[346a]
For tell me
this: we ordinarily say, do we not, that each of the arts is different from
others because its power or function is different? And, my dear fellow, in
order that we may reach some result, don't answer counter to your real
belief.1” “Well,
yes,” he said, “that is what renders it
different.” And does not each art also yield us benefit2
that is peculiar to itself and not general,3 as for example medicine
health, the pilot's art safety at sea, and the other arts
similarly?” “Assuredly.” “And does
not the wage-earner's art yield wage? For that is its function.
1 Cf. Gorgias 495 A. But elsewhere Socrates admits that the “argument” may be discussed regardless of the belief of the respondent (349 A). Cf. Thompson on Meno 83 D, Campbell on Soph. 246 D.
2 As each art has a specific function, so it renders a specific service and aims at a specific good. This idea and the examples of the physician and the pilot are commonplaces in Plato and Aristotle.
3 Hence, as argued below, from this abstract point of view wage-earning, which is common to many arts, cannot be the specific service of any of them, but must pertain to the special art μισθωτική. This refinement is justified by Thrasymachus' original abstraction of the infallible craftsman as such. It also has this much moral truth, that the good workman, as Ruskin says, rarely thinks first of his pay, and that the knack of getting well paid does not always go with the ability to do the work well. See Aristolte on χρηματιστική, Politics i. 3 (1253 b 14).
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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