This text is part of:
εἰσαῦθις σκεψόμεθα. The reference has been much discussed. Pfleiderer's idea (Zur Lösung d. Pl. Fr. p. 72) that the words were introduced by Plato “bei der Gesammtredaktion des Werkes” to prepare us for the second half of Book X is most unlikely, because (among other reasons) Book X does not expressly revert to this topic at all. Siebeck (Zur Chron. d. Pl. Dialoge pp. 121 ff.) holds that phrases of this sort always refer either to some future dialogue contemplated by Plato, or to a later part of the same dialogue. It is difficult to establish either alternative in the present case; nor has Siebeck, I think, succeeded in proving his point even elsewhere. It is simplest to suppose that such formulae (like εἰσαῦθις ἐπισκεπτέον in Arist. Eth. Nic. I 5. 1097^{b} 14) are in general only a convenient way of dropping the subject, although there may occasionally be a specific reference. Here there is none. So also Hirmer Entst. u. Komp. d. Pl. Polit. in Fl. Jahrb. Supplementband XXIII p. 607 note 2. 347E - 348B Introduction to the second part of Socrates' reply to Thrasymachus. See 344 D, 348 B nn. τὸν τοῦ ἀδίκου βίον -- δικαίου. In these words Socrates sums up the remarks of Thrasymachus from 343 B (καὶ οὕτω πόρρω κτλ.) to 344 C (λυσιτελοῦν τε καὶ ξυμφέρον). ποτέρως -- λέγεσθαι. Ast's suggestion πότερον, ἦν δ̓ ἐγώ, ὦ Γλαύκων, αἱρεῖ; καὶ ποτέρως ἀληθεστέρως δοκεῖ σοι λέγεσθαι; is now generally adopted, but (apart from its considerable divergence from the MS reading) the juxtaposition of ποτέρως and ἀληθεστέρως is unpleasing. The ποτέρως αἱρεῖ of A is quite unobjectionable: cf. VII 528 A οὕτως—αἱροῦμαι; and it is (I think) an objection to πότερον αἱρεῖ that it would represent Socrates as asking Glauco not which view he elected to take, but which life—the just or the unjust—he chose for himself. Schneider (after Bekker) retains the reading of the best MSS in πότερον ὡς ἀληθεστέρως, and explains the last two words as equivalent to ὥσπερ ὃ ἀληθεστέρως λέγεται: but ὡς ἀληθεστέρως could not (if written by Plato) be anything but the comparative of ὡς ἀληθῶς, and that is quite different in sense from ἀληθεστέρως. I have omitted ὡς (with Bremius and a few MSS of inferior authority), “ut ortum ex varia lectione πότερον et ποτέρως in ποτερόνως conflata” (Schneider). I am glad to find that Tucker adopts the same solution.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.