Key Arguments

• They ‘looked not at what we were seeking, but at what was far off,’ missing the near.
• Justice was embedded in the original ‘one man, one work’ principle used to found the city.

Source Quotes

Why so? Why, my good sir, at the beginning of our enquiry, ages ago, there was justice tumbling out at our feet, and we never saw her; nothing could be more ridiculous. Like people who go about looking for what they have in their hands—that was the way with us—we looked not at what we were seeking, but at what was far off in the distance; and therefore, I suppose, we missed her.

Why, my good sir, at the beginning of our enquiry, ages ago, there was justice tumbling out at our feet, and we never saw her; nothing could be more ridiculous. Like people who go about looking for what they have in their hands—that was the way with us—we looked not at what we were seeking, but at what was far off in the distance; and therefore, I suppose, we missed her. What do you mean?

I grow impatient at the length of your exordium. Well then, tell me, I said, whether I am right or not: You remember the original principle which we were always laying down at the foundation of the State, that one man should practise one thing only, the thing to which his nature was best adapted;—now justice is this principle or a part of it. Yes, we often said that one man should do one thing only.

Key Concepts

• there was justice tumbling out at our feet, and we never saw her;
• we looked not at what we were seeking, but at what was far off in the distance;
• You remember the original principle which we were always laying down at the foundation of the State, that one man should practise one thing only

Context

Socratic ‘hunting’ metaphor culminates in a reflective recognition that the sought definition was implicit in their foundational assumptions.

Perspectives

Plato

Underscores dialectical recollection: the truth can be implicit in first principles and must be elicited.

Socrates

Admits methodological distraction and redirects attention to the originary specialization principle as justice.