Property and Contingency

Aristotle's rejection of Plato's Communalism, in favor of an advocacy of Private Property, is open to three interpretations: 1. An Atomist repudiation of his earlier Holism; 2. An unwitting contradiction; or 3. An advocacy of a diversification within the Whole. In any case, the conflict between the two Ancients seems to anticipate the more recent one regarding Property between Socialism and Capitalism.  However, one significant distinction between the two debates is Modern Industrialization, which, for Marx, is the decisive factor in his promotion of the abolition of Private Property, a factor entirely unknown to Plato and Aristotle.  So, the question of the status of Private Property in the best Polis is a contingent, depending on, among other things, the available Means of Production, and not an eternal, problem, despite its treatment as such in many doctrines.