Thank you, Glaucon

In reading Plato’s The Republic I’ve been entirely befuddled by Socrates on more than one occasion. The beauty of the piece is that it’s a dialog and the various interlocutors are often as nonplussed as myself. I’ve found that usually during these times of bewilderment one only has to read on for Glaucon, Adeimantus, etc. to request and subsequently receive an explanation from Socrates himself. Sure beats trying to make sense of some Socrates’ verbal soup myself.

“However,” I said, “of all things that are such as to be related to something, those that are of a certain kind are related to a thing of a certain kind, as it seems to me, while those that are severally themselves are related only to a thing that is itself.”

“I don’t understand,” [Glaucon] said.

“Don’t you understand,” I said, “that the greater is such as to be greater than something?”

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