Abstract

In this dissertation, we shall examine the relation between the crafts and the community in Plato's Republic I-IV. We begin our study Book I, where, in his discussion with Polemarchus and Thrasymachus, Socrates reveals the ambiguous position of $\tau\acute\epsilon\chi\nu\eta$ in regards to the political community: pictured in a certain manner, the crafts help to support the well-being of the city; seen in another light, as those skills possessed by individuals struggling for private gain, they conflict with, and are ultimately destructive of, the common good. ;We shall further argue that Plato continues this theme, albeit in a somewhat different form, in the construction of the just regime in Books II-IV. Our study shall question the adequacy of the one man/one job formula for justice . Throughout Books II-IV, Socrates presumes that the good craftsman, by performing his one function well, fulfills himself and contributes to the good of the community; and, further, he implicitly argues that civic virtue and technical excellence are mutually inclusive ends--that the just city and the crafts flourish together. Both claims, however, are questionable. We shall first maintain that, in assigning each citizen a task or craft according to his "nature", Socrates restricts the individual to this specific "work" for the community, and thus violates the citizen's full "nature". Secondly, we shall argue that, in the just city where specialization is strictly applied, the crafts do not flourish; rather, they function best in the "feverish" city, i.e. in a community motivated by the desire for luxury. ;In the end, the conflict between the city and the crafts, initially explored by Socrates in Book I, is not resolved through the workings of specialization. On the contrary, by subordinating $\tau\acute\epsilon\chi\nu\eta$ to the requirements of moral order, Socrates reveals the enduring tension between the demand for civic virtue and the demand for technical achievement