Phaedrus — Plato
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
p. 300inferiority, whereas weak natures are scarcely capable of any very great good or very great evil ? There I think that you are right. And our philosopher follows the same analogy — he is like a plant which, having proper nurture, grows and matures into all virtue, but, if sowed and planted in an alien soil, ^ becomes the most noxious of all weeds, unless saved by some divine help.
Do you really think, as people are fond of saying, that our youth are corrupted by the Sophists, or that individual Sophisters corrupt them in any degree worth speaking of? Are not the public who say these things the greatest of all Sophists ? And do they not educate to perfection alike young and old, men and women, and fashion them after their own hearts ? When is this accomplished ? he said.
When they meet together, and the world sits down at an assembly, or in a court of law, or a theatre, or a camp, or at some other place of resort, and there is a great uproar, and they praise some things which are being said or done, and blame other things, equally exaggerating in both, shouting and clapping their hands, and the echo of the rocks and the place in which they are assembled redoubles the sound of the praise or blame — at such a time will not a young man's heart leap within him ?
Will the influences of education stem the tide of praise or blame, and not rather be carried away in the stream ? And will he not have the notions of good and evil which the public in general have — he will do as they do ; and as they are, such will he be? Yes, Socrates ; necessity will compel him. And yet, I said, there is a still greater necessity, which has not been mentioned. What is that ?
The ** gentler force '* of attainder or exile or death, which, as you are aware, these new Sophists and educators, who are the public, apply when their words are powerless. Indeed they do, and no mistake. Now what opinion of any other Sophist, or of any private man, can be expected to overcome in such an unequal contest? None, he replied.
No, indeed, I said, even to make the attempt is a piece of folly ; for there neither is, has been, nor ever can be, as I
THE REPUBLIC 3OI think, another type of character, trained to virtue independently of them — I speak, my friend, of man only ; what is more than man, as the proverb says, is not included : for I would not have you ignorant that, in the present evil state of governments, whatever is saved and comes to ^^ good is saved by the power of God, as you may tnily say. To that I quite assent, he replied.
Then let me beg your assent also to a further observation. What is that ? Why, that all those mercenary adventurers, whom the world calls Sophists and rivals, do but teach the collective opinion of the many, which are the opinions of their assemblies ; and this is their wisdom.
I might compare them to a man who should study the tempers and desires of a mighty strong beast who is fed by him — ^he would learn how to approach and handle him, also at what times and from what causes he is dangerous or the reverse, and what is the meaning of his several cries, and by what sounds, when another utters them, he is soothed or infuriated ; and you may suppose further that when, by constantly Hving with him, he has become perfect in all this which he calls wisdom, he makes a system or art, which he proceeds to teach, not that he has any real notion of what he is teaching, but he names this honorable and that dishonorable, or good or evil, or just or unjust, all in accordance with the tastes and tempers of the great brute, when he has learnt the meaning of his inarticulate grunts.
Good he pronounces to be what pleases him, and evil what he dislikes ; and he can give no other account of them except that the just and noble are the necessary, having never himself seen, and having no power of explaining to others, the nature of either, or the immense difference between them. Would not he be a rare educator ? Indeed, I think that he would.
And in what respect does he differ from him who thinks that wisdom is the discernment of the tastes and pleasures of the assembled multitude, whether in painting or music, or, finally, in politics ?
For I suppose you will agree that he who associates with the many, and exhibits to them his poem or other work of art or political service, making them his judges, except under potest, will also experience the fatal necessity of producing whatever they praise. And yet the rea$ons are utp. 302terly ludicrous which they give in confirmation of their notions about the honorable and good. Did you ever hear any of them which were not ? No, nor am I likely to hear. You recognize the truth of what has been said ?
Then let me ask you to consider further whether the world will ever be induced to believe in the existence of absolute beauty "* "* rather than of the many beautiful, or of the absolute in each kind rather than of the many in each kind ? Certainly not. Then the world cannot possibly be a philosopher? Impossible. And therefore philosophers must inevitably fall under the censure of the world ? They must.
And of individuals who consort with the mob and seek to please them ? That is evident. Then, do you see any way in which the philosopher can be preserved in his calling to the end ? and remember what we were saying of him, that he was to have knowledge and memory and courage and magnanimity — these were admitted by us to be the true philosopher's gifts. Yes.
Now, will not such an one be, from the first, in all things first among all, especially if his bodily endowments are like his mental ones ? Certainly, he said. And his friends and fellow-citizens will want to use them as he gets older for their own purposes ? No question. Falling at his feet, they will make requests to him and do him honor and flatter him, because they want to get into their hands the power which he will one day possess.
That is often the way, he said. And what will he do under such circumstances, especially if he be a citizen of a great city, rich and noble, and a tall proper youth ? * Will he not be fiiU of boundless aspirations, and fancy himself able to manage the affairs of Hellenes and of bar- •Bosanquet thinks this passage refers to Alcibiades. See Protagoras, note z.
No commentary for this page under the selected tracks.
There is commentary on page 1.