ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΟΣ
Benjamin Jowett
Plato · Benjamin Jowett
Also present: THEAETETUS of Sounion, geometer, mathematician (silent)
Scene: in the Athenian gymnasium where the Theaetetus was set
The Statesman (Politicus) seeks to define the science of ruling, pursuing it through the method of division and a great myth of the cosmos that periodically reverses its motion. The true statesman is likened to a weaver, who binds together the diverse temperaments of citizens — the bold and the gentle — into a single well-woven civic fabric.
Plato concludes that the rule of a knowing statesman is higher than any code of law, since wisdom can adapt to particulars as rigid law cannot — though, lacking such wisdom, cities must fall back on the rule of law as a second best.
From the Plato Scroll Encyclopedia · open this entry in the reader
Socrates: I owe you many thanks, indeed, Theodorus, for the acquaintance both of Theaetetus and of the Stranger.
Theodorus: And in a little while, Socrates, you will owe me three times as many, when they have completed for you the delineation of the Statesman and of the Philosopher, as well as of the Sophist.
Socrates: Sophist, statesman, philosopher! O my dear Theodorus, do my ears truly witness that this is the estimate formed of them by the great calculator and geometrician?
Theodorus: What do you mean, Socrates?
Socrates: I mean that you rate them all at the same value, whereas they are really separated by an interval, which no geometrical ratio can express.
Theodorus: By Ammon, the god of Cyrene, Socrates, that is a very fair hit; and shows that you have not forgotten your geometry. I will retaliate on you at some other time, but I must now ask the Stranger, who will not, I hope, tire of his goodness to us, to proceed either with the Statesman or with the Philosopher, whichever he prefers.
Stranger: That is my duty, Theodorus; having begun I must go on, and not leave the work unfinished. But what shall be done with Theaetetus?
Theodorus: In what respect?
Stranger: Shall we relieve him, and take his companion, the Young Socrates, instead of him? What do you advise?
Theodorus: Yes, give the other a turn, as you propose. The young always do better when they have intervals of rest.
Socrates: I think, Stranger, that both of them may be said to be in some way related to me; for the one, as you affirm, has the cut of my ugly face (compare Theaet.), the other is called by my name. And we should always be on the look-out to recognize a kinsman by the style of his conversation. I myself was discoursing with Theaetetus yesterday, and I have just been listening to his answers; my namesake I have not yet examined, but I must. Another time will do for me; to-day let him answer you.
Stranger: Very good. Young Socrates, do you hear what the elder Socrates is proposing?
Young Socrates: I do.
Stranger: And do you agree to his proposal?
Young Socrates: Certainly.
Stranger: As you do not object, still less can I. After the Sophist, then, I think that the Statesman naturally follows next in the order of enquiry. And please to say, whether he, too, should be ranked among those who have science.
Young Socrates: Yes.
Stranger: Then the sciences must be divided as before?
Young Socrates: I dare say.
Stranger: But yet the division will not be the same?
Young Socrates: How then?
Stranger: They will be divided at some other point.
Young Socrates: Yes.
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The Athenian who turned Socratic conversation into a written philosophy and founded the Academy.
Plato was born around 428 BCE into a wealthy and politically prominent Athenian family; through his mother Perictione the family traced kinship to the lawgiver Solon, and his relatives Critias and Charmides were among the oligarchs of the Thirty. A late tradition says his given name was Aristocles and that 'Plato' — from the word for 'broad' — was a nickname. He grew up during the long agony of the Peloponnesian War and came of age amid the violence and disillusion that followed Athens' defeat.
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