“Meddling in the work of another”: πολυπραγμονεῖν in Plato’s Republic

Authors

Brennan McDavid, Chapman UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-29-2022

Abstract

The second conjunct of the Republic’s account of justice—that justice is “not meddling in the work of another”—has been neglected in Plato literature. This paper argues that the conjunct does more work than merely reiterating the content of the first conjunct—that justice is “doing one’s own work.” I argue that Socrates develops the concept at work in this conjunct from its introduction with the Principle of Specialization in Book II to its final deployment in the finished conception of justice in Book IV. Crucial to that concept’s development is the way in which the notion of “another” comes to refer to members of distinct classes or parts, i.e. takes on an inter-part connotation beyond a mere intra-part connotation. The first conjunct—that justice is “doing one’s own work”—does not connote the same divisions, and so the conjuncts should not be understood as equivalent or mutually entailed.

Comments

This article was originally published in Plato Journal, volume 23, in 2022. https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-4105_23_7

Recommended Citation

McDavid, B. (2022). “Meddling in the work of another”: πολυπραγμονεῖν in Plato’s Republic. PLATO JOURNAL, 23, 95-107. https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-4105_23_7

Peer Reviewed

1

Copyright

Plato Journal

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.