Key Arguments

• He has Alcibiades agree that whether the adviser about building is “little or great, good or ill‑looking, noble or ignoble” makes no difference, only his being a builder does.
• He generalizes: “A man is a good adviser about anything, not because he has riches, but because he has knowledge,” and Alcibiades assents.
• Socrates offers a concrete political case: when Athenians deliberate about health, they require a physician, and do not care whether he is rich or poor, reinforcing that only competence counts.
• This undercuts Alcibiades’ initial reliance on his bodily, social, and economic advantages as providing entitlement to rule.

Source Quotes

ALCIBIADES: True. SOCRATES: Whether he be little or great, good or ill-looking, noble or ignoble—makes no difference. ALCIBIADES: Certainly not.

ALCIBIADES: Certainly not. SOCRATES: A man is a good adviser about anything, not because he has riches, but because he has knowledge? ALCIBIADES: Assuredly.

ALCIBIADES: Assuredly. SOCRATES: Whether their counsellor is rich or poor, is not a matter which will make any difference to the Athenians when they are deliberating about the health of the citizens; they only require that he should be a physician. ALCIBIADES: Of course.

Key Concepts

• Whether he be little or great, good or ill-looking, noble or ignoble—makes no difference.
• A man is a good adviser about anything, not because he has riches, but because he has knowledge?
• Whether their counsellor is rich or poor, is not a matter which will make any difference to the Athenians when they are deliberating about the health of the citizens; they only require that he should be a physician.

Context

In the midst of questioning whom Alcibiades can legitimately advise, Socrates abstracts a norm about political counsel that contrasts sharply with democratic deference to prominent citizens.