So Zeus, afraid that our species might go extinct, sends Hermes to bring a sense of conscience and justice to humans, so that political communities could be organized and people could be brought together in joint activity. And Hermes asks Zeus how he should give out the sense of conscience and justice to humans. 'Should I hand them out like the other types of know-how? They get handed out like this: one person knowing medicine is enough for lots of people who don't, and it's the same for the

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... er types of practical know-how. Is that how I should put a sense of justice and conscience into humans, or should I deal those out to everyone?' 'To everyone', says Zeus, 'and let everyone have a share of them; for political communities could not come into being, if only a few had a share of them like with the other types of know-how. And make a law for me that anyone who doesn't have a share of conscience and justice should be killed as a cancer on the body politic'. That's why, Socrates, when there's a question about how to do carpentry or any other sort of practical know-how, the Athenians and everyone else think that only a few people should have a part in the discussion, and if anyone else from outside those few