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him; but when honesty is in question, or some other political virtue, even if
they know that he is dishonest, yet, if the man comes publicly forward and
tells the truth about his dishonesty, then, what in the other case was held by
them to be good sense, they now deem to be madness. They say that all men
ought to profess honesty whether they are honest or not, and that a man is out
of his mind who says anything else. Their notion is, that a man must have
some degree of honesty; and that if he has none at all he ought not to be in the
world.
I have been showing that they are right in admitting every man as a
counsellor about this sort of virtue, as they are of opinion that every man is a
partaker of it. And I will now endeavour to show further that they do not
conceive this virtue to be given by nature, or to grow spontaneously, but to be
a thing which may be taught; and which comes to a man by taking pains. No
one would instruct, no one would rebuke, or be angry with those whose
calamities they suppose to be due to nature or chance; they do not try to
punish or to prevent them from being what they are; they do but pity them.
Who is so foolish as to chastise or instruct the ugly, or the diminutive, or the
feeble? And for this reason. Because he knows that good and evil of this kind
is the work of nature and of chance; whereas if a man is wanting in those
good qualities which are attained by study and exercise and teaching, and has
only the contrary evil qualities, other men are angry with him, and punish and
reprove him—of these evil qualities one is impiety, another injustice, and they
may be described generally as the very opposite of political virtue. In such
cases any man will be angry with another, and reprimand him,—clearly
because he thinks that by study and learning, the virtue in which the other is
deficient may be acquired. If you will think, Socrates, of the nature of
punishment, you will see at once that in the opinion of mankind virtue may be
acquired; no one punishes the evil-doer under the notion, or for the reason,
that he has done wrong, —only the unreasonable fury of a beast acts in that
manner. But he who desires to inflict rational punishment does not retaliate
for a past wrong which cannot be undone; he has regard to the future, and is
desirous that the man who is punished, and he who sees him punished, may
be deterred from doing wrong again. He punishes for the sake of prevention,
thereby clearly implying that virtue is capable of being taught. This is the
notion of all who retaliate upon others either privately or publicly. And the
Athenians, too, your own citizens, like other men, punish and take vengeance
on all whom they regard as evil doers; and hence, we may infer them to be of
the number of those who think that virtue may be acquired and taught. Thus
far, Socrates, I have shown you clearly enough, if I am not mistaken, that your
countrymen are right in admitting the tinker and the cobbler to advise about
politics, and also that they deem virtue to be capable of being taught and
259
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book The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Title
- The Complete Plato
- Author
- Plato
- Date
- ~347 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 1612
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International