AS HANDS WASH EACH OTHER, OR PLATO AND PRESENT DAYS
Plato was one of the first who tried to fit the phenomenon of corruption into the broader socio-philosophical and anthropological context of the decline of ancient democracy. The "Republic" is often criticized for the utopian nature of the author's proposals to liquidate private property and family. This article proves that this criticism does not take into account the features of Plato's methodology - the appeal to the mental experiment, which, in fact, allows considering the conclusions of Plato as practically useless construction. However, in the relationship between the rulers, guards and breadwinners, he was able to fix the main features of the state machine and identify some ways to combat corruption.