[462a]
by the argument. Is not that
so?” “It is, indeed,” he said. “Is
not the logical first step towards such an agreement to ask ourselves what
we could name as the greatest good for the constitution of a state and the
proper aim of a lawgiver in his legislation, and what would be the greatest
evil, and then to consider whether the proposals we have just set forth fit
into the footprints1 of the good and do
not suit those of the evil?” “By all means,”
he said. “Do we know of any greater evil for a state than the
thing that distracts it
1 We may perhaps infer from the more explicit reference in Theaetetus 193 C that Plato is thinking of the “recognition” by footprints in Aeschylus Choeph.205-210.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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