Dialogues

epub:type="z3998:persona">Stranger I should say that the habit which leads a man to neglect his own affairs for the pleasure of conversation, of which the style is far from being agreeable to the majority of his hearers, may be fairly termed loquacity: such is my opinion. Theaetetus That is the common name for it. Stranger But now who the other is, who makes money out of private disputation, it is your turn to say. Theaetetus There is only one true answer: he is the wonderful Sophist, of whom we are in pursuit, and who reappears again for the fourth time. Stranger Yes, and with a fresh pedigree, for he is the moneymaking species of the Eristic, disputatious, controversial, pugnacious, combative, acquisitive family, as the argument has already proven. Theaetetus Certainly. Stranger How true was the observation that he was a many-sided animal, and not to be caught with one hand, as they say! Theaetetus Then you must catch him with two. Stranger Yes, we must, if we can. And therefore let us try another track in our pursuit of him: You are aware that there are certain menial occupations which have names among servants? Theaetetus Yes, there are many such; which of them do you mean? Stranger I mean such as sifting, straining, winnowing, threshing.325 Theaetetus Certainly. Stranger And besides these there are a great many more, such as carding, spinning, adjusting the warp and the woof; and thousands of similar expressions are used in the arts. Theaetetus Of what are they to be patterns, and what are we going to do with them all? Stranger I think that in all of these there is implied a notion of division. Theaetetus Yes. Stranger Then if, as I was saying, there is one art which includes all of them, ought not that art to have one name? Theaetetus And what is the name of the art? Stranger The art of discerning or discriminating. Theaetetus Very good. Stranger Think whether you cannot divide this. Theaetetus I should have to think a long while. Stranger In all the previously named processes either like has been separated from like or the better from the worse. Theaetetus I see now what you mean. Stranger There is no name for the first kind of separation; of the second, which throws away the worse and preserves the better, I do know a name. Theaetetus What is it? Stranger Every discernment or discrimination of that kind, as I have observed, is called a purification. Theaetetus Yes, that is the usual expression. Stranger And anyone may see that purification is of two kinds. Theaetetus Perhaps so, if he were allowed time to think; but I do not see at this moment. Stranger There are many purifications of bodies which may with propriety be comprehended under a single name. Theaetetus What are they, and what is their name? Stranger There is the purification of living bodies in their inward and in their outward parts, of which the former is duly effected by medicine and gymnastic, the latter by the not very dignified art of the bath-man; and there is the purification of inanimate substances⁠—to this the arts of fulling and of furbishing in general attend in a number of minute particulars, having a variety of names which are thought ridiculous. Theaetetus Very true. Stranger There can be no doubt that they are thought ridiculous, Theaetetus; but then the dialectical art never considers whether the benefit to be derived from the purge is greater or less than that to be derived from the sponge, and has not more interest in the one than in the other; her endeavour is to know what is and is not kindred in all arts, with a view to the acquisition of intelligence; and having this in view, she honours them all alike, and when she makes comparisons, she counts one of them not a whit more ridiculous than another; nor does she esteem him who adduces as his example of hunting, the general’s art, at all more decorous than another who cites that of the vermin-destroyer, but only as the greater pretender of the two. And as to your question concerning the name which was to comprehend all these arts of purification, whether of animate or inanimate bodies, the art of dialectic is in no wise particular about fine words, if she may be only allowed to have a general name for all other purifications, binding them up together and separating them off from the purification of the soul or intellect. For this is the purification at which she wants to arrive, and this we should understand to be her aim. Theaetetus Yes, I understand; and I agree that there are two sorts of purification, and that one of them is concerned with the soul, and that there is another which is concerned with the body. Stranger Excellent; and now listen to what I am going to say, and try to divide further the first of the two. Theaetetus Whatever line of division you suggest, I will endeavour to assist you. Stranger Do we admit that virtue is distinct from vice in the soul? Theaetetus Certainly. Stranger And purification was to leave the good and to cast out whatever is bad? Theaetetus True. Stranger Then any taking away of evil from the soul may be properly called purification? Theaetetus Yes. Stranger And in the soul there are two kinds of evil. Theaetetus What are they? Stranger The one may be compared to disease in the body, the other to deformity. Theaetetus I do not understand. Stranger Perhaps you have never reflected that disease and discord are the same. Theaetetus To this, again, I know not what I should reply. Stranger Do you not conceive discord to be a dissolution of kindred elements, originating in some disagreement? Theaetetus Just that. Stranger And is deformity anything but the want of measure, which is always unsightly? Theaetetus Exactly. Stranger And do we not see that opinion is opposed to desire, pleasure to anger, reason to pain, and that all these elements are opposed to one another in the souls of bad men? Theaetetus Certainly. Stranger And yet they must all be akin? Theaetetus Of course. Stranger Then we shall be right in calling vice a discord and disease of the soul? Theaetetus Most true.