the fifth century BC, not just as a rather artificial response to the devastation of the wars of the twentieth century.

The book covers a great variety of things in its meandering course but is prefaced by a quotation from Socrates which I think goes to the heart of it but which I leave the reader to find for himself. Stephen Hill's introduction is of enormous interest and the chapter headings include: "The death of Socrates", "Education", "Politics and Society". Hill mentions Aristotle's view that Socrates made two major contributions to philosophy: inductive reasoning and the importance of general definition, which he goes on to say – significantly – "is true so far as it goes". Aristotle's legacy has perhaps been more destructive than he himself ever expected: Alexander the Great and the secularism that has pervaded modern thinking; and it is hard to discern which have been more bloody and harmful to humanity.

Plato has often been invoked to justify the worst totalitarian regimes and his own words often create this impression. Karl Popper begins his study of the open society with a quotation from Plato:

The greatest principle of all is that nobody, whether male or female, should be without a leader. Nor should the mind of anybody be habituated to letting him do anything at all on his own initiative; neither out of zeal, nor even playfully. But in war and in the midst of peace – to his leader he shall direct his eye and follow him faithfully. And even in the smallest matter he should stand under leadership. For example, he should get up, or move, or wash, or take his meals … only if he has been told to do so. In a word, he should teach his soul, by long habit, never to dream of acting independently, and to become utterly incapable of it.

This is a clear example of extolling the principle of leadership but a little reflection should raise the question whether Plato was calling for blind or discerning submission. There is no doubt that he was trying to devise a way for fellow citizens to avoid the tyrannical regimes of fifth century Greece, and it therefore, follows, that a process of discerning would be needed to arrive at a state in which the Philosopher King and the Guardians created an organisation which citizens would be ready to follow. Perhaps the analogy of an orchestra and its conductor is appropriate. The players in the orchestra achieve their potential precisely to the extent that they are able to obey exactly the directions of a good conductor. The same is true of political and social organisation and it was for this reason that the Danish philosopher, Sören Kierkegaard, wrote in his book The Sickness Unto Death:

Man's sickness is that he cannot obey, and the cure is to obey.

The problem is to decide who to obey and perhaps the answer is to be found in Raphael's masterpiece The School of Athens, where "Plato is shown with his index finger indicating the heavens while Aristotle is shown pointing to the ground". Is there really any doubt that Plato would only have us follow leaders who have the light of heaven in their eyes?

John Coleman

Questions of Identity: Exploring the Character of Europe

Edited by Christopher JoyceI.B. Taurus2002244 pp.

Europe's Wider Loyalties: Global Responsibilities for the New Europe

Edited by David Barton and Martyn BondThe Federal Trust in conjunction with the Wyndham Place Charlemagne Trust2002191 pp.

Europe's current agenda is crowded: enlargement of the European Union (EU) to include many more countries from Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean; reform of the Common Agricultural Policy; a constitutional Convention to give the EU a new shape; a fledgeling foreign policy to maintain a fragile peace in the Balkans and wrestle with a host of actual or potential conflicts on its borders. With such daily preoccupations it is sometimes helpful to stand back at take a longer view. Two new books on Europe help us to do just that, one a retrospective, the other a forward look.

Christopher Joyce has assembled a selection of articles from New European going back to 1989, when it was first issued with the aim of generating serious debate about the nature of Europe and its identity. As he writes in his introduction: "A good deal of heat had been generated certainly; but perhaps not so much light". They range widely over cultural, political and economic issues (though Sir Edward George's views on economic and monetary union, which are promised on the cover and in the introduction, have mysteriously and regrettably disappeared – pulled from the final version perhaps through fear that it might prejudice the promised euro debate). It is inevitable that, among those which date back ten years or more, the more reflective pieces stand up to re-issue better than those which dealt with current issues. So much has happened since 1989 to Europe's relations with America and Asia that, while it is good to see the late Geoffrey Rippon, who negotiated Britain's entry in to the EEC, appear in the book, his views of that time tell us little about how Europe should behave today. On the other hand, Michael Ignatieff's "Europe of the mind", which appeared in New European's first issue, still has something to say about Britain's struggle to come to terms with Europe.

Of the more recent articles, Dele Oguntimoju makes some fascinating comparisons between the imperial attempt to forge Nigeria from diverse African nations and the perils and trials of European integration. All in all, a book to be dipped into. There are plums to be pulled out.

The joint Wyndham Place Charlemagne Trust and Federal Trust publication is not concerned with navel gazing but with the way in which Europe interacts with the rest of the world. Authors with wide experience of Europe and international affairs look at different aspects of the EU's external policies – enlargement, foreign affairs, defence and security and relations with the developing world. The general message is clear: the EU struggles with these issues with inadequate structures. As David Hannay writes: "Europe has been a trade policy giant for nearly forty years; but it remains something of a military and diplomatic pigmy". Andrew Marshall's opening chapter cites examples of the EU's internal preoccupations getting in the way of addressing far more important and pressing external worries as in the Balkans.

With an emphasis on Europe's responsibilities, the book is inevitably critical, critical of the slow pace of enlargement, critical of the failure to create a consistent set of "joined-up" external policies, critical of the ambivalence of its response to immigration, critical of the inefficiency of its development policy and its aid disbursement. To a limited extent, the book is prescriptive as well as descriptive. Responding to the different challenges, there is much wise advice and cautious optimism. Peter Pooley explains how less rivalry and better collaboration between the different players can "help us to conduct the war on [world] poverty to greater effect". Michael Quinlan broadly welcomes the early moves to create a European Security and Defence Policy but cautions against trying to jump too far ahead of current plans. Chris Patten, in his introduction, recognizes that in its external policies, the EU is feeling its way and that the debate about competences goes on but avers that "synthesis is possible: what the member states do in common contributes to what they achieve individually, andvice versa".

But as the joint editors remind us, determining what Europe's wider loyalties are is an ethical as well as a political task. This doubtless explains the inclusion in the book of chapters not only on specific policies but on wider themes. Marcus Braybrooke writes on the role of faith communities in both creating conflict and in helping the search for global peace. James Huntley writes similarly about the contribution of democracy. They will widen the appeal of the book even if their approach is tangential to the book's main purpose which I judge to be to make more people aware that, political pigmy as it may still be, Europe cannot and should not evade its responsibilities to contribute to a safer, fairer and more prosperous world.

It is a useful contribution to that end.

Michael FranklinWyndham Place Charlemagne Trust