Division and parts · Lexicon

From the book

Alcibiades II

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordMeros is a part or share; merē its plural.
In Alcibiades IIThe model is established through illness: all ophthalmia is disease, but not all disease is ophthalmia.
In this editionThe edition retains “parts” for craftsmanship and “part” for the commonwealth.
A place to readAll ophthalmia is disease, but the converse is denied.

Meaning

Meros is a part or share; merē its plural. Dieilēphotes, the form used of craftsmen and unintelligent people, says that they have divided or apportioned something among themselves. The discussion also relies on “all” and “all together”. “Genus” and “species” describe its inclusive structure for the reader; those technical nouns are not the wording of this passage.

Use in the book

The model is established through illness: all ophthalmia is disease, but not all disease is ophthalmia. This is a directional relation. Reversing it would mistake a particular kind for the encompassing class. The repeated assent at 140a draws attention to the difference between inclusion and equivalence, a distinction the first argument about madness had failed to respect.

Craftsmanship supplies a parallel. Shoemakers, carpenters and sculptors have divided its parts among them, and all are craftsmen; the collective description does not make them all carpenters or all shoemakers. Socrates then transfers the structure to unintelligence. At 140c the transfer changes register: madness is possession of its largest part, other names designate smaller shares, and the conclusion at 140d again speaks of differences comparable to craft from craft and disease from disease. Quantitative shares and qualitative kinds are thus juxtaposed rather than rigorously distinguished.

The language of apportionment becomes politically charged at 146a. Each expert tries to allot the largest part of the commonwealth to the activity in which he is strongest. A legitimate part now tries to dominate the whole. This is not another formal division, but it exposes why the earlier fact that an expert belongs to a class does not license treating his special competence as sufficient government of a city.

Places to read

139e–140aAll ophthalmia is disease, but the converse is denied.
140b–c2Craftsmen divide the parts of craftsmanship without becoming identical specialists.
140c–dUnintelligence is divided through a mixture of degrees and kinds.
146aExperts seek the largest civic share for their particular craft.

Translation in this edition

The edition retains “parts” for craftsmanship and “part” for the commonwealth. Its quotation marks at 146a include “part”, which belongs to the adapted Euripidean wording. The phrase “all together” at 140c is important: the collective designation does not erase the several occupations.