ABSTRACT
In the dialogue of his name, Protagoras professes to teach aretē and in particular politikē aretē. Plato’s exposition of how a skill becomes an excellence through the giving of justice and good sense demonstrates the relation of politikē and polis and the relation of justice to both. The linguistic origins of politikē technē conceal whether it is a craft relating to city building and planning in terms of architecture, and reveal the role it plays in how to plan a city as a society of justice. Dierent translations of politikē aretē and politikē technē shed light on our received notions of civic justice and the complexities of urban co-existence, that is, the means by which millions of individuals from diverse strata all live together in cities. Translations of Protagoras render politikē aretē variously as: ‘running the city’; ‘civic art’; ‘political excellence or virtue’; ‘political excellence’ or ‘good citizenship’, and politikē technē as: ‘art of running a city’; ‘civic art’; ‘the art of government’; ‘city craft’; or ‘the art of politics’.1
