Phaedrus — Plato
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p. 333motion. And astronomy must be pursued as an abstract science if ** it is to become a real part of education, improving the natural use of reason. ' ' In like manner the true science of harmony does not concern itself with sounds and consonances that appear to the ear, nor even with the numerical relations between such sounds, but with the ** natural harmonies of number.
' ' Such study seems to some a thing of " more than mortal knowledge " but it is in the highest degree useful, ** if pursued with a view to the beautiful and good.
' ' Socrates continues : ] Now, when all these studies reach the point of intercommunion and connection with one another, and come to be considered in their mutual affinities, then, I think, but not till then, will the pursuit of them have a value for our objects ; otherwise they are useless.
That, Socrates, is also my own notion ; but it is a vast work of which you speak. [Socrates says: The science for which pure arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and harmony prepare the way is dialectic. Those sciences only prepare the way and do not themselves attain to the highest truth ; but no one can understand dialectic who has not been prepared by the proper study of the preliminary sciences.
The bodily eye, according to the story of the den, rose from seeing shadows to seeing images, and then objects, and lastly the sun.] In like manner, when a person begins dialectics, and starts on the discovery of the absolute by the light of reason only, and without any assistance of sense, and does not rest until by pure intelligence he attains pure good, he finds himself at the end of the intellectual world, as in the other case at the end of the visible. [As in Book VI., it is shown that there are four degrees of knowledge: (i) ** The knowledge of shadows;" (2) **belief," or the perception of objects; (3) "understanding," or the knowledge of the abstract sciences, such as arithmetic, geometry, etc. ; (4) ** science," or ** reason," which alone, by dialectic, arrives at the absolute truth. If dialectic is thus the ^< coping-
p. 334Stone of the sciences/' then surely the children of the State who are to be its future rulers should be led to the acquisition of this science. Socrates now asks : ] But to whom are we to assign these studies, and in what way are they to be assigned ? — that is a question which ^^^ remains to be considered. Yes, plainly. You remember, I said, how the rulers were chosen before ? Certainly, he said.
The same natures must still be chosen, and the preference again given to the surest and the bravest, and, if possible, to the fairest; and, having noble and manly tempers, they should also have the natural gifts which accord with their education. And what are they ?
Such gifts as keenness and ready powers of acquisition ; for the mind more often faints from the severity of study than from the severity of gymnastics : the toil is more entirely the mind*s own, and is not shared with the body. Very true, he replied.
Further, he of whom we are in search should have a good memory, and be an unwearied, solid man, who is a lover of labor in any line, or he will never be able to undergo the double toil and trouble of body and mind. Certainly, he said ; a man must have some natural gifts.
The mistake at present is, I said, that those who study philosophy have no vocation, and this, as I was before saying, is the reason why she has fallen into disrepute : her true sons should study her and not bastards. How do you mean ? In the first place, her votary should not have a lame or one legged industry.
I mean, that he should not be half industri- 7sf ous and half idle ; as, for example, when a man is a lover of gymnastic and hunting, and all other bodily exercises, but a hater rather than a lover of the labor of learning or hearing or inquiry. Or a man may be lame in another way, and the love of labor may take an opposite form. That is quite true, he said. And as to truth, I said, is not a soul to be deemed halt and lame who hates voluntary falsehood and is extremely indigp. 335nant at himself and others when they tell lies, and yet receives involuntary falsehood, and does not mind wallowing like a swinish beast in the mire of ignorance, and has no shame at being detected ? Most certainly, he said.
And, again, as to temperance and courage and magnanimity, and every other virtue, should they not observe the ways of the true son and of the bastard ? for wherever States and ^ individuals have no eye for this sort of qualities, they unconsciously make a friend or perhaps a ruler of one who is in a figure a lame man or a bastard, from a defect in some one of these qualities. That is very true, he said.
All these things, then, will have to be carefully considered, and those whom we introduce to this vast system of education and training must be sound in limb and mind, and then justice herself will have nothing to say against us, and we shall be the saviours of the State ; but, if our pupils are men of another stamp, the reverse will happen, and we shall pour a still greater flood of ridicule on philosophy. That would be discreditable.
Yes, I said, that is quite true; and yet, perhaps, in thus turning jest into earnest I am equally ridiculous. In what respect ? I had forgotten, I said, that we were not in earnest, and spoke with too much excitement. For when I saw philosophy trampled under foot of men I could not help feeling a sort of indignation at the authors of her disgrace : and my anger made me vehement.
Indeed ; I did not observe that you were more vehement than was right. But I felt that I was. And now let me remind you that, although in our former selection we chose old men, that will not do in this. Solon was under a delusion when he said that a man as he is growing older may learn many things, — for he can no more learn than he can run ; youth is the time of toil. That is certainly true.
And, therefore, calculation and geometry, and all the other elements of instruction, which are a preparation for dialectic, V should be presented to the mind in childhood ; not. however, "^ under any notion of forcing them.
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