Phaedrus — Plato
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PLATO THE TEACHER i Why not ? / Because a freeman ought to be a freeman in the acquisition /JK; of knowledge. Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm ; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Very true, he said. Then, my good friend, I said, do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; that will ^ ' better enable you to find out the natural bent. There is reason in that, he said.
Do you remember our saying that the children, too, must be taken to see the battle on horseback ; and if there were no danger they might be led close up, and, like young hounds, have a taste of blood given them ? Yes, I remember. Now that maybe practiced, I said, in other things — labors, lessons, dangers — and he who appears to be most ready ought to be enrolled in a select number.
At what age ? i^hX the age when the necessary gymnastics are over : the period whether of two or three years which passes in this sort of V training is useless for any other purpose ; for sleep and exercise are unpropitious to learning : and the trial of who is first in gymnastic exercises is one of the most important tests to which they are subjected. Certainly, he replied.
After that time those who are selected from the class of Wenty years old will be promoted to higher honor, and the sciences which they learned without any order in their early education will now be brought together, and they will be able to see the correlation of them to one another and to true being. Yes, he said, that is the only kind of knowledge which is everlasting.
Yes, I said ; and the capacity for such knowledge is the great criterion of dialectical talent : the speculative or comprehensive mind is always the dialectical. I agree in that, he said. These, I said, are the points which you must consider ; and those who have most of this comprehension, and who are most steadfast in their learning, and in their military, and generally p. 337in their public duties, when they arrive at the age of thirty will have to be chosen by you out of the select class, and ele- - vated to higher honor ; and you will have to prove them by ^ the help of dialectic, in order to learn which of them is able to give up the use of sight and other senses, and in company with truth to attain absolute being. And here, my friend, great caution is required. Why great caution ?
Do you not remark, I said, how great the evil is which dialectic has introduced ? What is that ? he said. The lawlessness of which the professors of the art ^ are full. That is true, he said. Do you think that there is anything unnatural in their case ? or shall I ask you to make allowance for them ? What sort of allowance ?
I want you, I said, by way of parallel, to imagine a supposititious son who is brought up in great wealth; he is one of a large and numerous family, and has many flatterers.
When grown up he learns that his alleged are not his real par- ' ents ; but who the real ones are he is unable to discover. ^^ Can you tell me how he will be likely to behave towards his flatterers and his supposed parents, first of all during the period when he was ignorant of the false relation, and then again when he knew ? Or would you like to hear my suspicion ? Very much.
I suspect, then, that while he was ignorant of the truth he would be likely to honor his father and his mother and his supposed relations more than the flatterers ; he would be less willing to see them in want, or to do any violence to them, or say anything evil of them, and in important matters less willing to disobey them. That might be expected.
But when he has made the discovery, I should imagine that he would diminish his honor and regard for them, and would become more devoted to the flatterers ; their influence over him would greatly increase; he would now live after their ways, and openly associate with them, and unless he were of an unusually good disposition, he would think no more of his parents or other supposed friends. * In reference to the Sophists, see General Introduciion, p. xxviL 22
p. 338Well, that is extremely probable. But how is the image applicable to the disciples of philosophy ? In this way: you know that there are certain principles about justice and good, which were taught us in childhood, and under their parental authority we have been brought up, obeying and honoring them. That is true.
And there are also opposite maxims and habits of pleasure which flatter and attract our soul, but they do not influence those who have any sense of right, and who continue to honor the maxims of their fathers and obey them. True.
Now, when a man is in this state, and the questioning spirit asks what is fair or honorable, and he answers as the law directs, and then arguments come and refute the word of the legislator, and he is driven into believing that nothing is fair any more than foul, or just and good any more than the opposite, and the same of all his time-honored notions, do you think that he will still honor and obey them ? That is impossible.
And when he ceases to think them honorable and natural as heretofore, and he fails to discover the true, can he be ^^^ expected to pursue any life other than that which flatters his desires ? He cannot. And from being an observer of the law he is converted into a lawless person ? Unquestionably. Now all this is very natural in those who study philosophy in this manner, and also, as I was just now saying, most excusable.
Yes, he said, and, as I may add, pitiable. Therefore, that your feelings may not be moved to pity about our thirty-years-old citizens, every care must be taken in introducing them to dialectic.
Certainly. ^ They must not be allowed to taste the dear delight too early ; that is one thing specially to be avoided ; for young men, as you may have observed, when they first get the taste in their mouths, argue for amusement, and are always contradicting and refuting others in imitation of those who refute them ;
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