Book 1
344
I mean, of course, the one I was just speaking of, the man who has the ability to overreach on a large scale. Consider this type of man, then, if you wish to judge how much more profitable it is to him personally to be unjust than to be just. And the easiest way of all to understand this matter will be to turn to the most consummate form of injustice which makes the man who has done the wrong most happy and those who are wronged and who would not themselves willingly do wrong most miserable. And this is tyranny, which both by stealth and by force takes away what belongs to others, both sacred and profane, both private and public, not little by little but at one swoop.The order of the words dramatically expressses Thrasymachus’s excitement and the sweeping success of the tyrant. For each several part of such wrongdoing the malefactor who fails to escape detection is fined and incurs the extreme of contumely; for temple-robbers, kidnappers, burglars, swindlers, and thieves the appellations of those who commit these partial forms of injustice. But when in addition to the property of the citizens men kidnap and enslave the citizens themselves, instead of these opprobrious names they are pronounced happy and blessedThe European estimate of Louis Napoleon before 1870 is a good illustration. Cf. Theopompus on Philip, Polybius viii. 11. Euripides’ Bellerophon (fr. 288) uses the happiness of the tyrant as an argument against the moral government of the world. not only by their fellow-citizens but by all who hear the story of the man who has committed complete and entire injustice.Aristotle Eth. Nic. 1130 b 15 uses the expression in a different sense. For it is not the fear of doingThe main issue of the Republic. Cf. 360 D, 358 E and Gorgias 469 B. but of suffering wrong that calls forth the reproaches of those who revile injustice. Thus, Socrates, injustice on a sufficiently large scale is a stronger, freer, and a more masterful thing than justice, and, as I said in the beginning, it is the advantage of the stronger that is the just, while the unjust is what profits man’s self and is for his advantage. After this Thrasymachus was minded to depart when like a bathmanCf. Theophrastus, Char. xv. 19 (Jebb), Tucker, Life in Ancient Athens, p. 134. For the metaphor cf. 536 B, Lysis 204 D, Aristophanes Wasps 483. Sudden, lit. all at once. he had poured his speech in a sudden flood over our ears. But the company would not suffer him and were insistent that he should remain and render an account of what he had said. And I was particularly urgent and said, I am surprised at you, Thrasymachus; after hurlingCf. Euripides Alcestis 680 οὐ βαλὼν οὕτως ἄπει. such a doctrine at us, can it be that you propose to depart without staying to teach us properly or learn yourself whether this thing is so or not? Do you think it is a small matterSocrates reminds us that a serious moral issue is involved in all this word-play. So 352 D, Gorgias 492 C, 500 C, Laches 185 A. Cf. 377 B, 578 C, 608 B. that you are attempting to determine and not the entire conduct of life that for each of us would make living most worth while? Well, do I deny it?Plainly a protesting question, Why, do I think otherwise? Cf. 339 D. said Thrasymachus. You seem to, said I, or elseFor the impossibility of J. and C.’s or rather see my note in A.J.P. vol. xiii. p. 234. to care nothing for us and so feel no concern whether we are going to live worse or better lives in our ignorance of what you affirm that you know.
