Seite - 480 - in The Complete Plato
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No indeed, replied Cebes, not very well.
There is nothing new, he said, in what I am about to tell you; but only what
I have been always and everywhere repeating in the previous discussion and
on other occasions: I want to show you the nature of that cause which has
occupied my thoughts. I shall have to go back to those familiar words which
are in the mouth of every one, and first of all assume that there is an absolute
beauty and goodness and greatness, and the like; grant me this, and I hope to
be able to show you the nature of the cause, and to prove the immortality of
the soul.
Cebes said: You may proceed at once with the proof, for I grant you this.
Well, he said, then I should like to know whether you agree with me in the
next step; for I cannot help thinking, if there be anything beautiful other than
absolute beauty should there be such, that it can be beautiful only in as far as
it partakes of absolute beauty—and I should say the same of everything. Do
you agree in this notion of the cause?
Yes, he said, I agree.
He proceeded: I know nothing and can understand nothing of any other of
those wise causes which are alleged; and if a person says to me that the bloom
of colour, or form, or any such thing is a source of beauty, I leave all that,
which is only confusing to me, and simply and singly, and perhaps foolishly,
hold and am assured in my own mind that nothing makes a thing beautiful but
the presence and participation of beauty in whatever way or manner obtained;
for as to the manner I am uncertain, but I stoutly contend that by beauty all
beautiful things become beautiful. This appears to me to be the safest answer
which I can give, either to myself or to another, and to this I cling, in the
persuasion that this principle will never be overthrown, and that to myself or
to any one who asks the question, I may safely reply, That by beauty beautiful
things become beautiful. Do you not agree with me?
I do.
And that by greatness only great things become great and greater greater,
and by smallness the less become less?
True.
Then if a person were to remark that A is taller by a head than B, and B less
by a head than A, you would refuse to admit his statement, and would stoutly
contend that what you mean is only that the greater is greater by, and by
reason of, greatness, and the less is less only by, and by reason of, smallness;
and thus you would avoid the danger of saying that the greater is greater and
the less less by the measure of the head, which is the same in both, and would
480
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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