Plato's politics seems to be quite different from that advo…

Plato's politics seems to be quite different from that advocated by later philosophers. The bulk of Plato's political writings are in the Republic and the Laws. The Republic describes an idealized reconstruction of early society, which was presumed to have perfect virtue, whereas the Laws is a more practical idea that could be implemented by a current administration. However, both of these systems are overtly hostile to free thought, foreign intercourse, and independent sources of value (for example, family) other than that of a person's role in the government's plan. Thus, we could certainly see Plato's influence in modern totalitarian movements, but later philosophers do not generally support totalitarianism and to the extent that they do, they generally appear to mistakenly believe they are supporting freedom with something that is actually good for totalitarianism (for example, Marx).