Note 63 — Chapter XXX · POLITIKUS.
Reading edition
The exact expression occurs in Politikus, pp. 293 E, 294 A. νῦν δὲ ἤδη φανερὸν ὅτι τοῦτο βουλησόμεθα, τὸ περὶ τῆς τῶν ἄνευ νόμων ἀρχόντων ὀρθότητος διελθεῖν ἡμᾶς.
The ὀρθή, ἀληθινή, γνησία, πολιτεία are phrases employed several times — pp. 292 A-C, 293 B-E, 296 E, 297 B-D. 300 D-E: ὁ ἀληθινός, ὁ ἔντεχνος. 300 E: τὴν ἀληθινὴν ἐκείνην, τὴν τοῦ ἑνὸς μετὰ τέχνης ἄρχοντος πολιτείαν. 302 A-E.
Plato sometimes speaks as if a bad πολιτεία were no πολιτεία at all — as if a bad νόμος were no νόμος at all. See above, vol. ii. ch. xiv. pp. 88, where I have touched on this point in reviewing the Minos. This is a frequent and perplexing confusion, but purely verbal. Compare Aristotel. Polit. iii. 2. p. 1276, a. 1, where he deals with the like confusion — ἆρ’ εἰ μὴ δικαίως πολίτης, οὐ πολίτης;