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arithmeticians reckon unequal units; as for example, two armies, two oxen,
two very large things or two very small things. The party who are opposed to
them insist that every unit in ten thousand must be the same as every other
unit.
PROTARCHUS: Undoubtedly there is, as you say, a great difference
among the votaries of the science; and there may be reasonably supposed to
be two sorts of arithmetic.
SOCRATES: And when we compare the art of mensuration which is used
in building with philosophical geometry, or the art of computation which is
used in trading with exact calculation, shall we say of either of the pairs that it
is one or two?
PROTARCHUS: On the analogy of what has preceded, I should be of
opinion that they were severally two.
SOCRATES: Right; but do you understand why I have discussed the
subject?
PROTARCHUS: I think so, but I should like to be told by you.
SOCRATES: The argument has all along been seeking a parallel to
pleasure, and true to that original design, has gone on to ask whether one sort
of knowledge is purer than another, as one pleasure is purer than another.
PROTARCHUS: Clearly; that was the intention.
SOCRATES: And has not the argument in what has preceded, already
shown that the arts have different provinces, and vary in their degrees of
certainty?
PROTARCHUS: Very true.
SOCRATES: And just now did not the argument first designate a particular
art by a common term, thus making us believe in the unity of that art; and
then again, as if speaking of two different things, proceed to enquire whether
the art as pursed by philosophers, or as pursued by non- philosophers, has
more of certainty and purity?
PROTARCHUS: That is the very question which the argument is asking.
SOCRATES: And how, Protarchus, shall we answer the enquiry?
PROTARCHUS: O Socrates, we have reached a point at which the
difference of clearness in different kinds of knowledge is enormous.
SOCRATES: Then the answer will be the easier.
PROTARCHUS: Certainly; and let us say in reply, that those arts into
924
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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