Many crafts · Lexicon

From the book

Alcibiades II

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordPolytechnia means possession of many crafts or much craft.
In Alcibiades IIThe thesis about the other kinds of knowledge is introduced at 144d and restated at 146e.
In this editionAt 147a Burnet prints polytechnia from B. T has philotechnia, “love of craft”, with poly- written above its opening letters.
A place to readPossession of other kinds of knowledge is first assessed without the best.

Meaning

Polytechnia means possession of many crafts or much craft. Its only occurrence in the dialogue, at 147a, joins much learning. The surrounding language of “the other kinds of knowledge” makes the relevant contrast: plurality of competencies can equip a person to do many things while leaving their direction unsettled.

Use in the book

The thesis about the other kinds of knowledge is introduced at 144d and restated at 146e. It is a claim about their possession without knowledge of the best, not about an inherent defect in their particular subject matters. The intervening examples include skilled advice, war, horsemanship, boxing and flute-playing. Accumulating such abilities does not automatically answer the question of when and toward whom each should be used.

At 147a plurality becomes a source of competing direction. The person of many crafts is “led by each one of the others” while orphaned of the governing knowledge. This recalls the commonwealth whose experts promote their own fields. The one person and the collective suffer analogous problems: the available powers do not select or coordinate their own appropriate employment merely by existing together.

The nautical image gives this deficiency a consequence. A stronger favourable wind can make the unguided course more dangerous, just as greater capacity can enlarge mistakes. The argument does not supply a numerical threshold beyond which craftsmanship becomes excessive. Its decisive condition is lack of a pilot, so the remedy is guidance rather than a stipulated maximum number of crafts.

Places to read

144dPossession of other kinds of knowledge is first assessed without the best.
145e–146aA multiplicity of capable specialists fails to govern itself.
146e–147a2The guiding knowledge is required for both city and soul.
147a–bMuch craft without a pilot becomes a storm-bound course of life.

Translation in this edition

At 147a Burnet prints polytechnia from B. T has philotechnia, “love of craft”, with poly- written above its opening letters. “Much craft” therefore follows a stated textual choice; it must not be casually restated as the manuscript-unanimous “love of arts”.