Production, work, and action

Use in the book

At 115e Socrates speaks of rescue as fine in respect of the πρᾶξις of courage and bad in respect of that of death. The phrasing is striking because “doing death” is not a normal English action description. The next question speaks of an action producing something bad or good. The terminology connects an undertaking with its aspects and results, but one should not extract a fully theorized distinction between a pure action and its external product from the changing verbs.

The craft comparison at 125a uses ἐργασία for producing shoes and cloaks. Here the products delimit the competence: the shoemaker is good at one making and not the other. At 125c Socrates asks whether the people to be ruled are doing nothing or doing something, with ποιεῖν functioning as a broad verb of activity rather than a specialized theory of fabrication. Their dealings with one another are then specified as political life.

At 128b–e23 making something better is the criterion of correct care. Crafts are distinguished by what they improve, not exclusively by what new object they manufacture. The shoemaker's tools and bodily instruments at 129c–e2 support the user–used distinction: hands and eyes are what craftsmen work with, not the craftsmen themselves.

Political activity is repeatedly described as doing the city's affairs, and εὖ πράττειν links acting well to faring well. These continuities matter more here than a textbook dichotomy between productive and practical knowledge. Each local use asks who acts, on what, with what means, under which competence, and to what effect.

Places to read

1. 115e–116aThe same rescue involves the doing of courage and the doing of death in different respects
2. 124e–125c23Managing affairs, craft production, and doing something are successively specified
3. 128b–128e23Correct care makes its proper object better
4. 129c–129e2Working with tools, hands, and eyes supports the distinction of user and used
5. 134a–134e2Political action and doing well remain linked through πράττειν

Translation in this edition

The edition consistently translates πρᾶξις as “doing” in the rescue argument, even in the awkward phrase “doing of death.” Elsewhere English “make,” “do,” “act,” “work,” and “manage” must be traced to their local Greek rather than assumed to mark philosophical categories.

ἔργον / ἐργάζομαι / ἐργασία

Attested: ἔργον (ergon; 119e); ἐργασίαν (ergasian; 125a); ἐργάζονται (ergazontai; 129e). At 119e: A fine deed worthy of Alcibiades and the city. At 125a: Production of shoes or cloaks, domains that delimit craft competence. At 129e: Work with bodily means such as hands and eyes. Lexical identification: family label: ἔργον / ἐργάζομαι / ἐργασία. See Production, work, and action.

ποιέω

Attested: ποιούντων (poiountōn; 125c); ποιεῖ (poiei; 128b). At 125c: Doing something, a broad activity-description that still fails to specify political subjects. At 128b: Makes something better, the criterion of correct care. Lexical identification: lemma: ποιέω. See Production, work, and action.

πράττω / πρᾶξις

Attested: πρᾶξιν (praxin; 115e); πράττειν (prattein; 124e). At 115e: A doing of courage or death, the different respects in which rescue is evaluated. At 124e: Managing affairs, the initially underspecified field of Alcibiades’ desired excellence. Lexical identification: family label: πράττω / πρᾶξις. See Production, work, and action.