THEAETETUS [14]
and therefore I suppose that must
take up his cause myself, and see justice done?
Theod. Not I, Socrates, but rather Callias, the son of Hipponicus,
is guardian of his orphans. I was too soon diverted from the
abstractions of dialectic to geometry. Nevertheless, I shall be
grateful to you if you assist him.
Soc. Very good, Theodorus; you shall see how I will come to the
rescue. If a person does not attend to the meaning of terms as they
are commonly used in argument, he may be involved even in greater
paradoxes than these. Shall I explain this matter to you or to
Theaetetus?
Theod. To both of us, and let the younger answer; he will incur less
disgrace if he is discomfited.
Soc. Then now let me ask the awful question, which is this:-Can a
man know and also not know that which he knows?
Theod. How shall we answer, Theaetetus?
Theaet. He cannot, I should say.
Soc. He can, if you maintain that seeing is knowing. When you are
imprisoned in a well, as the saying is, and the self-assured adversary
closes one of your eyes with his hand, and asks whether you can see
his cloak with the eye which he has closed, how will you answer the
inevitable man?
Theaet. I should answer, "Not with that eye but with the other."
Soc. Then you see and do not see the same thing at the same time.
Theaet. Yes, in a certain sense.
Soc. None of that, he will reply; I do not ask or bid you answer
in what sense you know, but only whether you know that which you do
not know. You have been proved to see that which you do not see; and
you have already admitted that seeing is knowing, and that
not-seeing is not-knowing: I leave you to draw the inference.
Theaet. Yes, the inference is the contradictory of my assertion.
Soc. Yes, my marvel, and there might have been yet worse things in
store for you, if an opponent had gone on to ask whether you can
have a sharp and also a dull knowledge, and whether you can know near,
but not at a distance, or know the same thing with more or less
intensity, and so on without end. Such questions might have been put
to you by a light-armed mercenary, who argued for pay. He would have
lain in wait for you, and when you took up the position, that sense is
knowledge, he would have made an assault upon hearing, smelling, and
the other senses;-he would have shown you no mercy; and while you were
lost in envy and admiration of his wisdom, he would have got you
into his net, out of which you would not have escaped until you had
come to an understanding about the sum to be paid for your release.
Well, you ask, and how will Protagoras reinforce his position? Shall I
answer for him?
Theaet. By all means.
Soc. He will repeat all those things which we have been urging on
his behalf, and then he will close with us in disdain, and say:-The
worthy Socrates asked a little boy, whether the same man could
remember and not know the same thing, and the boy said No, because
he was frightened, and could not see what was coming, and then
Socrates made fun of poor me. The truth is, O slatternly Socrates,
that when you ask questions about any assertion of mine, and the
person asked is found tripping, if he has answered as I should have
answered, then I am refuted, but if he answers something else, then he
is refuted and not I. For do you really suppose that any one would
admit the memory which a man has of an impression which has passed
away to be the same with that which he experienced at the time?
Assuredly not. Or would he hesitate to acknowledge that the same man
may know and not know the same thing? Or, if he is afraid of making
this admission, would he ever grant that one who has become unlike
is the same as before he became unlike? Or would he admit that a man
is one at all, and not rather many and infinite as the changes which
take place in him? I speak by the card in order to avoid entanglements
of words. But, O my good sir, he would say, come to the argument in
a more generous spirit;
take up his cause myself, and see justice done?
Theod. Not I, Socrates, but rather Callias, the son of Hipponicus,
is guardian of his orphans. I was too soon diverted from the
abstractions of dialectic to geometry. Nevertheless, I shall be
grateful to you if you assist him.
Soc. Very good, Theodorus; you shall see how I will come to the
rescue. If a person does not attend to the meaning of terms as they
are commonly used in argument, he may be involved even in greater
paradoxes than these. Shall I explain this matter to you or to
Theaetetus?
Theod. To both of us, and let the younger answer; he will incur less
disgrace if he is discomfited.
Soc. Then now let me ask the awful question, which is this:-Can a
man know and also not know that which he knows?
Theod. How shall we answer, Theaetetus?
Theaet. He cannot, I should say.
Soc. He can, if you maintain that seeing is knowing. When you are
imprisoned in a well, as the saying is, and the self-assured adversary
closes one of your eyes with his hand, and asks whether you can see
his cloak with the eye which he has closed, how will you answer the
inevitable man?
Theaet. I should answer, "Not with that eye but with the other."
Soc. Then you see and do not see the same thing at the same time.
Theaet. Yes, in a certain sense.
Soc. None of that, he will reply; I do not ask or bid you answer
in what sense you know, but only whether you know that which you do
not know. You have been proved to see that which you do not see; and
you have already admitted that seeing is knowing, and that
not-seeing is not-knowing: I leave you to draw the inference.
Theaet. Yes, the inference is the contradictory of my assertion.
Soc. Yes, my marvel, and there might have been yet worse things in
store for you, if an opponent had gone on to ask whether you can
have a sharp and also a dull knowledge, and whether you can know near,
but not at a distance, or know the same thing with more or less
intensity, and so on without end. Such questions might have been put
to you by a light-armed mercenary, who argued for pay. He would have
lain in wait for you, and when you took up the position, that sense is
knowledge, he would have made an assault upon hearing, smelling, and
the other senses;-he would have shown you no mercy; and while you were
lost in envy and admiration of his wisdom, he would have got you
into his net, out of which you would not have escaped until you had
come to an understanding about the sum to be paid for your release.
Well, you ask, and how will Protagoras reinforce his position? Shall I
answer for him?
Theaet. By all means.
Soc. He will repeat all those things which we have been urging on
his behalf, and then he will close with us in disdain, and say:-The
worthy Socrates asked a little boy, whether the same man could
remember and not know the same thing, and the boy said No, because
he was frightened, and could not see what was coming, and then
Socrates made fun of poor me. The truth is, O slatternly Socrates,
that when you ask questions about any assertion of mine, and the
person asked is found tripping, if he has answered as I should have
answered, then I am refuted, but if he answers something else, then he
is refuted and not I. For do you really suppose that any one would
admit the memory which a man has of an impression which has passed
away to be the same with that which he experienced at the time?
Assuredly not. Or would he hesitate to acknowledge that the same man
may know and not know the same thing? Or, if he is afraid of making
this admission, would he ever grant that one who has become unlike
is the same as before he became unlike? Or would he admit that a man
is one at all, and not rather many and infinite as the changes which
take place in him? I speak by the card in order to avoid entanglements
of words. But, O my good sir, he would say, come to the argument in
a more generous spirit;