TECHNĒ AND ARCHĒ IN PLATO’S REPUBLIC BOOK 1

Socrates’ refutation of Thrasymachus in Republic Book 1 is usually read as hinging on the nature of technē (often translated as ‘craft’ or ‘skill’; I translate as ‘profession’). This paper argues that it hinges at least as much on a link drawn between technē (or at least between a group of therapeutic technai), and the phenomenon of rule (archē, noun; archein, verb). It is this move by Socrates that ultimately enables him to sublate Thrasymachus’ original definition. Whereas Thrasymachus had offered a claim about the political domination by the strong over the weak, Socrates invokes a general claim about rule as such to argue that the advantage of rulers can lie only in exercising their rule as completely and perfectly as possible. It is the nature of rule and not the nature of crafts or professions alone that generates this result.