From the book
Alcibiades II
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordHoi polloi means the many, oligoi the few.
- In Alcibiades IIAt 139c Alcibiades agrees that intelligent citizens are few and unintelligent ones many.
- In this editionThe edition retains both the many/few opposition and the frequency adverbs.
- A place to readThe many/few contrast makes the proposed identity of madness and unintelligence untenable.
Meaning
Hoi polloi means the many, oligoi the few. Ta polla can mean for the most part, and oligakis seldom or rarely. The expressions concern different quantities: the number of people described, the frequency of their failures, or the frequency of benefit from knowledge. They should not be treated as interchangeable logical quantifiers.
Use in the book
At 139c Alcibiades agrees that intelligent citizens are few and unintelligent ones many. When unintelligence has just been identified with madness, this produces the absurdly dangerous city of madmen. The demographic premise survives the rejection of that identification: Socrates resumes it at 145a and 146c. The many are not being rediagnosed as the violent extreme; they are people who lack the guiding practical judgment.
The numerical contrast supplies no census, social class or named party. Although it takes place in a civic conversation, “the many” cannot automatically be equated with a particular constitutional faction. The experts of the imagined commonwealth can be included in the deficiency despite being exceptionally skilled. Technical distinction is not a guarantee of membership in the intelligent few.
Frequency language separately qualifies the central thesis. Other knowledge without the best seldom benefits and mostly harms at 144d and 146e; the many have in most things trusted opinion without sense at 146c. These are broad empirical-sounding assertions for which examples and analogies are offered, not numerical findings. Preserving the qualifiers avoids converting “for the most part” into “in every case”.
Places to read
- 139c–dThe many/few contrast makes the proposed identity of madness and unintelligence untenable.
- 145aThe numerical contrast is resumed without that identity.
- 146c–dThe many’s typical judgment and readiness to act sustain the warning.
- 144d; 146eSeldom and mostly qualify the assessment of ungoverned knowledge.
Translation in this edition
The edition retains both the many/few opposition and the frequency adverbs. At 146e Burnet prints oligakis, “seldom”, while Cobet proposed oliga, “few things”. The printed text therefore makes a frequency claim that should not be silently converted into a count of beneficial items.