No less and equal comparison

Use in the book

The first refutation ends with a carefully weakened comparison. Even if quiet actions prove fine no less often than vigorous ones, quietness has no exclusive title to be temperance. The premise that temperance is fine cannot select the quiet over the quick when quick actions are no less fine. This is not a conclusion that quiet actions are never fine, or that speed always wins. The comparative structure blocks one identification without supplying the opposite definition.

The school example similarly refuses a privileged restriction: pupils write enemies’ names no less than their own or friends’ names. The point concerns the activity’s object, not equal affection for the people named. In the final knowledge argument Socrates asks whether every kind of knowledge contributes alike to happiness; Critias denies it. This answer motivates the search for the relevant knowledge rather than allowing “knowledge” to function as an undifferentiated good. When knowledge of good and bad is hypothetically removed, Critias agrees that the crafts would produce their characteristic results no less effectively. The very next qualification removes the well and beneficially. Undiminished technical output is therefore not undiminished happiness or benefit. A reader who lets “no less” carry the latter claim has reversed the contrast the example is constructed to draw.

Places to read

1. 160b–160d2The comparison defeats quietness’s exclusive claim without proving it never fine.
2. 161dWriting others’ names is no less ordinary than writing one’s own.
3. 174a–174b2Critias denies that all knowledges contribute alike to happiness.
4. 174c–174dCraft outputs remain undiminished while beneficial use or outcome is withheld.

Translation in this edition

The edition’s “no fewer,” “no less,” “just as much” and “alike” should be read with their respective objects. Their grammatical similarity does not make their standards of comparison interchangeable.

οὐδὲν ἧττον

Attested: οὐδὲν ἧττον (ouden hētton). No less, or just as much; children write others’ names no less than their own, and crafts retain their technical effects no less when knowledge of good and bad is removed. References: 161d, 174c. Lexical identification: phrase template: οὐδὲν ἧττον. See No less and equal comparison.