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No indeed.
No, my friend, and they have seldom, if ever, heard free and noble
sentiments; such as men utter when they are earnestly and by every means in
their power seeking after truth for the sake of knowledge, while they look
coldly on the subtleties of controversy, of which the end is opinion and strife,
whether they meet with them in the courts of law or in society.
They are strangers, he said, to the words of which you speak.
And this was what we foresaw, and this was the reason why truth forced us
to admit, not without fear and hesitation, that neither cities nor States nor
individuals will ever attain perfection until the small class of philosophers
whom we termed useless but not corrupt are providentially compelled,
whether they will or not, to take care of the State, and until a like necessity be
laid on the State to obey them; or until kings, or if not kings, the sons of kings
or princes, are divinely inspired with a true love of true philosophy. That
either or both of these alternatives are impossible, I see no reason to affirm: if
they were so, we might indeed be justly ridiculed as dreamers and visionaries.
Am I not right?
Quite right.
If then, in the countless ages of the past, or at the present hour in some
foreign clime which is far away and beyond our ken, the perfected
philosopher is or has been or hereafter shall be compelled by a superior power
to have the charge of the State, we are ready to assert to the death, that this
our constitution has been, and is—yea, and will be whenever the muse of
philosophy is queen. There is no impossibility in all this; that there is a
difficulty, we acknowledge ourselves.
My opinion agrees with yours, he said.
But do you mean to say that this is not the opinion of the multitude?
I should imagine not, he replied.
O my friends, I said, do not attack the multitude: they will change their
minds, if, not in an aggressive spirit, but gently and with the view of soothing
them and removing their dislike of over-education, you show them your
philosophers as they really are and describe as you were just now doing their
character and profession, and then mankind will see that he of whom you are
speaking is not such as they supposed—if they view him in this new light,
they will surely change their notion of him, and answer in another strain. Who
can be at enmity with one who loves him, who that is himself gentle and free
from envy will be jealous of one in whom there is no jealousy? Nay, let me
answer for you, that in a few this harsh temper may be found, but not in the
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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