Page - 1191 - in The Complete Plato
Image of the Page - 1191 -
Text of the Page - 1191 -
At present, I said, the students of philosophy are quite young; beginning
when they are hardly past childhood, they devote only the time saved from
money-making and housekeeping to such pursuits; and even those of them
who are reputed to have most of the philosophic spirit, when they come
within sight of the great difficulty of the subject, I mean dialectic, take
themselves off. In after life, when invited by someone else, they may,
perhaps, go and hear a lecture, and about this they make much ado, for
philosophy is not considered by them to be their proper business: at last, when
they grow old, in most cases they are extinguished more truly than
Heracleitus’s sun, inasmuch as they never light up again.
But what ought to be their course?
Just the opposite. In childhood and youth their study, and what philosophy
they learn, should be suited to their tender years: during this period while they
are growing up toward manhood, the chief and special care should be given to
their bodies that they may have them to use in the service of philosophy; as
life advances and the intellect begins to mature, let them increase the
gymnastics of the soul; but when the strength of our citizens fails and is past
civil and military duties, then let them range at will and engage in no serious
labor, as we intend them to live happily here, and to crown this life with a
similar happiness in another.
How truly in earnest you are, Socrates! he said; I am sure of that; and yet
most of your hearers, if I am not mistaken, are likely to be still more earnest
in their opposition to you, and will never be convinced; Thrasymachus least
of all.
Do not make a quarrel, I said, between Thrasymachus and me, who have
recently become friends, although, indeed, we were never enemies; for I shall
go on striving to the utmost until I either convert him and other men, or do
something which may profit them against the day when they live again, and
hold the like discourse in another state of existence.
You are speaking of a time which is not very near.
Rather, I replied, of a time which is as nothing in comparison with eternity.
Nevertheless, I do not wonder that the many refuse to believe; for they have
never seen that of which we are now speaking realized; they have seen only a
conventional imitation of philosophy, consisting of words artificially brought
together, not like these of ours having a natural unity. But a human being who
in word and work is perfectly moulded, as far as he can be, into the proportion
and likeness of virtue— such a man ruling in a city which bears the same
image, they have never yet seen, neither one nor many of them—do you think
that they ever did?
1191
back to the
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