Key Arguments

• Socrates presses Alcibiades to specify what he means by ruling ‘men who have common rights of citizenship, and dealings with one another,’ and, by analogy with pilots and chorus‑teachers, gets him to name a corresponding art for citizens.
• Alcibiades identifies this as ‘good counsel,’ and Socrates elicits that this good counsel has an end or aim, just as the pilot’s good counsel aims at ‘the preservation of the voyagers.’
• When asked about the political case, Alcibiades says its aim is ‘the better order and preservation of the city,’ making political expertise a teleological craft oriented toward a specific condition of the city.
• Socrates then asks, by parallel with the body and the eyes, what condition whose presence or absence ‘improves and preserves the order of the city,’ leading to the introduction of friendship/agreement as that condition.

Source Quotes

SOCRATES: Then what is the meaning of being able to rule over men who use other men? ALCIBIADES: I mean that they rule over men who have common rights of citizenship, and dealings with one another. SOCRATES: And what sort of an art is this?

ALCIBIADES: The art of the teacher of the chorus, which you were just now mentioning. SOCRATES: And what do you call the art of fellow-citizens? ALCIBIADES: I should say, good counsel, Socrates. SOCRATES: And is the art of the pilot evil counsel?

ALCIBIADES: No. SOCRATES: But good counsel? ALCIBIADES: Yes, that is what I should say,—good counsel, of which the aim is the preservation of the voyagers. SOCRATES: True.

And what is the aim of that other good counsel of which you speak? ALCIBIADES: The aim is the better order and preservation of the city. SOCRATES: And what is that of which the absence or presence improves and preserves the order of the city?

ALCIBIADES: The aim is the better order and preservation of the city. SOCRATES: And what is that of which the absence or presence improves and preserves the order of the city? Suppose you were to ask me, what is that of which the presence or absence improves or preserves the order of the body?

Key Concepts

• I mean that they rule over men who have common rights of citizenship, and dealings with one another.
• And what do you call the art of fellow-citizens? ALCIBIADES: I should say, good counsel, Socrates.
• Yes, that is what I should say,—good counsel, of which the aim is the preservation of the voyagers.
• The aim is the better order and preservation of the city.
• what is that of which the absence or presence improves and preserves the order of the city?

Context

Early in the passage, Socrates uses analogies with pilots and chorus‑teachers to force Alcibiades to articulate what the political craft is and what its proper end is, preparing the way for a discussion of friendship and agreement as the city’s preserving condition.