Plato’s Modern Enemies and the Theory of Natural Law

This book is the first extended attempt to explain Plato’s ethics of natural law, to place it accurately in the history of moral theory, and to defend it against the objections that it is totalitarian. John Daniel Wild provides a clarification and defense of Plato’s ethical doctrine based not only on his analysis of the dialogues, but on the belief that Plato must be acknowledged as the founder of the Western natural law philosophy. 

The book begins with a presentation of the major objections raised against Plato by modern authors –Toynbee, Karl Popper, and others who have condemned the so-called totalitarianism of Plato’s thought. Wild answers these objections point by point with a wealth of evidence taken from Plato’s own arguments. He then presents a historical study of the ethics of natural law, defining the theory and showing that Plato held such a theory. The work concludes with a systematic study of his realistic ethics and its bearing on contemporary problems.