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Section 98

"But from this wondrous hope, my comrade, I was suddenly dashed away. For as I proceeded and read further, I saw a man making no use of Mind whatsoever, nor assigning any real causes for the ordering of reality, but giving causes like air, aether, water, and many other absurdities! It seemed to me exactly as if someone said, 'Socrates does everything he does by Mind,' and then, trying to state the causes of each thing I do, he said that the reason I am sitting here now is because my body is composed of bones and sinews; the bones are solid and have joints separating them, while the sinews can be contracted and relaxed, covering the bones along with the flesh and skin holding them together. So, as the bones pivot in their sockets, the relaxation and contraction of the sinews make me able to bend my limbs right now, and that is the cause of my sitting here bent like this! Or again, assigning similar causes for my conversing with you: assigning sounds, air currents, hearings, and countless other such things, neglecting to mention the true causes! Namely, that since the Athenians thought it best to condemn me, I in turn thought it best to sit here, and more just to remain and submit to whatever penalty they command. For, by the dog, I suspect these sinews and bones would have been in Megara or Boeotia long ago, carried there by their opinion of what is 'best,' if I had not thought it more just and noble to endure whatever penalty the city orders, rather than fleeing and running away. To call such things causes is extremely absurd. If someone said that without having bones, sinews, and such things, I could not do what I think is right, he would be speaking the truth. But to say that I do what I do because of them, and not from the choice of what is best—and that this is how Mind acts—is an exceedingly careless way of speaking. It shows a failure to distinguish between the real cause and that without which the cause could never be a cause."