THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO - Studyplace

I. 3391 THE INTEREST OF nm STRONGER 19
Its importance is not clear yet; what is clear is that we must find
out whether your definition is true. I agree myself that right is in a
sense a matter of interest; but when you add 'to the stronger party,'
I don't know about that. I must consider.
Go ahead, then.
I will. Tell me this. No doubt you also think it is right to obey
the men in power
I do.
Are they infallible in every type of state, or can they sometimes
make a mistake
Of course they can make a mistake.
In framing laws, then, they may do their work well or badly
No doubt.
Well, that is to say, when the laws they make are to their own
interest; badly, when they are not
Yes.
But the subjects are to obey any law they lay down, and they
will then be doing right
Of course.
If so, by your account, it will be right to do what is not to the
interest of the stronger party, as well as what is so.
What's that you are saying
Just what you said, I believe; but let us look again. Haven't you
admitted that the rulers, when they enjoin certain acts on their
subjects, sometimes mistake their own best interests, and at the
same time that it is right for the subjects to obey, whatever they
may enjoin
Yes, I suppose so.
Well, that amounts to admitting that it is right to do what is not
to the interest of the rulers or the stronger party. They may unwittingly
enjoin what is to their own disadvantage; and you say
it is right for the others to do as they are told. In that case, their
duty must be the opposite of what you said, because the weaker
will have been ordered to do what is against the interest of the
itronger. You with your intelligence must see how that follows.
Yes, Socrates, said Polemarchus, that is undeniable.