Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Is the attempt to determine the way of man’s life so small a matter in your eyes—to determine how life may be passed by each one of us to the greatest advantage?”
- Source
- The Republic
- Date
- 4th century BCE
- Local voice
- Dialogue speaker · Socrates
- English wording
- Benjamin Jowett — Translator · from Ancient Greek
Meaning of “Is the attempt to determine the way of…”
In Book I Socrates refuses to treat the dispute about justice as mere verbal sparring, because the argument bears on the kind of life people should choose. He addresses Thrasymachus while challenging whether injustice really benefits a person; his question does not settle that dispute on its own.
Where does it come from?
Plato, The Republic, Book I, around 344e, Socrates in dialogue with Thrasymachus. Wording verified in Benjamin Jowett, third edition (1888), transcribed in Gutenberg #55201. This is dialogue speech following Thrasymachus’s defence of injustice, not the translator’s prefatory analysis. Edition-specific wording must be preserved.
Why the local voice matters
Jowett English; The Republic; local speaker Socrates, not Plato in autobiography.
