Chapter III Plato

of all human well-being.¹⁴⁶ A positive interest is also manifested by Plato in labor and the proper development of the arts in both the Republic and the Laws. He constantly harps on the necessity of each doing his fitting work, and doing it well, and in his opinion happiness consists in this rather than in idleness.¹⁴⁷ Indeed, that each one perform well the task for which nature has fitted him is the definition of justice itself.¹⁴⁸ The indolent rich man is a parasite and a drone, a disease of the state. This is Plato’s favorite figure in both the Republic and the Laws, a figure that is suggestive of Hesiod, the pioneer champion of labor.¹⁴⁹ He is even ready to admit that it is, after all, not the kind of labor but the character of the workman that ennobles or degrades any work.¹⁵⁰