Key Arguments

• Analogy: a short-sighted reader should first read the same letters where they are larger before attempting the small ones, which is a 'rare piece of good fortune'.
• Justice is 'sometimes spoken of as the virtue of an individual, and sometimes as the virtue of a State', so the same form should appear at both scales.
• Since a State is larger than an individual, 'the quantity of justice is likely to be larger and more easily discernible' there.
• By imagining a State in process of creation, we can watch 'the justice and injustice of the State in process of creation also', aiding discovery.

Source Quotes

require very good eyes. Seeing then, I said, that we are no great wits, I think that we had better adopt a method which I may illustrate thus; suppose that a short-sighted person had been asked by some one to read small letters from a distance; and it occurred to some one else that they might be found in another place which was larger and in which the letters were larger—if they were the same and he could read the larger letters first, and then proceed to the lesser—this would have been thought a rare piece of good fortune. Very true, said Adeimantus; but how does the illustration apply to our enquiry?

Very true, said Adeimantus; but how does the illustration apply to our enquiry? I will tell you, I replied; justice, which is the subject of our enquiry, is, as you know, sometimes spoken of as the virtue of an individual, and sometimes as the virtue of a State. True, he replied.

It is. Then in the larger the quantity of justice is likely to be larger and more easily discernible. I propose therefore that we enquire into the nature of justice and injustice, first as they appear in the State, and secondly in the individual, proceeding from the greater to the lesser and comparing them.

Then in the larger the quantity of justice is likely to be larger and more easily discernible. I propose therefore that we enquire into the nature of justice and injustice, first as they appear in the State, and secondly in the individual, proceeding from the greater to the lesser and comparing them. That, he said, is an excellent proposal.

That, he said, is an excellent proposal. And if we imagine the State in process of creation, we shall see the justice and injustice of the State in process of creation also. I dare say.

Key Concepts

• suppose that a short-sighted person had been asked by some one to read small letters from a distance; and it occurred to some one else that they might be found in another place which was larger and in which the letters were larger—if they were the same and he could read the larger letters first, and then proceed to the lesser—this would have been thought a rare piece of good fortune.
• justice, which is the subject of our enquiry, is, as you know, sometimes spoken of as the virtue of an individual, and sometimes as the virtue of a State.
• in the larger the quantity of justice is likely to be larger and more easily discernible.
• I propose therefore that we enquire into the nature of justice and injustice, first as they appear in the State, and secondly in the individual, proceeding from the greater to the lesser and comparing them.
• if we imagine the State in process of creation, we shall see the justice and injustice of the State in process of creation also.

Context

Book II: Socrates proposes a methodological shift to build an ideal city to locate justice at a larger scale before turning to the individual soul.

Perspectives

Plato

Endorses this methodological city–soul analogy; the macro-to-micro move frames Books II–IV and grounds the later identification of psychic justice with civic order.

Socrates

Presents this as a practical heuristic given our limited 'eyes'; he expects the same form of justice to be legible in both city and soul.