Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
1The question, how much in these wonderful dialogues is Socratic and how much Platonic, can never bt fully answered. From the sober, pious, prosaic-minded Xcnophon we have a sketch of Socrates' life, and a report of numerous conversations. The sketch is apparently truthful, ani evidently most inadequate. Neither the love nor the hate inspired by that unique life can be sufficiently explained from the Xenophontic " Memorabilia. Plato's " Apology," though a masterpiece of self-concealing art, contains nothing which Socrates could not or may not have said before his judges: and we have every reason to believe that Plato was actually present during the trial. On the other hand, the equally famous and vivid " Phaedo " describes the sage's last day, surrounded in the prison by his faithful disciples, and assuring them of the soul's immortality: but in this case Plato's own absence through illness is noted in the text itself. The argument in the " Phsedo " shows wide philosophic thought and study, and includes largely doctrines which are generally believed to be Plato's own. But at any rate such a dialogue as the " Timaeus " can contain little that is truly Socratic. The master himself utterly condemned the childish guesses of his age at astronomical truths and physical science generally, and constantly advised whole-hearted devotion to the practical problems of man's soul and moral nature. Yet in the " Timseus," as in the grand myth which closes the " Republic," there is an elaborate hypothesis as to the form and significance of the universe, with an attempt to explain from it the whole nature and destiny of man. The general fact, then, is clear, that Plato, surviving his master some fifty years, lived his own life of unresting mental activity and wondrous growth, yet always retained in writing the conversational form of his own personal teaching: and, almost to the end, retained also that most picturesque central figure in all discussions : thus proclaiming his obligation, for all he had acquired, to the original inspiration of Socrates. So Dante's Beatrice, a chief saint in heaven, has the features, the name, even the nature, of the child and maid so well beloved at nine and at twenty. Such loyalty does not lessen the claim of either poet or philosopher to originality and to direct inspiration from the highest sources.
2Plato is always a student and teacher of ethical psychology. The " Republic " is an investigation as to the exact nature and dcfmition of justice. The avowed purpose in outlining the ideal State is to descry, writ large therein, the quality which we cannot clearly see in the microcosm, man. To take for granted the essential identity between the individual life and the career of a State is an example of Plato's splendid poetic audacity. Socrates' favorite pupil, here fully in accord with the real Socrates, firmly believed that accurate knowledge in such matters was the only secure road to character: that knowledge, reasoned knowledge, is essentially one with virtue, and that ignorance is the true source of folly, of sin, of misery. Aristotle assures us that the real Socrates discovered inductive reasoning and showed the value of general definitions; both weighty contributions to true philosophy. Yet we may be sure that in the " Republic," the masterpiece of Plato's later maturity, the chief contribution is from the author's own creative imagination. In many of the dialogues we are taught that man's soul is triple in its nature. The most magnificent illustration of this doctrine is the myth of the " Phsedrus," where the baser appetite and the nobler passionate impulse appear as a pair of steeds, one usually bent on thwarting, the other on aiding, the charioteer, who is, of course, the Will. In the " Republic " this triple division reappears, the workers and the soldiers of the State being alike under the guidance of the counsellors. Again, Plato firmly believes that our life is a banishment of the soul from an infinitely higher and happier existence, and that each may hope to rise again, when worthy, to the sphere from which he has fallen through sin. Naturally blended with this creed is the belief in reincarnation, in metempsychosis ; a faith not peculiar to any land or age. So the Hindu to-day hopes to escape at last, after many lives lived out with innocence, from the merciless " wheel of things. Some memory, even, of the higher sphere, the soul may still retain. Here Wordsworth's loftiest ode will help to explain the faith of Plato. Most famous perhaps of all Plato's beliefs is the doctrine of the Ideas. No quality, no attribute, no material form, even, exists in our world of sense in its perfection. Out of many
3manifestations of, for instance, courage or generosity, of man or beast, or even of actual chairs or tables, we come nearer to some typical conception, or, as Plato poetically puts it, we recall imperfectly to mind that ideal type which the soul actually beheld in its higher estate. Even in its crudest and half-grotesque statements this belief is evidently an approach, as is so often the case with Plato's sublimest guesses, to the methods of modern science. These peculiar doctrines of Plato, more fully defended in other dialogues, are here largely taken for granted from time to time as the argument requires. In general, the philosopher is at war with the spirit of the age. Perhaps this has been and must be always true, until, as Socrates says, " the kings of earth become sages, or the sages are made our kings. Then, as now, the average man sought wealth, luxury, power, fame, by means more or less selfish and unscrupulous. Now, as then, the art most studied is the art of " getting on in the world. The Sophists, against whom so many a Socratic or Platonic arrow of satire is sped, taught very much what, mutatis mutandis, business colleges, schools of commerce, etc., undertake to-day. For such fluency in rhetoric and oratory, or such general information, as would help to ready success in business or politics, there was a good demand, at generous prices ; and the " Sophists " have continued to pocket their fees, though the barefoot Socrates and the wealthy aristocrat Plato never wearied of gibing at them for it. The features of Plato's commonwealth most repugnant to Greek or Yankee, community of goods, dissolution of the family, etc., were expressly intended to force upon a reluctant folk a somewhat ascetic ideal of simple living, with abundant leisure for high, philosophic thought. It was a scholar's paradise ; and the late Thomas Davidson doubtless re-established in his summer home many of the conditions under which Plato actually dwelt with his disciples of the suburban Academy. The monastery, and its offspring the mediaeval university, have close kinship with the dream as with the reality of Academeia. But the great mass of men still prefer free social life, and individualism in gaining and spending ; perhaps they always will. Though the plan itself of such an ideal State was felt by Plato himself to be unattainable, and was, indeed.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1The question, how much in these wonderful dialogues is Socratic and how much Platonic, can never bt fully answered. From the sober, pious, prosaic-minded Xcnophon we have a sketch of Socrates' life, and a report of numerous conversations. The sketch is apparently truthful, ani evidently most inadequate. Neither the love nor the hate inspired by that unique life can be sufficiently explained from the Xenophontic " Memorabilia. Plato's " Apology," though a masterpiece of self-concealing art, contains nothing which Socrates could not or may not have said before his judges: and we have every reason to believe that Plato was actually present during the trial. On the other hand, the equally famous and vivid " Phaedo " describes the sage's last day, surrounded in the prison by his faithful disciples, and assuring them of the soul's immortality: but in this case Plato's own absence through illness is noted in the text itself. The argument in the " Phsedo " shows wide philosophic thought and study, and includes largely doctrines which are generally believed to be Plato's own. But at any rate such a dialogue as the " Timaeus " can contain little that is truly Socratic. The master himself utterly condemned the childish guesses of his age at astronomical truths and physical science generally, and constantly advised whole-hearted devotion to the practical problems of man's soul and moral nature. Yet in the " Timseus," as in the grand myth which closes the " Republic," there is an elaborate hypothesis as to the form and significance of the universe, with an attempt to explain from it the whole nature and destiny of man. The general fact, then, is clear, that Plato, surviving his master some fifty years, lived his own life of unresting mental activity and wondrous growth, yet always retained in writing the conversational form of his own personal teaching: and, almost to the end, retained also that most picturesque central figure in all discussions : thus proclaiming his obligation, for all he had acquired, to the original inspiration of Socrates. So Dante's Beatrice, a chief saint in heaven, has the features, the name, even the nature, of the child and maid so well beloved at nine and at twenty. Such loyalty does not lessen the claim of either poet or philosopher to originality and to direct inspiration from the highest sources.
2Plato is always a student and teacher of ethical psychology. The " Republic " is an investigation as to the exact nature and dcfmition of justice. The avowed purpose in outlining the ideal State is to descry, writ large therein, the quality which we cannot clearly see in the microcosm, man. To take for granted the essential identity between the individual life and the career of a State is an example of Plato's splendid poetic audacity. Socrates' favorite pupil, here fully in accord with the real Socrates, firmly believed that accurate knowledge in such matters was the only secure road to character: that knowledge, reasoned knowledge, is essentially one with virtue, and that ignorance is the true source of folly, of sin, of misery. Aristotle assures us that the real Socrates discovered inductive reasoning and showed the value of general definitions; both weighty contributions to true philosophy. Yet we may be sure that in the " Republic," the masterpiece of Plato's later maturity, the chief contribution is from the author's own creative imagination. In many of the dialogues we are taught that man's soul is triple in its nature. The most magnificent illustration of this doctrine is the myth of the " Phsedrus," where the baser appetite and the nobler passionate impulse appear as a pair of steeds, one usually bent on thwarting, the other on aiding, the charioteer, who is, of course, the Will. In the " Republic " this triple division reappears, the workers and the soldiers of the State being alike under the guidance of the counsellors. Again, Plato firmly believes that our life is a banishment of the soul from an infinitely higher and happier existence, and that each may hope to rise again, when worthy, to the sphere from which he has fallen through sin. Naturally blended with this creed is the belief in reincarnation, in metempsychosis ; a faith not peculiar to any land or age. So the Hindu to-day hopes to escape at last, after many lives lived out with innocence, from the merciless " wheel of things. Some memory, even, of the higher sphere, the soul may still retain. Here Wordsworth's loftiest ode will help to explain the faith of Plato. Most famous perhaps of all Plato's beliefs is the doctrine of the Ideas. No quality, no attribute, no material form, even, exists in our world of sense in its perfection. Out of many
3manifestations of, for instance, courage or generosity, of man or beast, or even of actual chairs or tables, we come nearer to some typical conception, or, as Plato poetically puts it, we recall imperfectly to mind that ideal type which the soul actually beheld in its higher estate. Even in its crudest and half-grotesque statements this belief is evidently an approach, as is so often the case with Plato's sublimest guesses, to the methods of modern science. These peculiar doctrines of Plato, more fully defended in other dialogues, are here largely taken for granted from time to time as the argument requires. In general, the philosopher is at war with the spirit of the age. Perhaps this has been and must be always true, until, as Socrates says, " the kings of earth become sages, or the sages are made our kings. Then, as now, the average man sought wealth, luxury, power, fame, by means more or less selfish and unscrupulous. Now, as then, the art most studied is the art of " getting on in the world. The Sophists, against whom so many a Socratic or Platonic arrow of satire is sped, taught very much what, mutatis mutandis, business colleges, schools of commerce, etc., undertake to-day. For such fluency in rhetoric and oratory, or such general information, as would help to ready success in business or politics, there was a good demand, at generous prices ; and the " Sophists " have continued to pocket their fees, though the barefoot Socrates and the wealthy aristocrat Plato never wearied of gibing at them for it. The features of Plato's commonwealth most repugnant to Greek or Yankee, community of goods, dissolution of the family, etc., were expressly intended to force upon a reluctant folk a somewhat ascetic ideal of simple living, with abundant leisure for high, philosophic thought. It was a scholar's paradise ; and the late Thomas Davidson doubtless re-established in his summer home many of the conditions under which Plato actually dwelt with his disciples of the suburban Academy. The monastery, and its offspring the mediaeval university, have close kinship with the dream as with the reality of Academeia. But the great mass of men still prefer free social life, and individualism in gaining and spending ; perhaps they always will. Though the plan itself of such an ideal State was felt by Plato himself to be unattainable, and was, indeed.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
No commentary for this page.