[428b]
the first thing that I think I
clearly see therein is the wisdom,1
and there is something odd about that, it appears.”
“What?” said he. “Wise in very deed I think
the city that we have described is, for it is well counselled, is it
not?” “Yes.” “And surely this very
thing, good counsel,2 is a form of wisdom. For it is not by ignorance
but by knowledge that men counsel well.”
“Obviously.” “But there are many and manifold
knowledges or sciences in the city.” “Of
course.” “Is it then owing to the science of her
carpenters that
1 σοφία is wisdom par excellence. Aristotle, Met. i., traces the history of the idea from Homer to its identification in Aristotle's mind with first philosophy for metaphysics. For Plato, the moralist, it is virtue and the fear of the Lord; for his political theory it is the “political or royal art” which the dramatic dialogues fail to distinguish from the special sciences and arts. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 17, n. 97, Protagoras 319 A, Euthydemus 282 E, 291 C, Gorgias 501 A-B, etc. In the unreformed Greek state its counterfeit counterpart is the art of the politician. In the Republic its reality will be found in the selected guardians who are to receive the higher education, and who alone will apprehend the idea of the good, which is not mentioned here simply because Plato, not Krohn, is writing the Republic.
2 Protagoras, like Isocrates, professed to teach εὐβουλία（Protagoras 318 E), which Socrates identifies at once with the political art. Plato would accept Protagoras's discrimination of this for the special arts (ibid. 318 ff.), but he does not believe that such as Protagoras can teach it. His political art is a very different thing from Protagoras's εὐβουλία and is apprehended by a very different education from that offered by Protagoras. Cf. “Plato's Laws and the Unity of Plato's Thought,” p. 348, n. 5, Euthydemus 291 B-C, Charmides 170 B, Protagoras 319 A, Gorgias 501 A-B, 503 D, Politicus 289 C, 293 D, 309 C.
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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