Carpenter and carpentry · Lexicon

From the book

The Lovers

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordTektōn is a carpenter or builder; tektonikē is the corresponding craft, carpentry.
In The LoversThe example tests the lover’s proposal to learn what belongs to understanding rather than handiwork.
In this editionEdition note 16 gives the conversion of one mina to one hundred drachmas.
A place to readὥσπερ ἐν τῇ τεκτονικῇ — Carpentry is Socrates’ concrete test of the proposed distinction.

Meaning

Tektōn is a carpenter or builder; tektonikē is the corresponding craft, carpentry. The edition chooses “carpenter” and “carpentry” for the ordinary practitioner and craft at 135b–c. The word does not itself imply that the person lacks all understanding. Socrates distinguishes this worker from a top master builder within the same broad field, rather than contrasting a mindless hand with an entirely unrelated intellectual profession.

Use in the book

The example tests the lover’s proposal to learn what belongs to understanding rather than handiwork. Socrates asks whether he means something like the difference between the available carpenter and the exceptionally rare master builder. The lover agrees. The money comparison then makes the gap vivid: the ordinary carpenter can be bought for five or six minae, whereas even ten thousand drachmas would not buy the top master builder.

The verb “buy” makes the human transaction part of the illustration. It should not be silently converted into an annual wage or a consultancy fee. The example belongs to a society in which a skilled person could be owned and purchased. At the same time, the dialogue supplies no biography, actual sale or independently documented market quotation; these are illustrative figures within Socrates’ question.

Socrates next asks whether one person could learn even two crafts in the proposed way. That question depends on taking the understanding of a master builder seriously. If the lover’s generalist must possess this kind of command in each domain, breadth becomes implausible. The lover accordingly clarifies that he has meant a lower degree of knowledge. The carpenter is thus not a disposable picturesque detail: the comparison forces the move from commanding intelligence within a craft to cultivated participation around it.

Places to read

135bὥσπερ ἐν τῇ τεκτονικῇ — Carpentry is Socrates’ concrete test of the proposed distinction.
135cτέκτονα μὲν ἂν πρίαιο πέντε ἢ ἓξ μνῶν — The hypothetical purchase names a range of five or six minae.

Translation in this edition

Edition note 16 gives the conversion of one mina to one hundred drachmas. It treats the master builder as worth more than sixteen carpenters at the higher ordinary price. That is a comparison of the stated lower bound with six minae, not an exact valuation of the master builder.