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assemblies; and so, partly by persuasion and partly by force, I shall make
unlawful gains and not be punished. Still I hear a voice saying that the gods
cannot be deceived, neither can they be compelled. But what if there are no
gods? or, suppose them to have no care of human things—why in either case
should we mind about concealment? And even if there are gods, and they do
care about us, yet we know of them only from tradition and the genealogies of
the poets; and these are the very persons who say that they may be influenced
and turned by “sacrifices and soothing entreaties and by offerings.” Let us be
consistent, then, and believe both or neither. If the poets speak truly, why,
then, we had better be unjust, and offer of the fruits of injustice; for if we are
just, although we may escape the vengeance of heaven, we shall lose the gains
of injustice; but, if we are unjust, we shall keep the gains, and by our sinning
and praying, and praying and sinning, the gods will be propitiated, and we
shall not be punished. “But there is a world below in which either we or our
posterity will suffer for our unjust deeds.” Yes, my friend, will be the
reflection, but there are mysteries and atoning deities, and these have great
power. That is what mighty cities declare; and the children of the gods, who
were their poets and prophets, bear a like testimony.
On what principle, then, shall we any longer choose justice rather than the
worst injustice? when, if we only unite the latter with a deceitful regard to
appearances, we shall fare to our mind both with gods and men, in life and
after death, as the most numerous and the highest authorities tell us. Knowing
all this, Socrates, how can a man who has any superiority of mind or person
or rank or wealth, be willing to honor justice; or indeed to refrain from
laughing when he hears justice praised? And even if there should be someone
who is able to disprove the truth of my words, and who is satisfied that justice
is best, still he is not angry with the unjust, but is very ready to forgive them,
because he also knows that men are not just of their own free will; unless,
peradventure, there be someone whom the divinity within him may have
inspired with a hatred of injustice, or who has attained knowledge of the truth
—but no other man. He only blames injustice, who, owing to cowardice or
age or some weakness, has not the power of being unjust. And this is proved
by the fact that when he obtains the power, he immediately becomes unjust as
far as he can be.
The cause of all this, Socrates, was indicated by us at the beginning of the
argument, when my brother and I told you how astonished we were to find
that of all the professing panegyrists of justice—beginning with the ancient
heroes of whom any memorial has been preserved to us, and ending with the
men of our own time—no one has ever blamed injustice or praised justice
except with a view to the glories, honors, and benefits which flow from them.
No one has ever adequately described either in verse or prose the true
1051
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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