"From this point of view too, then, the having*ἕξις is still fluid in Plato and has not yet taken the technical Aristotelian meaning of habit or state. and doing of one’s own and what belongs to oneself would admittedly be justice." "That is so." "Consider now*A further confirmation. For what follows cf. 421 A. whether you agree with me. A carpenter undertaking to do the work of a cobbler or a cobbler of a carpenter or their interchange of one another’s tools or honors or even the attempt of the same man to do both—the confounding of all other functions would not, think you, greatly injure a state, would it?" "Not much," he said. "But when I fancy one who is by nature an artisan or some kind of money-maker tempted and incited by wealth or command of votes or bodily strength or some similar advantage tries to enter into the class of the soldiers or one of the soldiers into the class of counsellors and guardians, for which he is not fitted, and these interchange their tools and their honors or when the same man undertakes all these functions at once, then, I take it, you too believe that this kind of substitution and meddlesomeness is the ruin of a state." "By all means." "The interference with one another’s business, then, of three existent classes and the substitution of the one for the other is the greatest injury to a state and would most rightly be designated as the thing which chiefly*μάλιστα with κακουργία. works it harm." "Precisely so." "And the thing that works the greatest harm to one’s own state, will you not pronounce to be injustice?" "Of course." "This, then, is injustice."
"Again,*πάλιν, again, here means conversely. Cf. 425 A. The definition is repeated in terms of the three citizen classes to prepare the way for testing it in relation to the individual soul, which, if the analogy is to hold, must possess three corresponding faculties or parts. The order of words in this and many Platonic sentences is justified by the psychological "investigation," which showed that when the question "which do you like best, apples, pears, or cherries?" was presented in the form "apples, pears, cherries, which do you like best?" the reaction time was appreciably shortened. let us put it in this way. The proper functioning* οἰκειοπραγία: this coinage is explained by the genitive absolute. Proclus (Kroll i. p. 207) substitutes αὐτοπραγία. So Def. Plat. 411 E. of the money-making class, the helpers and the guardians, each doing its own work in the state, being the reverse of that*ἐκείνου: cf. ἐκείνοις, 425 A. just described, would be justice and would render the city just." "I think the case is thus and no otherwise," said he. "Let us not yet affirm it quite fixedly,*παγίως: cf. 479 C, Aristotle Met. 1062 b 15." I said, "but if this form*The doctrine of the transcendental ideas was undoubtedly familiar to Plato at this time. Cf. on 402 B, and Unity of Plato’s Thought, p. 31, n. 194, p. 35. But we need not evoke the theory of παρουσία here to account for this slight personification of the form, idea, or definition of justice. Cf. 538 D, and the use of ἐλθών in Euripides Suppl. 562 and of ἰόν in Philebus 52 E. Plato, in short, is merely saying vivaciously what Aristotle technically says in the words δεῖ δὲ τοῦτο μὴ μόνον καθόλου λέγεσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς καθ’ ἕκαστα ἐφαρμόττειν, Eth. Nic. 1107 a 28. when applied to the individual man, accepted there also as a definition of justice, we will then concede the point—for what else will there be to say? But if not, then we will look for something else. But now let us work out the inquiry in which*In 368 E. For the loose internal accusative ἥν cf. 443 B, Laws 666 B, Phaedrus 249 D, Sophist 264 B, my paper on Illogical Idiom, T.A.P.A., ἢ is impossible. we should more easily discover its nature in the individual man. And we agreed that this larger thing is the city, and so we constructed the best city in our power, well knowing that in the good*ἔν γε τῇ ἀγαθῇ: cf. on 427 E, and for the force of γε cf. 379 B, 403 E. city it would of course be found. What, then, we thought we saw there we must refer back to the individual and, if it is confirmed, all will be well."