DiotimosReading Desk

2 books

Need and utility

Meanings and passages from 2 books in the library.

From the book

Lysis

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Need and use

χρεία

chreia

Chreia means use; need or service that something supplies.

Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordChreia means use; need or service that something supplies.
  • In LysisAt 215b the allegedly self-sufficient good people have no use for one another when together.
  • Reading contextThe noun’s practical force matters: the inquiry is testing whether value and affection can be reduced to needed service.
  • A place to readThe Greek example means “But for its own sake it has no use.”
English renderings
Use; need or service that something supplies

Meaning

Use; need or service that something supplies.

Grammatical category: feminine noun.

Use in the book

At 215b the allegedly self-sufficient good people have no use for one another when together. This helps Socrates question how they could set great store by one another.

At 220d the same noun appears in the unsettling proposal that the good has no use for its own sake, if its only value is as a remedy for badness. The noun’s practical force matters: the inquiry is testing whether value and affection can be reduced to needed service.

Places to read

  1. 220dαὐτὸ δ’ ἑαυτοῦ ἕνεκα οὐδεμίαν χρείαν ἔχει — But for its own sake it has no use.
  2. 215b

From the book

Stobaeus, Volume I

John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →

Need and utility

χρεία

chreia

Chreia can mean need or use.

Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordChreia can mean need or use.
  • In StobaeusThe gods ask the creator to consider what already exists and what future things will need.
  • In this edition“Need” is clearest here; “utility” suits contexts about the use served by something.
  • A place to beginFuture requirements are included in the request for cosmic ordering.
English renderings
need; requirement; utility

Meaning

Chreia can mean need or use. A construction about having need of something emphasizes requirement rather than usefulness alone.

Use in the book

The gods ask the creator to consider what already exists and what future things will need. Need belongs to prospective ordering of the world: what is to come requires provision. The passage does not reduce every need to a felt desire of an individual.

Places to read

  1. I.49.44.10Future requirements are included in the request for cosmic ordering.

Translation in this edition

“Need” is clearest here; “utility” suits contexts about the use served by something.

Source note

Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 388. A supplied article turns the expression later into later things in the adopted Greek.