[Inquiry] Ideals Or Their Abuse

[Jon Awbrey]

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IOTA.  Note 1

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| "But tell me, your physician in the precise sense of whom
|  you were just now speaking, is he a moneymaker, an earner
|  of fees, or a healer of the sick?  And remember to speak
|  of the physician who really is such."
|
| "A healer of the sick," he replied.
|
| "And what of the pilot -- the pilot rightly so called --
|  is he a ruler of sailors or a sailor?"
|
| "A ruler of sailors."
|
| "We don't, I fancy, have to take into account the fact that
|  he actually sails in the ship, nor is he to be denominated
|  a sailor.  For it is not in respect of his sailing that he
|  is called pilot but in respect of his art and his ruling
|  of the sailors."
|
| "True," he said.
|
| "Then for each of them is there not a
|  something that is for his advantage?"
|
| "Quite so."
|
| "And is it not also true," said I, "that the art
|  naturally exists for this, to discover and provide
|  for each his advantage?"
|
| "Yes, for this."
|
| "Is there, then, for each of the arts any other
|  advantage than to be a perfect as possible?"
|
| "What do you mean by that question?"
|
| "Just as if," I said, "you should ask me whether it is
|  enough for the body to be the body or whether it stands
|  in need of something else, I would reply, 'By all means it
|  stands in need.  That is the reason why the art of  medicine
|  has now been invented, because the body is defective and such
|  defect is unsatisfactory.  To provide for this, then, what is
|  advantageous, that is the end for which the art was devised.'
|  Do you think that would be a correct answer, or not?"
|
| "Correct," he said.
|
| "But how about this?  Is the medical art itself defective or faulty,
|  or has any other art any need of some virtue, quality, or excellence --
|  as the eyes of vision, the ears of hearing, and for this reason is
|  there need of some art over them that will consider and provide what
|  is advantageous for these very ends -- does there exist in the art
|  itself some defect and and does each art require another art to
|  consider its advantage and is there need of still another for the
|  considering art and so on 'ad infinitum', or will the art look out
|  for its own advantage?  Or is it a fact that it needs neither itself
|  nor another art to consider its advantage and provide against its
|  deficiency?  For there is no defect or error at all that dwells in
|  any art.  Nor does it befit an art to seek the advantage of anything
|  else than that of its object.  But the art itself is free from all
|  harm and admixture of evil, and is right so long as each art is
|  precisely and entirely that which it is.  And consider the matter
|  in that 'precise' way of speaking [akribei logo].  Is it so or not?"
|
| "It appears to be so," he said.
|
| "Then medicine," said I, "does not consider
|  the advantage of medicine but of the body?"
|
| "Yes."
|
| "Nor horsemanship of horsemanship but of horses, nor does
|  any other art look out for itself -- for it has no need --
|  but for that of which it is the art."
|
| "So it seems," he replied.
|
| "But surely, Thrasymachus, the arts do hold rule and
|  are stronger than that of which they are the arts."
|
| He conceded this but it went very hard.
|
| "Then no art considers or enjoins the advantage
|  of the stronger but every art that of the weaker
|  which is ruled by it."
|
| This too he was finally brought to admit though
| he tried to contest it.  But when he had agreed --
|
| "Can we deny, then," said I, "that neither does any physician
|  in so far as he is a physician seek or enjoin the advantage of
|  the physician but that of the patient?  For we have agreed that
|  the physician, 'precisely' speaking, is a ruler and governor of
|  bodies and not a money-maker.  Did we agree on that?"
|
| He assented.
|
| "And so the 'precise' pilot is a ruler of sailors, not a sailor?"
|
| That was admitted.
|
| "Then that sort of a pilot and ruler will not consider
|  and enjoin the advantage of the pilot but that of the
|  sailor whose ruler he is."
|
| He assented reluctantly.
|
| "Then," said I, "Thrasymachus, neither does anyone in any office
|  of rule in so far as he is a ruler consider and enjoin his own
|  advantage but that of the one whom he rules and for whom he
|  exercises his craft, and he keeps his eyes on that and on
|  what is advantageous and suitable to that in all that he
|  says and does."
|
| Plato, "Republic", 341C-342E
|
| Plato, "The Republic",
| Translated by Paul Shorey,
|'Plato, Volume 5', G.P. Goold (ed.),
| William Heinemann, London, UK, 1930, 1982.

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