War and peace

Use in the book

At 107d Alcibiades selects war and peace as the matters on which he will advise the Athenians. Socrates immediately disaggregates the decision: with whom to make peace, against whom to fight, in what way, when, and for how long. Each choice requires a standard of better. Athletic and musical comparisons expose the difficulty of claiming expertise while unable to name its governing criterion.

The war grievances at 109a–c2 bring justice into view. Deception, coercion, and deprivation do not suffice as descriptions; one must know whether the suffering was just or unjust. Alcibiades admits that recommending war against people doing just things would be publicly indefensible, and accepts that the relevant better is the more just. The discussion does not establish a systematic law of justified war or identify a particular contemporary enemy as unjust.

At 112a–d2 warfare becomes evidence against the many's expertise in justice. Disagreement about just and unjust matters produces lethal conflict in the Homeric poems and in the historical battles named by Socrates. Coronea makes the issue personal because Alcibiades' father died there. The inference is that a group so divided cannot be assumed competent to teach justice, not that every disagreement about justice must lead to war.

The rescue case at 115b–116a2 uses the immediate danger of battle to test fine and good action. Later, naval combat and foreign kings enlarge the standard of preparation beyond defeating untrained fellow citizens (119d–120a2). Warfare thus supplies the initial political ambition, the cost of defective moral judgment, and the exemplary situation in which noble conduct may have disastrous consequences.

Places to read

1. 107d–109c234War and peace require a criterion governing persons, timing, manner, and duration
2. 112a–112d2Lethal conflicts illustrate the many’s unstable judgment of justice
3. 115b–116a2Battlefield rescue tests the relations among fine action, courage, injury, and death
4. 119d–120a2Sea battle and foreign rulers redirect Alcibiades toward formidable external opponents

Translation in this edition

The edition keeps the “better” in war connected verbally with the “better” in peace and in the craft analogies. It does not insert a distinct technical expression such as “just-war theory.” At 109c the public-admission context must be retained when explaining how the more just becomes the proposed standard.

εἰρήνη

Attested: εἰρήνης (eirēnēs; 107d); εἰρήνην (eirēnēn; 108d). At 107d: Peace as a subject of civic deliberation. At 108d: Maintaining peace as an activity whose better needs specification. Lexical identification: lemma: εἰρήνη. See War and peace.

μάχη

Attested: μάχαι (machai; 112b). At 112b: Battles arising from disagreements over justice in the Homeric examples. Lexical identification: lemma: μάχη. See War and peace.

πόλεμος / πολεμέω

Attested: πολέμου (polemou; 107d); πολεμεῖν (polemein; 109c). At 107d: War as a subject of civic deliberation. At 109c: Making war or not under a standard identified as the more just. Lexical identification: family label: πόλεμος / πολεμέω. See War and peace.

σῴζω

Attested: σῶσαι (sōsai; 115b); σῴζεσθαι (sōizesthai; 126a). To save or bring to safety. At 115b: To save those whom the rescuer ought to save. At 126a: Being kept safe, the stated end of piloting and of the proposed political counsel. Lexical identification: lemma: σῴζω. See War and peace.