The ὀρθή, ἀληθινή, γνησία, πολιτεία are phrases employed several times — pp. 292 A-C, 293 B-E, 296 E, 297 B-D. 300 D-E: ὁ ἀληθινός, ὁ ἔντεχνος. 300 E: τὴν ἀληθινὴν ἐκείνην, τὴν τοῦ ἑνὸς μετὰ τέχνης ἄρχοντος πολιτείαν. 302 A-E.
Plato sometimes speaks as if a bad πολιτεία were no πολιτεία at all — as if a bad νόμος were no νόμος at all. See above, [vol. ii. ch. xiv. pp. 88], where I have touched on this point in reviewing the Minos. This is a frequent and perplexing confusion, but purely verbal. Compare Aristotel. Polit. iii. 2. p. 1276, a. 1, where he deals with the like confusion — ἆρ’ εἰ μὴ δικαίως πολίτης, οὐ πολίτης;
[64] Plato, Kratylus, p. 388 E. Οὔκ ἄρα παντὸς ἀνδρὸς ὄνομα θέσθαι ἔστιν, ἀλλά τινος ὀνοματουργού· οὗτος δ’ ἔστιν, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὁ νομοθέτης, ὃς δὴ τῶν δημιουργῶν σπανιώτατος ἐν ἀνθρώποις γίγνεται. Compare Politik. p. 292 D.
[65] Plato, Kratyl. pp. 430, 431 D, 430 C.
[66] Plato, Kratyl. pp. 431 E, 436 B.
[67] Plato, Kratyl. p. 435 B-C.
So in the Protagoras (p. 328 A) we find the Platonic Protagoras comparing the self-originated and self-sustaining traditional ethics, to the traditional language — τίς διδάσκαλός ἐστι τοῦ Ἑλληνίζειν;
We see thus that in the Kratylus also, as well as in the Politikus, the systematic dictation of the Man of Science or Art is pronounced to be the only basis of complete rectitude. Below this, and far short of it, yet still indispensable as a supplement in real life — is, the authority of unsystematic custom or convention; not emanating from any systematic constructive Artist, but actually established (often, no one knows how) among the community, and resting upon their common sentiment, memory, and tradition.
Courage and Temperance are assumed in the Politikus. No notice taken of the doubts and difficulties raised in Lachês and Charmidês.
This is the true Platonic point of view, considering human affairs in every department, the highest as well as the lowest, as subjects of Art and Science: specialization of attributes and subdivision of function, so that the business of governing falls to the lot of one or a few highly qualified Governors: while the social edifice is assumed to have been constructed from the beginning by one of these Governors, with a view to consistent, systematic, predetermined ends — instead of that incoherent aggregate[68] which is consecrated under the empire of law and custom. Here in the Politikus, we read that the great purpose of the philosophical Governor is to train all the citizens into virtuous characters: by a proper combination of Courage and Temperance, two endowments naturally discordant, yet each alike essential in its proper season and measure. The interweaving of these two forms the true Regal Web of social life.[69]