From the end of book 1, Socrates speaking to Thrasymachus blushing:
"I have not dined well, however— [354b] by my own fault, not yours. But just as gluttons snatch at every dish that is handed along and taste it before they have properly enjoyed the preceding, so I, methinks, before finding the first object of our inquiry—what justice is—let go of that and set out to consider something about it, namely whether it is vice and ignorance or wisdom and virtue; and again, when later the view was sprung upon us that injustice is more profitable than justice I could not refrain from turning to that from the other topic. So that for me [354c] the present outcome of the discussion is that I know nothing. For if I don't know what the just is, I shall hardly know whether it is a virtue or not, and whether its possessor is or is not happy.”
We snacked on summery picnic food and wondered what Socrates was doing: answering this new demand for praise of justice' inherent worth against the praises of injustice by considering a city as a way to see the individual better? We were joined by Paul and Nate this time, and also ranged over the Ring of Gyges' relationship to the One Ring and the parameters for music/poetry and the sorts of stories about gods to be told in this city.
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