[369d]
“Now the first and chief of our needs is the
provision of food for existence and life.”1“Assuredly.” “The second is housing
and the third is raiment and that sort of thing.” “That
is so.” “Tell me, then,” said I,
“how our city will suffice for the provision of all these things.
Will there not be a farmer for one, and a builder, and then again a weaver?
And shall we add thereto a cobbler and some other purveyor for the needs of
body?” “Certainly.” “The
indispensable minimum of a city, then, would consist of four or
1 Aristotle says that the city comes into being for the sake of life, but exists for the sake of the good life, which, of course, is also Plato's view of the true raison d'etre of the state. Cf. Laws 828 D and Crito 48 B.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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