[453b]
“Nothing hinders,” he said. “Shall we say
then in their behalf: ‘There is no need, Socrates and Glaucon, of
others disputing against you, for you yourselves at the beginning of the
foundation of your city agreed1 that
each one ought to mind as his own business the one thing for which he was
fitted by nature?’ ‘We did so agree, I think;
certainly!' ‘Can it be denied then that there is by nature a great
difference between men and women?’ ‘Surely there
is.’ ‘Is it not fitting, then, that a different function
should be appointed
1 ὡμολογεῖτε: cf. 369 E f. For κατὰ φύσιν cf. 370 C and 456 C. The apparent emphasis of φύσις in this book is of little significance. Cf. Laws, passsim.
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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