Seite - 273 - in The Complete Plato
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And if you say, ‘Let us have a better then,’—to that I answer that you cannot
have any one who is wiser than Protagoras. And if you choose another who is
not really better, and whom you only say is better, to put another over him as
though he were an inferior person would be an unworthy reflection on him;
not that, as far as I am concerned, any reflection is of much consequence to
me. Let me tell you then what I will do in order that the conversation and
discussion may go on as you desire. If Protagoras is not disposed to answer,
let him ask and I will answer; and I will endeavour to show at the same time
how, as I maintain, he ought to answer: and when I have answered as many
questions as he likes to ask, let him in like manner answer me; and if he
seems to be not very ready at answering the precise question asked of him,
you and I will unite in entreating him, as you entreated me, not to spoil the
discussion. And this will require no special arbiter—all of you shall be
arbiters.
This was generally approved, and Protagoras, though very much against his
will, was obliged to agree that he would ask questions; and when he had put a
sufficient number of them, that he would answer in his turn those which he
was asked in short replies. He began to put his questions as follows:—
I am of opinion, Socrates, he said, that skill in poetry is the principal part of
education; and this I conceive to be the power of knowing what compositions
of the poets are correct, and what are not, and how they are to be
distinguished, and of explaining when asked the reason of the difference. And
I propose to transfer the question which you and I have been discussing to the
domain of poetry; we will speak as before of virtue, but in reference to a
passage of a poet. Now Simonides says to Scopas the son of Creon the
Thessalian:
‘Hardly on the one hand can a man become truly good, built four-square in
hands and feet and mind, a work without a flaw.’
Do you know the poem? or shall I repeat the whole?
There is no need, I said; for I am perfectly well acquainted with the ode, —
I have made a careful study of it.
Very well, he said. And do you think that the ode is a good composition,
and true?
Yes, I said, both good and true.
But if there is a contradiction, can the composition be good or true?
No, not in that case, I replied.
And is there not a contradiction? he asked. Reflect.
273
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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