batch.motif.greek-plato-republic-jowett-gutenberg-l14389-l14543
---
record_id: batch.motif.greek-plato-republic-jowett-gutenberg-l14389-l14543
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
passage_locator:
label: BOOK I. / BOOK II. / BOOK III. / BOOK IV.; lines 14389-14543
start: '14389'
end: '14543'
translation: The Republic
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: justice was doing one’s own business, and not being a busybody
summary: The passage distinguishes temperance from courage and wisdom, presents
temperance as a harmony throughout the state, then stages the search for justice
through a hunting metaphor. Justice is identified as each person doing the work
suited to them and not interfering with another’s role; legal justice is framed
as not taking what belongs to another or being deprived of one’s own. Interchange
among the three social classes is described as harmful and ruinous to the state.
language: English
quote_policy: quoted
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: Temperance is described as extending through the whole state and producing
harmony among weaker, stronger, and middle elements.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The speakers describe the search for justice as if they were huntsmen surrounding
cover, seeking a quarry that might escape.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: The way forward is described as having no path, and the wood as dark and perplexing.
category: setting
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:4
text: The speaker says justice had been present at their feet and in their hands
while they looked farther away.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:5
text: Justice is identified with the principle that one person should practice the
one thing for which their nature is best adapted.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: obs:6
text: Justice is described as the remaining fourth virtue and as a cause, condition,
and preservative of the other virtues.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:7
text: Rulers decide lawsuits on the principle that a person should neither take
what belongs to another nor lose what is their own.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:8
text: Interchange or meddling among traders, warriors, and guardians is described
as the greatest harm and ruin of the state.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Socratic speaker
description: The first-person speaker who leads the inquiry and proposes the hunting
metaphor for finding justice.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Glaucon
description: The interlocutor addressed by name, who agrees to follow and responds
to the speaker’s arguments.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Justice
description: An abstract virtue personified as something that may steal away, escape,
be sighted, and later be recognized as doing one’s own work.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:5
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Rulers
description: Those entrusted with determining lawsuits and associated with wisdom
and watchfulness in the state.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Soldiers or warriors
description: A class associated with preserving lawful opinion about dangers and
with duties distinct from traders and guardians.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:8
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Traders, artisans, cobblers, and carpenters
description: Occupational figures used as examples of persons whose proper work
should not be exchanged or confused with another’s.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:8
roles:
- id: role:1
label: Guide in inquiry
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The speaker tells Glaucon to follow, says he must show the way, and identifies
the track toward justice.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:2
label: Follower and respondent
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: Glaucon says he can follow and see what the speaker shows him, then answers
the questions posed.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:3
label: Sought virtue
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: Justice is treated as the object of the search and then defined as doing
one’s own business.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:5
- id: role:4
label: Judicial rulers
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: Rulers are said to be entrusted with determining suits at law.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: role:5
label: Defensive class
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: Soldiers preserve the law’s opinion about dangers, and warriors are one of
the distinct classes whose duties should not be interchanged.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:8
- id: role:6
label: Occupational producers
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: Carpenters, cobblers, traders, and artisans are examples of persons with
their own proper work.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:8
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: Harmony of the whole
literal_form: Notes of the scale and harmony among weaker, stronger, and middle
elements
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: sym:2
label: Hunt for justice
literal_form: Huntsmen, cover, quarry, sighting, and escape
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: sym:3
label: Dark perplexing wood
literal_form: No path, dark and perplexing wood, and a track
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: sym:4
label: Object near at hand
literal_form: Justice at their feet and what they had in their hands
associated_figures:
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Temperance as social harmony
summary: Temperance is said to differ from courage and wisdom because it extends
through the whole state as agreement between superior and inferior about who should
rule.
figure_refs: []
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: Search for justice as a hunt
summary: The speakers frame the inquiry into justice as entering a dark, pathless
wood, surrounding cover, and looking for tracks of the quarry.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: scene:3
label: Recognition of justice nearby
summary: The speaker says justice had been present throughout the inquiry, like
an object held in hand while being searched for at a distance.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: scene:4
label: Definition of justice as proper work
summary: Justice is identified as each person doing the single work suited to their
nature and not being a busybody.
figure_refs:
- fig:3
- fig:6
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: scene:5
label: Legal and class-order applications
summary: The passage applies justice to lawsuits about one’s own property and to
the prohibition of role interchange among traders, warriors, and guardians.
figure_refs:
- fig:4
- fig:5
- fig:6
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: Quest for a hidden moral truth
taxonomy_refs:
- mystical_quest
basis: The inquiry personifies justice as a quarry sought through a dark, perplexing
wood until a track is found.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage is philosophical argument using metaphor, not a mythic quest
narrative.
- id: motif:2
label: Harmony of unequal parts under proper rule
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Temperance is represented as harmony among stronger, weaker, and middle elements
and as agreement about the right to rule.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
confidence: medium
cautions: This is a political-ethical image rather than a narrative mythic motif.
- id: motif:3
label: Proper function and boundary maintenance
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Justice is defined as doing one’s own work, while class interchange and meddling
are called ruinous to the state.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:8
confidence: high
cautions: No supplied taxonomy family directly matches this social-order pattern.
- id: motif:4
label: Wisdom as governing watchfulness
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: Wisdom and watchfulness are located in the rulers, and wisdom is one of the
virtues that makes the state excellent.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
confidence: medium
cautions: Wisdom appears here as a civic virtue, not as a mythic sage figure or
revelation motif.
comparison_claims: []
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: 14389-14396
quote_or_summary: Temperance is said to extend through the whole, run through all
notes of the scale, produce harmony among weaker, stronger, and middle classes,
and establish agreement about the right to rule.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short summary from supplied passage.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: 14405-14427
quote_or_summary: The speakers liken the search for justice to huntsmen surrounding
cover; Glaucon follows while the speaker notes there is no path, the wood is dark
and perplexing, and then perceives a track of the quarry.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary from supplied passage.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: 14429-14440
quote_or_summary: The speaker says justice was at their feet and compares them to
people looking for what they already have in their hands, because they had been
discussing justice without recognizing it.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary from supplied passage.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: 14444-14449
quote_or_summary: 'The original founding principle is recalled: one person should
practice one thing only, the thing to which their nature is best adapted, and
justice is said to be this principle or part of it.'
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary from supplied passage.
- id: ev:5
type: quote
locator: 14451-14455
quote_or_summary: "“justice was doing one’s own business, and not being a busybody”"
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation from supplied passage.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: 14459-14478
quote_or_summary: Justice is described as the remaining virtue when temperance,
courage, and wisdom are abstracted, and as the cause, condition, and preservative
of the other virtues; wisdom and watchfulness are associated with rulers.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary from supplied passage.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: 14487-14500
quote_or_summary: Rulers are those entrusted with deciding lawsuits, and suits are
decided on the ground that a person should not take what belongs to another or
be deprived of what is their own.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary from supplied passage.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: 14502-14543
quote_or_summary: Examples of carpenters, cobblers, traders, warriors, legislators,
and guardians show that minor craft exchange is less harmful, while class interchange
or one person combining trader, legislator, and warrior is the ruin of the state.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/greek/project-gutenberg/republic-jowett.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary from supplied passage.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: high
notes: Literal extraction is straightforward. Motif candidates are cautious because
the passage is philosophical and metaphorical rather than mythic narrative. No
comparison claims were made because the passage itself does not support an external
comparison.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
Used only the supplied passage, metadata, and available taxonomy references.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:greek-plato-republic-jowett-gutenberg__l14389-l14543
passage_sha256=92405f7eae3d6900da966d5c3624e24ad56cfb0a6f98878264fdd21d3c5f1e44