Plato, Republic, ed. John Burnet, 4.444

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[444]
παντάπασιν, ἦ δʼ ὅς, ὦ Σώκρατες, ἀληθῆ λέγεις.
εἶεν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ· τὸν μὲν δίκαιον καὶ ἄνδρα καὶ πόλιν καὶ δικαιοσύνην, ὃ τυγχάνει ἐν αὐτοῖς ὄν, εἰ φαῖμεν ηὑρηκέναι, οὐκ ἂν πάνυ τι οἶμαι δόξαιμεν ψεύδεσθαι.
μὰ Δία οὐ μέντοι, ἔφη.
φῶμεν ἄρα;
φῶμεν.
ἔστω δή, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ· μετὰ γὰρ τοῦτο σκεπτέον οἶμαι ἀδικίαν.
δῆλον. 444b
οὐκοῦν στάσιν τινὰ αὖ τριῶν ὄντων τούτων δεῖ αὐτὴν εἶναι καὶ πολυπραγμοσύνην καὶ ἀλλοτριοπραγμοσύνην καὶ ἐπανάστασιν μέρους τινὸς τῷ ὅλῳ τῆς ψυχῆς, ἵνʼ ἄρχῃ ἐν αὐτῇ οὐ προσῆκον, ἀλλὰ τοιούτου ὄντος φύσει οἵου πρέπειν αὐτῷ δουλεύειν, τῷ δʼ οὐ δουλεύειν ἀρχικοῦ γένους ὄντι; τοιαῦτʼ ἄττα οἶμαι φήσομεν καὶ τὴν τούτων ταραχὴν καὶ πλάνην εἶναι τήν τε ἀδικίαν καὶ ἀκολασίαν καὶ δειλίαν καὶ ἀμαθίαν καὶ συλλήβδην πᾶσαν κακίαν.
αὐτὰ μὲν οὖν ταῦτα, ἔφη. 444c
οὐκοῦν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, καὶ τὸ ἄδικα πράττειν καὶ τὸ ἀδικεῖν καὶ αὖ τὸ δίκαια ποιεῖν, ταῦτα πάντα τυγχάνει ὄντα κατάδηλα ἤδη σαφῶς, εἴπερ καὶ ἡ ἀδικία τε καὶ δικαιοσύνη;
πῶς δή;
ὅτι, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, τυγχάνει οὐδὲν διαφέροντα τῶν ὑγιεινῶν τε καὶ νοσωδῶν, ὡς ἐκεῖνα ἐν σώματι, ταῦτα ἐν ψυχῇ.
πῇ; ἔφη.
τὰ μέν που ὑγιεινὰ ὑγίειαν ἐμποιεῖ, τὰ δὲ νοσώδη νόσον.
ναί.
οὐκοῦν καὶ τὸ μὲν δίκαια πράττειν δικαιοσύνην ἐμποιεῖ, 444d τὸ δʼ ἄδικα ἀδικίαν;
ἀνάγκη.
ἔστι δὲ τὸ μὲν ὑγίειαν ποιεῖν τὰ ἐν τῷ σώματι κατὰ φύσιν καθιστάναι κρατεῖν τε καὶ κρατεῖσθαι ὑπʼ ἀλλήλων, τὸ δὲ νόσον παρὰ φύσιν ἄρχειν τε καὶ ἄρχεσθαι ἄλλο ὑπʼ ἄλλου.
ἔστι γάρ.
οὐκοῦν αὖ, ἔφην, τὸ δικαιοσύνην ἐμποιεῖν τὰ ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ κατὰ φύσιν καθιστάναι κρατεῖν τε καὶ κρατεῖσθαι ὑπʼ ἀλλήλων, τὸ δὲ ἀδικίαν παρὰ φύσιν ἄρχειν τε καὶ ἄρχεσθαι ἄλλο ὑπʼ ἄλλου;
κομιδῇ, ἔφη.
ἀρετὴ μὲν ἄρα, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὑγίειά τέ τις ἂν εἴη καὶ 444e κάλλος καὶ εὐεξία ψυχῆς, κακία δὲ νόσος τε καὶ αἶσχος καὶ ἀσθένεια.
ἔστιν οὕτω.
ἆρʼ οὖν οὐ καὶ τὰ μὲν καλὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα εἰς ἀρετῆς κτῆσιν φέρει, τὰ δʼ αἰσχρὰ εἰς κακίας;
ἀνάγκη.

Republic. Plato. ed. John Burnet. Oxford. 1905.

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Current edition Perseus

Πολιτεία (Greek) (Platonis Opera Tomus IV: Tetralogia VIII. Burnet, John, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.)

Translations (1)

Republic Perseus (Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 5-6. Shorey, Paul, translator. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1935-37 (printing).) — 4.444 focus

[444] What you say is entirely true, Socrates. Well, said I, if we should affirm that we had found the just man and state and what justice really is¹ in them, I think we should not be much mistaken. No indeed, we should not, he said. Shall we affirm it, then? Let us so affirm.
So be it, then, said I; next after this, I take it, we must consider injustice. Obviously. 444b Must not this be a kind of civil war² of these three principles, their meddlesomeness³ and interference with one another’s functions, and the revolt of one part against the whole of the soul that it may hold therein a rule which does not belong to it, since its nature is such that it befits it to serve as a slave to the ruling principle? Something of this sort, I fancy, is what we shall say, and that the confusion of these principles and their straying from their proper course is injustice and licentiousness and cowardice and brutish ignorance and, in general,⁴ all turpitude. Precisely this, 444c he replied. Then, said I, to act unjustly and be unjust and in turn to act justly the meaning of all these terms becomes at once plain and clear, since injustice and justice are so. How so? Because, said I, these are in the soul what⁵ the healthful and the diseaseful are in the body; there is no difference. In what respect? he said. Healthful things surely engender health⁶ and diseaseful disease. Yes. Then does not doing just acts engender justice 444d and unjust injustice? Of necessity. But to produce health is to establish the elements in a body in the natural relation of dominating and being dominated⁷ by one another, while to cause disease is to bring it about that one rules or is ruled by the other contrary to nature. Yes, that is so. And is it not likewise the production of justice in the soul to establish its principles in the natural relation of controlling and being controlled by one another, while injustice is to cause the one to rule or be ruled by the other contrary to nature? Exactly so, he said. Virtue, then, as it seems, would be a kind of health⁸ 444e and beauty and good condition of the soul, and vice would be disease,⁹ ugliness, and weakness. It is so. Then is it not also true that beautiful and honorable pursuits tend to the winning of virtue and the ugly to vice? Of necessity.

Commentary

Commentary on Plato, Republic (Plato. The Republic, Vol 1-2. Adam, James, editor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902-1903.) focus

ἀλλὰ τοιούτου ‐‐ ὄντι . See cr. n. The reading of Ξ and other inferior MSS, which (in common with all the editors) I have printed above, seems to be an attempt to emend the older and more difficult reading preserved in Α and Π. Stallbaum supposes that A here represents a corruption of Ξ, αὖ δουλεύειν being presumably a correction (of αὐτῳ δουλεύειν) which has crept into the text; but this is unlikely in itself, and also leaves τοῦ δ) before αὖ δουλεύειν unexplained. The text of Ξ is not in itself quite satisfactory, as Richards has pointed out. οἵου πρέπειν αὐτῷ for ὥστε πρέπειν αὐτῷ seems unexampled, although οἵου δουλεύειν would of course be right. The expression τῷ τοῦ ἀρχικοῦ γένους ὄντι, ‘that which is of the ruling class,’ is also curious for the more direct and accurate τῷ ἀρχικῷ γένει. The reading of A and Π yields no tolerable sense, and certainly cannot come from Plato. Madvig (with Vind. E) proposes οἵου πρέπειν αὐτῷ δουλεύειν, τὸ δ’ αὖ <μὴ> δουλεύειν ἀρχικοῦ γένους ὄντι, which is intelligible, if weak. I have thought of οἵου πρέπειν αὐτῷ δουλεύειν, τῷ δ’ αὖ βουλεύειν (or δεσπόζειν, after Schneider) ἀρχικοῦ γένους ὄντι, but there are obvious objections. I should not be surprised if the whole clause ἀλλὰ —ὄντι, as it appears in A and Π, is only an attempt by some illiterate scribe to work out the antithesis of προσῆκον: lit. ‘being by nature such as to be proper for it to be a slave, and the slavery again to that which is of the ruling class.’ The clause, even as read in Ξ, adds nothing to the sense, and the references in τοιαῦτ’ ἄττα and τούτων just below are caught more easily without the obnoxious words. See 442 B ἄρχειν ἐπιχειρήσῃ ὧν οὐ προσῆκον αὐτῷ γένει. Cf. III 413 C note

τούτων : sc. τῶν γενῶν.

ταὐτὰ ‐‐ ταῦτα . μὲν οὖν corrects τοιαῦτ’ ἄττα: “immo haec eadem” (Schneider). For ταὐτά some prefer, with one MS of Stobaeus Flor. 9. 64, αὐτά (‘immo haec ipsa’), others τοιαῦτα, but there is not sufficient reason for deserting A.

Plato Republic 4.444

ed. John Burnet

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