Page - 1053 - in The Complete Plato
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The epithet is very appropriate, for there is something truly divine in being
able to argue as you have done for the superiority of injustice, and remaining
unconvinced by your own arguments. And I do believe that you are not
convinced— this I infer from your general character, for had I judged only
from your speeches I should have mistrusted you. But now, the greater my
confidence in you, the greater is my difficulty in knowing what to say. For I
am in a strait between two; on the one hand I feel that I am unequal to the
task; and my inability is brought home to me by the fact that you were not
satisfied with the answer which I made to Thrasymachus, proving, as I
thought, the superiority which justice has over injustice. And yet I cannot
refuse to help, while breath and speech remain to me; I am afraid that there
would be an impiety in being present when justice is evil spoken of and not
lifting up a hand in her defence. And therefore I had best give such help as I
can.
Glaucon and the rest entreated me by all means not to let the question drop,
but to proceed in the investigation. They wanted to arrive at the truth, first,
about the nature of justice and injustice, and secondly, about their relative
advantages. I told them, what I really thought, that the inquiry would be of a
serious nature, and would require very good eyes. Seeing then, I said, that we
are no great wits, I think that we had better adopt a method which I may
illustrate thus; suppose that a short-sighted person had been asked by
someone to read small letters from a distance; and it occurred to someone else
that they might be found in another place which was larger and in which the
letters were larger—if they were the same and he could read the larger letters
first, and then proceed to the lesser —this would have been thought a rare
piece of good-fortune.
Very true, said Adeimantus; but how does the illustration apply to our
inquiry?
I will tell you, I replied; justice, which is the subject of our inquiry, is, as
you know, sometimes spoken of as the virtue of an individual, and sometimes
as the virtue of a State.
True, he replied.
And is not a State larger than an individual?
It is.
Then in the larger the quantity of justice is likely to be larger and more
easily discernible. I propose therefore that we inquire into the nature of justice
and injustice, first as they appear in the State, and secondly in the individual,
proceeding from the greater to the lesser and comparing them.
1053
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book The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Title
- The Complete Plato
- Author
- Plato
- Date
- ~347 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 1612
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International