[
342a]
“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 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?
[
342b]
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. Is it so or not?” “It appears to be
so,” he said. “Then medicine,” said I,
[
342c]
“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,
1
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
2
the advantage of the stronger but every art that of the weaker
[
342d]
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 moneymaker. Did we agree on that?” He
assented. “And so the 'precise' pilot is a ruler of sailors,
[
342e]
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
fixed on that and on what is advantageous and suitable to that in all that
he says and does.”