REPUBLIC(BOOKIV) 83
“Well then, the first thing that seems to me to be clearly visible in it is wisdom.
And there seems to be something strange about it.”
“What?” he said.
“The city that we went over seems to me to be wise in its very being. Because it is
well-counseled, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“And surely it’s clear that this very thing, good counsel, is a certain kind of knowl-
edge, since it’s presumably not by ignorance but by knowledge that people counsel well.”
“That’s clear.”
“But many kinds of knowledge of all varieties are surely present in the city.”
“How could there not be?”
“Then is it on account of the carpenters’ knowledge that the city is called wise and
well-counseled?”
“Not at all,” he said, “on account of that it’s called skilled in carpentry.”
“Then it’s not on account of the knowledge that counsels about how wooden
equipment would be best that a city is called wise.”
“No indeed.”
“Well then, is it the knowledge about things made of bronze or anything else of
that sort?”
“None whatever of those,” he said.
“And it’s not the knowledge about growing the fruits of the earth; that makes it
skilled in farming.”
“It seems that way to me.”
“What about it, then?” I said. “Is there any knowledge in the city just now
founded by us, on the part of any of its citizens, by which it counsels not about things in
the city pertaining to someone in particular, but about itself as a whole, and in what way
it would interact best within itself and with other cities?”
“There certainly is.”
“What is it,” I said, “and in which of them?”
“It’s guardianship,” he said, “and it’s in those rulers whom we were just now nam-
ing complete guardians.”
“So on account of this sort of knowledge, what do you call the city?”
“Well-counseled,” he said, “and wise in its very being.”
“Now do you imagine,” I said, “that there will be more metalworkers present in
our city than these true guardians?”
“A lot more metalworkers,” he said.
“And compared also to all the rest who are given names for having any particular
kinds of knowledge, wouldn’t these guardians be the fewest of them all?”
“By a lot.”
“Therefore it’s by means of the smallest group and part of itself, the part that
directs and rules, and by the knowledge in it, that a whole city founded in accord with
nature would be wise. And it seems likely that this turns out by nature to be the smallest
class, the one that’s appropriately allotted a share of that knowledge which, alone
among the other kinds of knowledge, ought to be called wisdom.”
“Very true, just as you say,” he said.
“So we’ve discovered this one of the four—how we did it I don’t know—both it
and where in the city it’s lodged.”
“It seems to me at any rate,” he said, “to have been discovered well enough.”
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