[449c]
said he.
“And for what reason, pray?” said I. “We think
you are a slacker,” he said, and are trying to cheat1 us out of a whole division,2
and that not the least, of the argument to avoid the trouble of expounding
it, and expect to ‘get away with it’ by observing thus
lightly that, of course, in respect to women and children it is obvious to
everybody that the possessions of friends will be in common.3” “Well, isn't
that right, Adeimantus?” I said. “Yes,” said
he, “but this word ‘right,’4 like other things, requires defining5 as to
the way6 and manner of such a
community. There might be many ways. Don't, then, pass over the one
1 Cf. Sophocles Trach. 437.
2 So Isocrates xv. 74ὅλοις εἴδεσι.
3 Cf. 424 A, Laws 739 C. Aristotle says that the possessions of friends should be separate in ownership but common in use, as at Sparta. Cf. Newman, Introduction to Aristotle Politics p. 201, Epicurus in Diogenes Laertius x. 11, Aristotle Politics 1263 a 30 ff., Euripides Andromache 270.
4 Cf. 459 D, Laws 668 D, Aristotle Politics 1269 b 13, Shakespeare Tro. and Cre. I. i. 23 “But here's yet in the word hereafter the kneading, the making of the cake,” etc.
5 Cf. Laws 665 B 7.
6 Cf. Aristotle Politics 1264 a 12.
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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