Page - 471 - in The Complete Plato
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Yes, Phaedo, he replied, and how melancholy, if there be such a thing as
truth or certainty or possibility of knowledge—that a man should have lighted
upon some argument or other which at first seemed true and then turned out
to be false, and instead of blaming himself and his own want of wit, because
he is annoyed, should at last be too glad to transfer the blame from himself to
arguments in general: and for ever afterwards should hate and revile them,
and lose truth and the knowledge of realities.
Yes, indeed, I said; that is very melancholy.
Let us then, in the first place, he said, be careful of allowing or of admitting
into our souls the notion that there is no health or soundness in any arguments
at all. Rather say that we have not yet attained to soundness in ourselves, and
that we must struggle manfully and do our best to gain health of mind—you
and all other men having regard to the whole of your future life, and I myself
in the prospect of death. For at this moment I am sensible that I have not the
temper of a philosopher; like the vulgar, I am only a partisan. Now the
partisan, when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the
question, but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions.
And the difference between him and me at the present moment is merely this
—that whereas he seeks to convince his hearers that what he says is true, I am
rather seeking to convince myself; to convince my hearers is a secondary
matter with me. And do but see how much I gain by the argument. For if what
I say is true, then I do well to be persuaded of the truth, but if there be nothing
after death, still, during the short time that remains, I shall not distress my
friends with lamentations, and my ignorance will not last, but will die with
me, and therefore no harm will be done. This is the state of mind, Simmias
and Cebes, in which I approach the argument. And I would ask you to be
thinking of the truth and not of Socrates: agree with me, if I seem to you to be
speaking the truth; or if not, withstand me might and main, that I may not
deceive you as well as myself in my enthusiasm, and like the bee, leave my
sting in you before I die.
And now let us proceed, he said. And first of all let me be sure that I have
in my mind what you were saying. Simmias, if I remember rightly, has fears
and misgivings whether the soul, although a fairer and diviner thing than the
body, being as she is in the form of harmony, may not perish first. On the
other hand, Cebes appeared to grant that the soul was more lasting than the
body, but he said that no one could know whether the soul, after having worn
out many bodies, might not perish herself and leave her last body behind her;
and that this is death, which is the destruction not of the body but of the soul,
for in the body the work of destruction is ever going on. Are not these,
Simmias and Cebes, the points which we have to consider?
471
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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