Runner-up: just under the top

Use in the book

Socrates develops the label from the pentathlete analogy. The person who has philosophized falls short of the first in understanding the crafts, holds the second prizes and surpasses everyone else. This is a revised account of philosophy after the maximal learning proposed earlier has met the problem of measure and the difficulty of exact mastery.

The lover’s approving answer gives the rank a rationale. Specialists are left behind in other fields because of attention to one thing. The runner-up sacrifices the last increment of precision in exchange for breadth. The dialogue thus gives the ideal a real attraction before testing it; the figure should not be caricatured as a fool who knows nothing properly.

Socrates’ next question asks where such people are useful. In sickness the lover initially says he would summon both doctor and runner-up. When pressed about priority, he prefers the doctor; in a storm he prefers the pilot. The concession establishes the superior person to trust for the relevant task. The further conclusion that the runner-up has no usefulness is accepted, but it does not follow from comparative rank alone. A secondary role might still be valuable. That unresolved possibility is a limitation of the argument, not a reason to ignore its actual course.

At 138e the label is reapplied to the field of just judgment and good order. Should the philosopher be a runner-up here as well? The demand that he take responsibility for his household and lead in entrusted decisions rejects that alternative. The last movement therefore does not make him first in every technical field. It singles out the responsibilities explored in the final argument and denies that second place is enough there.

The phrase “in everything” at 136a belongs to the lover’s rejected model. Reading the ending as a promise of universal intellectual supremacy would reproduce the breadth problem rather than solve it. The dialogue does not provide a complete positive definition that specifies how philosophy secures the required governing knowledge.

Places to read

1. 136aπερὶ πάντα ὕπακρόν τινα ἄνδρα — The proposed philosopher is a kind of runner-up in everything.
2. 136cποῦ καὶ χρήσιμοι ἡμῖν εἰσιν οἱ ὕπακροι οὗτοι — Socrates turns the flattering label into a question of use.
3. 138eπένταθλον αὐτὸν δεῖν εἶναι καὶ ὕπακρον — Second rank is explicitly reconsidered for judging and ordering.

Translation in this edition

At 136c Burnet brackets the explanatory words “the philosopher” following “that runner-up”; the edition leaves those bracketed words untranslated. This does not make the identity of the runner-up uncertain: the preceding discussion supplies it. Note 18 explains the lexical link with akros and the rank above all other nonspecialists.