INTRODUCTION vice(S65 A-B)a that it is really and intrinsically better to be than to seem just b It is Plato's method always to restate a satirized and controverted doctrine in its most plausible form efore proceeding to a definitive refutation. e As he himself says in the Phaedrus(272 c),"it is right to give the wolf too a hearing It is also characteristic of Plato that he prefers to put the strongest statement of the sophistic, im moralist, Machiavellian, Hobbesian, Nietzschean olitical ethics in the mouths of speakers who are historical justification of the procedure, that there exists not a shred of evidence that any conte or predecessor of Plato could state any horary theories which he assailed as well, as fully, as coherently, as systematically, as he has done it for them response to the challenge of Glaucon and Adeimantus, Socrates proposes to study the nature of justice and injustice writ large in the larger organism of the state, and to test the conceptions so won by their application to the individual also (86S E, 869 A). Plato, though he freely employs rudest form of hostile theol st, that he always goes on to re that they were ever formulated with the proper logical ons except by himself.INTRODUCTION vice (365 a-b) " that it is really and intrinsically better to be than to seem just.** It is Plato's method always to restate a satirized and controverted doctrine in its most plausible form before proceeding to a definitive refutation. '^ As he himself says in the Phaedrus (272 c), " it is right to give the wolf too a hearincr." It is also characteristic of Plato that he prefers to put the strongest statement of the sophistic, im￾moralist, Machiavellian, Hobbesian, Nietzschean political ethics in the mouths of speakers who are themselves on the side of the angels.** There is this historical justification of the procedure, that there exists not a shred of evidence that any contemporary or predecessor of Plato could state any of their theories which he assailed as well, as fully, as coherently, as systematically, as he has done it for them. In response to the challenge of Glaucon and Adeimantus, Socrates proposes to study the nature of justice and injustice wTit large in the larger organism of the state, and to test the conceptions so won by their application to the individual also (368 E, 369 a). Plato, though he freely employs • Cf. my Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 25, n. 164. " Cf. 362 A with 367 e. « Cf. my Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 8 : ... the elaborate refutations which Plato thinks fit to give of the crudest form of hostile theories sometimes produce an impression of unfairness upon modern critics. They forget two things : First, that he always goes on to restate the theory and refute its fair meaning ; second, that in the case of many doctrines combated by Plato there is no evidence that they were ever formulated with the proper logical qualifications except by himself." " Cf. 368 A-B