THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO - Studyplace

n. 368J RUDIMENTS OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 55
and strength to say a word in its defence. So there is nothing for
it but to do the best I can.
Glaucon and the others begged me to step into the breach and
carry through our inquiry into the real nature of justice and in~
justice, and the truth about their respective advantages. So I told
them what I thought. This is a very obscure question, I said, and
we shall need keen sight to see our way. Now, as we are not remarkably
clever, I will make a suggestion as to how we should
proceed. Imagine a rather short-sighted person told to read an inscription
in small letters from some way off. He would think it a
godsend if someone pointed out that the same inscription was written
up elsewhere on a bigger scale, so that he could first read the
larger characters and then make out whether the smaller ones
were the same.
No doubt, said Adeimantus; but what analogy do you see in
that to our inquiry
I will tell you. We think of justice as a quality that may exist in
a whole community as well as in an individual, and the community
is the bigger of the two. Possibly, 'then, we may find justice there
in larger proportions, easier to make out. So I suggest that we
should begin by inquiring what justice means in a state. Then
we can go on to look for its counterpart on a smaller scale in the
individual.
That seems a good plan, he agreed.
Well then, I continued, suppose we imagine a state coming into
being before our eyes. We might then be able to watch the growth
of justice or of injustice within it. When that is done, we may
hope it will be easier to find what we are looking for.
Much easier.
Shall we try, then, to carry out this scheme I fancy it will be
no light undertaking; so you had better think twice.
No need for that, said Adeimantus. Don't waste any more time.
My notion is, said I, that a state comes into existence because no
individual is self-sufficing; we all have many needs. But perhaps
you can suggest some different origin for the foundation of a community
No, I agree with you.