Page - 658 - in The Complete Plato

essence of a definition. Thus, then, the elements or letters are only objects of perception, and cannot be defined or known; but the syllables or combinations of them are known and expressed, and are apprehended by true opinion. When, therefore, any one forms the true opinion of anything without rational explanation, you may say that his mind is truly exercised, but has no knowledge; for he who cannot give and receive a reason for a thing, has no knowledge of that thing; but when he adds rational explanation, then, he is perfected in knowledge and may be all that I have been denying of him. Was that the form in which the dream appeared to you? THEAETETUS: Precisely. SOCRATES: And you allow and maintain that true opinion, combined with definition or rational explanation, is knowledge? THEAETETUS: Exactly. SOCRATES: Then may we assume, Theaetetus, that to-day, and in this casual manner, we have found a truth which in former times many wise men have grown old and have not found? THEAETETUS: At any rate, Socrates, I am satisfied with the present statement. SOCRATES: Which is probably correct—for how can there be knowledge apart from definition and true opinion? And yet there is one point in what has been said which does not quite satisfy me. THEAETETUS: What was it? SOCRATES: What might seem to be the most ingenious notion of all:— That the elements or letters are unknown, but the combination or syllables known. THEAETETUS: And was that wrong? SOCRATES: We shall soon know; for we have as hostages the instances which the author of the argument himself used. THEAETETUS: What hostages? SOCRATES: The letters, which are the clements; and the syllables, which are the combinations;—he reasoned, did he not, from the letters of the alphabet? THEAETETUS: Yes; he did. SOCRATES: Let us take them and put them to the test, or rather, test ourselves:—What was the way in which we learned letters? and, first of all, are we right in saying that syllables have a definition, but that letters have no 658