Some one else, then, said Critias; for certainly I have not.
And yet if reading and writing are the same as doing, you But what matter, said Charmides, from whom I heard were doing what was not your own business?
this?
But they are the same as doing.
No matter at all, I replied; for the point is not who said And the healing art, my friend, and building, and weav-the words, but whether they are true or not.
ing, and doing anything whatever which is done by art,—
There you are in the right, Socrates, he replied.
these all clearly come under the head of doing?
To be sure, I said; yet I doubt whether we shall ever be Certainly.
able to discover their truth or falsehood; for they are a kind And do you think that a state would be well ordered by a of riddle.
law which compelled every man to weave and wash his 12
“Charmides” – Plato
own coat, and make his own shoes, and his own flask and And what is the meaning of a man doing his own busi-strigil, and other implements, on this principle of every ness? Can you tell me?
one doing and performing his own, and abstaining from Indeed, I cannot; and I should not wonder if the man what is not his own?
himself who used this phrase did not understand what he I think not, he said.
was saying. Whereupon he laughed slyly, and looked at But, I said, a temperate state will be a well-ordered state.