[433b]
is a saying
that we have heard from many and have often repeated ourselves.1”
“We have.” “This, then,” I said,
“my friend, if taken in a certain sense appears to be
justice,2 this principle of doing one's own
business. Do you know whence I infer this?” “No, but
tell me,” he said. “I think that this is the remaining
virtue in the state after our consideration of soberness, courage, and
intelligence, a quality which made it possible for them all to grow up in
the body politic and which when they have sprung up preserves them as long
as it is present. And I hardly need to remind you that3
1 This need not refer to any specific passage in the dialogues. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, n. 236. A Greek could at any time say that minding one's own business and not being a busybody is σῶφρον or δίκαιον or both.
2 τρόπον τινὰ γιγνόμενον: as in the translation, not “justice seems somehow to be proving to be this.” Cf. 432 E, 516 C, Lysis 217 E, Laws 910 B, 495 A, 596 D, Goodwin, Moods and Tenses, 830. Yet, Cf. Politicus 291 D.
3 καίτοι: cf. on 360 C and 376 B. Here it points out the significance of τὸ ὑπόλοιπον if true, while ἀλλὰ μέντοι introduces the considerations that prove it true.
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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