James Adam, The Republic of Plato

ταῦτα: i.e. ‘the special attributes of the philosopher’ (J. and C.).

ἐλέγομεν. V 474 B.

δεῖ. See cr. n. and Introd. § 5.

485A - 487A The philosophic nature loves eternal and changeless Being in its entirety. It follows that the philosopher naturally loves Truth, despises the pleasures of the body, is temperate, free from avarice, high-minded, courageous, just and gentle. He is also quick to learn, retentive in memory, not given to extravagance in conduct, but modest and well-bred. To such men, when years and education have perfected their natural qualities, we may fairly entrust our city.

ff. This section should be compared on the one hand with II 375 A— 376 C, 377 B—III 391 E, and on the other with VII 535 A, B notes In Book II the natural qualities insisted on were primarily moral; here and in VII they are primarily intellectual. This is in harmony with the difference between the earlier and later schemes of education: for the basis of the first was ὀρθὴ δόξα, whereas that of the second is ἐπιστήμη. There is little or no indication to shew that even the ἄρχοντες of I—IV knew or aspired to the Ideas (see 497 C note) and the ἐπίκουροι certainly did not. Krohn is, in a certain sense, right when he maintains that in VI—VII we have “einen neuen Archontenstand und eine neue Archontendisciplin” (Pl. St. p. 107), but the distinction of the ‘golden’ and ‘silver’ races in III 415 A ff. prepares us for a more thorough-going discrimination between the two higher classes than was attempted in the earlier sketch, and we must of course remember that the new discipline is not intended to supersede, but to supervene upon the old. See also Hirzel Der Dialog I p. 236.