Page - 772 - in The Complete Plato

THEAETETUS: True. STRANGER: Let us ask each party in turn, to give an account of that which they call essence. THEAETETUS: How shall we get it out of them? STRANGER: With those who make being to consist in ideas, there will be less difficulty, for they are civil people enough; but there will be very great difficulty, or rather an absolute impossibility, in getting an opinion out of those who drag everything down to matter. Shall I tell you what we must do? THEAETETUS: What? STRANGER: Let us, if we can, really improve them; but if this is not possible, let us imagine them to be better than they are, and more willing to answer in accordance with the rules of argument, and then their opinion will be more worth having; for that which better men acknowledge has more weight than that which is acknowledged by inferior men. Moreover we are no respecters of persons, but seekers after truth. THEAETETUS: Very good. STRANGER: Then now, on the supposition that they are improved, let us ask them to state their views, and do you interpret them. THEAETETUS: Agreed. STRANGER: Let them say whether they would admit that there is such a thing as a mortal animal. THEAETETUS: Of course they would. STRANGER: And do they not acknowledge this to be a body having a soul? THEAETETUS: Certainly they do. STRANGER: Meaning to say that the soul is something which exists? THEAETETUS: True. STRANGER: And do they not say that one soul is just, and another unjust, and that one soul is wise, and another foolish? THEAETETUS: Certainly. STRANGER: And that the just and wise soul becomes just and wise by the possession of justice and wisdom, and the opposite under opposite circumstances? 772