At the beginning of Book 5 Plato catalogues the ways in which men ‘dishonour’ ( 727 c 3) their souls, and at 728 ab sums up by saying that any man who does not practise what the lawgiver describes as noble and good is treating his soul dishonourably. He goes on to say that hardly anyone takes account of (728 b 2), which is to cut oneself off from good men and be completely assimilated to the bad (6). We the n read (c 2 + ):