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ὅντιν̓ ἂν -- ὁμιλοῖ. ἄν cannot, I think, be dispensed with here. It is better to insert it after ὅντινα than (with Baiter) after ἄριστα, for (as Schneider shews by many examples) ἄν likes to attach itself to the relative in sentences of this kind. The political wisdom here described is akin to the βασιλικὴ τέχνη of Euthyd. 291 C ff. and elsewhere, as well as to Aristotle's view of πολιτική as the architectonic art (Eth. Nic. I 1. 1094^{b} 27 with Stewart's note). It knows what is good and evil, and legislates for the other arts, but the good which it knows is a political and moral conception, not (as yet) the metaphysical Idea of Book VI.

νῦν δή. III 414 B (φύλακας παντελεῖς).

τί τὴν πόλιν προσαγορεύεις. It should be noted that ‘wise’ (to confine ourselves for the present to the virtue of wisdom) is used (1) of the rulers in the State and the λογιστικόν in man, (2) of the city and the individual as wholes: cf. 441 D ff. Which of these two meanings is intended to be original and primary? This subject is admirably discussed by Hirzel Hermes VIII pp. 379 ff., who shews that the wisdom of the rulers and the λογιστικόν is the fundamental one: cf. Arist. Top. V 8. 138^{b} 1 ff., where τὸ πρῶτον φρόνιμον is said to be ἴδιον λογιστικοῦ. The same, mutatis mutandis, holds good of Courage; and also, though with a difference, of Temperance and Justice. In calling the whole city wise because the rulers are wise, Plato is influenced by its analogy with the individual man, whom we readily and easily call wise, although strictly speaking he is wise only by reason of the λογιστικόν within him. Comparing 443 C ff., we observe that the city is wise because its rulers are wise, and its rulers are wise because their λογιστικόν is wise. In other words the wisdom of the λογιστικόν is the unit out of which the wisdom of the whole city is constructed. See on 443 B ff.

πότερον οὖν. See cr. n. We have still to explain τι ἄτοπον in 428 B, for Adimantus' τί has not yet been answered. For this reason οὖν after πότερον is welcome, if not (as Schneider thinks) indispensable.

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