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will depart; although I should have liked to have heard you.
Thus I spoke, and was rising from my seat, when Callias seized me by the
right hand, and in his left hand caught hold of this old cloak of mine. He said:
We cannot let you go, Socrates, for if you leave us there will be an end of our
discussions: I must therefore beg you to remain, as there is nothing in the
world that I should like better than to hear you and Protagoras discourse. Do
not deny the company this pleasure.
Now I had got up, and was in the act of departure. Son of Hipponicus, I
replied, I have always admired, and do now heartily applaud and love your
philosophical spirit, and I would gladly comply with your request, if I could.
But the truth is that I cannot. And what you ask is as great an impossibility to
me, as if you bade me run a race with Crison of Himera, when in his prime, or
with some one of the long or day course runners. To such a request I should
reply that I would fain ask the same of my own legs; but they refuse to
comply. And therefore if you want to see Crison and me in the same stadium,
you must bid him slacken his speed to mine, for I cannot run quickly, and he
can run slowly. And in like manner if you want to hear me and Protagoras
discoursing, you must ask him to shorten his answers, and keep to the point,
as he did at first; if not, how can there be any discussion? For discussion is
one thing, and making an oration is quite another, in my humble opinion.
But you see, Socrates, said Callias, that Protagoras may fairly claim to
speak in his own way, just as you claim to speak in yours.
Here Alcibiades interposed, and said: That, Callias, is not a true statement
of the case. For our friend Socrates admits that he cannot make a speech—in
this he yields the palm to Protagoras: but I should be greatly surprised if he
yielded to any living man in the power of holding and apprehending an
argument. Now if Protagoras will make a similar admission, and confess that
he is inferior to Socrates in argumentative skill, that is enough for Socrates;
but if he claims a superiority in argument as well, let him ask and answer—
not, when a question is asked, slipping away from the point, and instead of
answering, making a speech at such length that most of his hearers forget the
question at issue (not that Socrates is likely to forget—I will be bound for
that, although he may pretend in fun that he has a bad memory). And Socrates
appears to me to be more in the right than Protagoras; that is my view, and
every man ought to say what he thinks.
When Alcibiades had done speaking, some one—Critias, I believe—went
on to say: O Prodicus and Hippias, Callias appears to me to be a partisan of
Protagoras: and this led Alcibiades, who loves opposition, to take the other
side. But we should not be partisans either of Socrates or of Protagoras; let us
rather unite in entreating both of them not to break up the discussion.
271
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Buch The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Titel
- The Complete Plato
- Autor
- Plato
- Datum
- ~347 B.C.
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 1612
- Schlagwörter
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Kategorien
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International