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mind will dispose all for the best, and put each particular in the best place;
and I argued that if any one desired to find out the cause of the generation or
destruction or existence of anything, he must find out what state of being or
doing or suffering was best for that thing, and therefore a man had only to
consider the best for himself and others, and then he would also know the
worse, since the same science comprehended both. And I rejoiced to think
that I had found in Anaxagoras a teacher of the causes of existence such as I
desired, and I imagined that he would tell me first whether the earth is flat or
round; and whichever was true, he would proceed to explain the cause and the
necessity of this being so, and then he would teach me the nature of the best
and show that this was best; and if he said that the earth was in the centre, he
would further explain that this position was the best, and I should be satisfied
with the explanation given, and not want any other sort of cause. And I
thought that I would then go on and ask him about the sun and moon and
stars, and that he would explain to me their comparative swiftness, and their
returnings and various states, active and passive, and how all of them were for
the best. For I could not imagine that when he spoke of mind as the disposer
of them, he would give any other account of their being as they are, except
that this was best; and I thought that when he had explained to me in detail
the cause of each and the cause of all, he would go on to explain to me what
was best for each and what was good for all. These hopes I would not have
sold for a large sum of money, and I seized the books and read them as fast as
I could in my eagerness to know the better and the worse.
What expectations I had formed, and how grievously was I disappointed!
As I proceeded, I found my philosopher altogether forsaking mind or any
other principle of order, but having recourse to air, and ether, and water, and
other eccentricities. I might compare him to a person who began by
maintaining generally that mind is the cause of the actions of Socrates, but
who, when he endeavoured to explain the causes of my several actions in
detail, went on to show that I sit here because my body is made up of bones
and muscles; and the bones, as he would say, are hard and have joints which
divide them, and the muscles are elastic, and they cover the bones, which
have also a covering or environment of flesh and skin which contains them;
and as the bones are lifted at their joints by the contraction or relaxation of the
muscles, I am able to bend my limbs, and this is why I am sitting here in a
curved posture—that is what he would say, and he would have a similar
explanation of my talking to you, which he would attribute to sound, and air,
and hearing, and he would assign ten thousand other causes of the same sort,
forgetting to mention the true cause, which is, that the Athenians have thought
fit to condemn me, and accordingly I have thought it better and more right to
remain here and undergo my sentence; for I am inclined to think that these
478
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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