§7.519ἢ οὔπω ἐννενόηκας, τῶν λεγομένων πονηρῶν μέν, σοφῶν δέ, ὡς δριμὺ μὲν βλέπει τὸ ψυχάριον καὶ ὀξέως διορᾷ ταῦτα ἐφʼ ἃ τέτραπται, ὡς οὐ φαύλην ἔχον τὴν ὄψιν, κακίᾳ δʼ ἠναγκασμένον ὑπηρετεῖν, ὥστε ὅσῳ ἂν ὀξύτερον βλέπῃ, τοσούτῳ πλείω κακὰ ἐργαζόμενον; πάνυ μὲν οὖν, ἔφη.
"Or have you not yet noticed, about those who are called clever but wicked, how sharply their little soul looks and how keenly it discerns the things to which it is turned, as having a sight that is not poor but forced to serve vice, so that the more sharply it sees, the more evils it accomplishes?" "Most certainly," he said.
τοῦτο μέντοι, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, τὸ τῆς τοιαύτης φύσεως εἰ ἐκ παιδὸς εὐθὺς κοπτόμενον περιεκόπη τὰς τῆς γενέσεως συγγενεῖς ὥσπερ μολυβδίδας, αἳ δὴ ἐδωδαῖς τε καὶ τοιούτων ἡδοναῖς τε καὶ λιχνείαις προσφυεῖς γιγνόμεναι κάτω στρέφουσι τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ὄψιν· ὧν εἰ ἀπαλλαγὲν περιεστρέφετο εἰς τὰ ἀληθῆ, καὶ ἐκεῖνα ἂν τὸ αὐτὸ τοῦτο τῶν αὐτῶν ἀνθρώπων ὀξύτατα ἑώρα, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐφʼ ἃ νῦν τέτραπται.
"Yet," I said, "if this part of such a nature had been hammered at right from childhood and had been shorn of those leaden weights, as it were, associated with becoming, which, growing attached to eating and such pleasures and greedinesses, turn the sight of the soul downward; if, freed from these, it had been turned around toward true things, that very same part of the very same people would have seen those things most sharply, just as it now sees the things to which it is turned." "It is likely indeed," he said.
εἰκός γε, ἔφη. τί δέ;
"And what about this?
τόδε οὐκ εἰκός, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, καὶ ἀνάγκη ἐκ τῶν προειρημένων, μήτε τοὺς ἀπαιδεύτους καὶ ἀληθείας ἀπείρους ἱκανῶς ἄν ποτε πόλιν ἐπιτροπεῦσαι, μήτε τοὺς ἐν παιδείᾳ ἐωμένους διατρίβειν διὰ τέλους, τοὺς μὲν ὅτι σκοπὸν ἐν τῷ βίῳ οὐκ ἔχουσιν ἕνα, οὗ στοχαζομένους δεῖ ἅπαντα πράττειν ἃ ἂν πράττωσιν ἰδίᾳ τε καὶ δημοσίᾳ, τοὺς δὲ ὅτι ἑκόντες εἶναι οὐ πράξουσιν, ἡγούμενοι ἐν μακάρων νήσοις ζῶντες ἔτι ἀπῳκίσθαι; ἀληθῆ, ἔφη.
Is it not likely," I said, "and indeed necessary from what was said before, that neither those who are uneducated and inexperienced in truth could ever adequately govern a city, nor those who are permitted to spend their lives in education to the end? The former because they do not have any single goal in life, at which they must aim in doing whatever they do both privately and publicly; and the latter because they will not act of their own free will, believing that they have been relocated to live in the Isles of the Blessed while still alive?" "True," he said.
ἡμέτερον δὴ ἔργον, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, τῶν οἰκιστῶν τάς τε βελτίστας φύσεις ἀναγκάσαι ἀφικέσθαι πρὸς τὸ μάθημα ὃ ἐν τῷ πρόσθεν ἔφαμεν εἶναι μέγιστον, ἰδεῖν τε τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ ἀναβῆναι ἐκείνην τὴν ἀνάβασιν, καὶ ἐπειδὰν ἀναβάντες ἱκανῶς ἴδωσι, μὴ ἐπιτρέπειν αὐτοῖς ὃ νῦν ἐπιτρέπεται. τὸ ποῖον δή; τὸ αὐτοῦ, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, καταμένειν καὶ μὴ ἐθέλειν πάλιν καταβαίνειν παρʼ ἐκείνους τοὺς δεσμώτας μηδὲ μετέχειν τῶν παρʼ ἐκείνοις πόνων τε καὶ τιμῶν, εἴτε φαυλότεραι εἴτε σπουδαιότεραι. ἔπειτʼ, ἔφη, ἀδικήσομεν αὐτούς, καὶ ποιήσομεν χεῖρον ζῆν, δυνατὸν αὐτοῖς ὂν ἄμεινον; ἐπελάθου, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, πάλιν, ὦ φίλε, ὅτι νόμῳ οὐ τοῦτο μέλει, ὅπως ἕν τι γένος ἐν πόλει διαφερόντως εὖ πράξει, ἀλλʼ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ πόλει τοῦτο μηχανᾶται ἐγγενέσθαι, συναρμόττων τοὺς πολίτας πειθοῖ τε καὶ ἀνάγκῃ, ποιῶν μεταδιδόναι ἀλλήλοις τῆς ὠφελίας ἣν ἂν ἕκαστοι τὸ κοινὸν δυνατοὶ ὦσιν ὠφελεῖν καὶ αὐτὸς ἐμποιῶν τοιούτους ἄνδρας ἐν τῇ πόλει, οὐχ ἵνα ἀφιῇ τρέπεσθαι ὅπῃ ἕκαστος βούλεται, ἀλλʼ ἵνα καταχρῆται αὐτὸς αὐτοῖς ἐπὶ τὸν σύνδεσμον τῆς πόλεως. §7.520ἀληθῆ, ἔφη· ἐπελαθόμην γάρ. σκέψαι τοίνυν, εἶπον, ὦ Γλαύκων, ὅτι οὐδʼ ἀδικήσομεν τοὺς παρʼ ἡμῖν φιλοσόφους γιγνομένους, ἀλλὰ δίκαια πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐροῦμεν, προσαναγκάζοντες τῶν ἄλλων ἐπιμελεῖσθαί τε καὶ φυλάττειν.
"It is our task, then," I said, "as founders, to compel the best natures to reach the study which we previously said was the greatest, both to see the good and to make that ascent, and when they have ascended and seen sufficiently, not to permit them what is now permitted." "What sort of thing do you mean?" "To remain there," I said, "and not be willing to go down again to those prisoners nor to share in their labors and honors, whether they are of less worth or of more serious value." "In that case," he said, "shall we wrong them, and make them live a worse life when it is possible for them to live a better one?" "You have forgotten again, my friend," I said, "that the law is not concerned with this, how any one class in the city will fare exceptionally well, but it devises to bring this about in the whole city, harmonizing the citizens by persuasion and compulsion, making them share with one another the benefit which each is able to bring to the community; and the law itself produces such men in the city, not so that it may leave them to turn in whatever direction each wishes, but that it may use them itself for the binding together of the city." "True," he said, "for I had forgotten." "Observe then, Glaucon," I said, "that we shall not be wronging the philosophers who arise among us, but we shall say just things to them when we compel them in addition to care for and guard the others.
ἐροῦμεν γὰρ ὅτι οἱ μὲν ἐν ταῖς ἄλλαις πόλεσι τοιοῦτοι γιγνόμενοι εἰκότως οὐ μετέχουσι τῶν ἐν αὐταῖς πόνων· αὐτόματοι γὰρ ἐμφύονται ἀκούσης τῆς ἐν ἑκάστῃ πολιτείας, δίκην δʼ ἔχει τό γε αὐτοφυὲς μηδενὶ τροφὴν ὀφεῖλον μηδʼ ἐκτίνειν τῳ προθυμεῖσθαι τὰ τροφεῖα·
For we shall say that those who become such in other cities naturally do not share in the labors in them; for they grow up spontaneously against the will of the constitution in each, and it is just that what grows of itself, owing no one for its rearing, should not be eager to pay anyone for its nurture.
ὑμᾶς δʼ ἡμεῖς ὑμῖν τε αὐτοῖς τῇ τε ἄλλῃ πόλει ὥσπερ ἐν σμήνεσιν ἡγεμόνας τε καὶ βασιλέας ἐγεννήσαμεν, ἄμεινόν τε καὶ τελεώτερον ἐκείνων πεπαιδευμένους καὶ μᾶλλον δυνατοὺς ἀμφοτέρων μετέχειν.
But you we have begotten, for yourselves and for the rest of the city, like leaders and kings in hives, having been educated better and more perfectly than those, and being more capable of sharing in both.
καταβατέον οὖν ἐν μέρει ἑκάστῳ εἰς τὴν τῶν ἄλλων συνοίκησιν καὶ συνεθιστέον τὰ σκοτεινὰ θεάσασθαι· συνεθιζόμενοι γὰρ μυρίῳ βέλτιον ὄψεσθε τῶν ἐκεῖ καὶ γνώσεσθε ἕκαστα τὰ εἴδωλα ἅττα ἐστὶ καὶ ὧν, διὰ τὸ τἀληθῆ ἑωρακέναι καλῶν τε καὶ δικαίων καὶ ἀγαθῶν πέρι.
So you must each go down in turn into the common habitation of the others and become accustomed to contemplating the dark things; for when you are accustomed, you will see ten thousand times better than those there, and you will know what each of the images is and of what it is an image, because you have seen the truth about beautiful, just, and good things.
καὶ οὕτω ὕπαρ ἡμῖν καὶ ὑμῖν ἡ πόλις οἰκήσεται ἀλλʼ οὐκ ὄναρ, ὡς νῦν αἱ πολλαὶ ὑπὸ σκιαμαχούντων τε πρὸς ἀλλήλους καὶ στασιαζόντων περὶ τοῦ ἄρχειν οἰκοῦνται, ὡς μεγάλου τινὸς ἀγαθοῦ ὄντος.
And thus the city will be inhabited by us and by you as a waking reality and not as a dream, unlike the way many cities are now inhabited by those who fight shadows against one another and factionalize about ruling as if it were some great good.
τὸ δέ που ἀληθὲς ὧδʼ ἔχει· ἐν πόλει ᾗ ἥκιστα πρόθυμοι ἄρχειν οἱ μέλλοντες ἄρξειν, ταύτην ἄριστα καὶ ἀστασιαστότατα ἀνάγκη οἰκεῖσθαι, τὴν δʼ ἐναντίους ἄρχοντας σχοῦσαν ἐναντίως. πάνυ μὲν οὖν, ἔφη.
But the truth, I suppose, is this: in the city where those who are going to rule are least eager to rule, that city must necessarily be governed best and with the least faction, whereas the one that gets the opposite kind of rulers will be governed in the opposite way." "Most certainly," he said.
ἀπειθήσουσιν οὖν ἡμῖν οἴει οἱ τρόφιμοι ταῦτʼ ἀκούοντες, καὶ οὐκ ἐθελήσουσιν συμπονεῖν ἐν τῇ πόλει ἕκαστοι ἐν μέρει, τὸν δὲ πολὺν χρόνον μετʼ ἀλλήλων οἰκεῖν ἐν τῷ καθαρῷ; ἀδύνατον, ἔφη· δίκαια γὰρ δὴ δικαίοις ἐπιτάξομεν.
"Do you think, then, that our foster children, hearing this, will disobey us and refuse to share in the labors of the city, each in his turn, while spending most of their time living with one another in the pure region?" "Impossible," he said, "for we shall be imposing just demands on just men.
παντὸς μὴν μᾶλλον ὡς ἐπʼ ἀναγκαῖον αὐτῶν ἕκαστος εἶσι τὸ ἄρχειν, τοὐναντίον τῶν νῦν ἐν ἑκάστῃ πόλει ἀρχόντων.
However, each of them will surely go to ruling as to something necessary, the very opposite of those who rule now in each city."