"Moreover, the conclusion of this argument of yours is a fine one,--how that for every man who knows not how to make use of his soul it is better to have his soul at rest and not to live, than to live acting according to his own caprice; but if it is necessary for him to live, it is better after all for such an one to spend his life as a slave rather than a free man, handing over the rudder of his will, as it were of a ship, to another man who has learnt the art of steering men--which is the name that you, Socrates, frequently give to politics, when you declare that this very same art is that of judging and justice."
— Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)
Author
Work Title
Date
370-300 B.C.
Metaphor
"Moreover, the conclusion of this argument of yours is a fine one,--how that for every man who knows not how to make use of his soul it is better to have his soul at rest and not to live, than to live acting according to his own caprice; but if it is necessary for him to live, it is better after all for such an one to spend his life as a slave rather than a free man, handing over the rudder of his will, as it were of a ship, to another man who has learnt the art of steering men--which is the name that you, Socrates, frequently give to politics, when you declare that this very same art is that of judging and justice."
Metaphor in Context
So too, likewise, with respect to art: it is surely plain that a man who does not know how to use his own lyre does not know either how to use his neighbor's, and that one who does not know how to use the lyre of others does not know how to use his own either,--nor yet any other instrument or chattel. Moreover, the conclusion of this argument of yours is a fine one,--how that for every man who knows not how to make use of his soul it is better to have his soul at rest and not to live, than to live acting according to his own caprice; but if it is necessary for him to live, it is better after all for such an one to spend his life as a slave rather than a free man, handing over the rudder of his will, as it were of a ship, to another man who has learnt the art of steering men--which is the name that you, Socrates, frequently give to politics, when you declare that this very same art is that of judging and justice.
(408a-b)
(408a-b)
Categories
Provenance
Reading Peter Garnsey, Ideas of Slavery from Aristotle to Augustine (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996),14n.
Citation
Plato in Twelve Volumes, vol. 9, trans. W.R.M. Lamb (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd, 1925). <Link to Perseus Project>
Date of Entry
09/04/2011
