Alc. Quite so.
Soc. And they are not the same?
Alc. No, indeed.
Soc. And are there any others besides, who are found to be in neither state?
Alc. No, to be sure.
Soc. For a human being must needs be either sick or not sick.
Alc. I agree.
Soc. Well then, do you hold the same view about wisdom and unwisdom?
Alc. How do you mean?
Soc. Tell me, do you think it is only possible to be either wise or unwise, or is there some third condition between these, which makes a man neither wise nor unwise?
Alc. No, there is not.
Soc. So he must needs be in one or the other of these two conditions.
Alc. I agree.
Soc. And you remember that you admitted that madness is the opposite of wisdom?
Alc. I do.
Soc. And further, that there is no third condition between these, which makes a man neither wise nor unwise?
Alc. Yes, I admitted that.
Soc. Well now, can there possibly be two opposites of one thing?
Alc. By no means.
Soc. Then it looks as though unwisdom and madness were the same.
Alc. Yes, apparently.
Soc. So we shall be right, Alcibiades, in saying that all unwise persons are mad; for example, such of your contemporaries as happen to be unwise—some such there are—and of your elders, even: for tell me, in Heaven’s name, do you not think that in our city the wise people are but few, whereas the majority are unwise, and these you call mad?
Alc. I do.
Soc. Well, do you suppose we could safely live with so many madmen as our fellow-citizens, and should not long ago have paid the penalty for it in knocks and blows at their hands, and all the usual proceedings of madmen? Consider now, my wonderful friend, whether the case is not quite different?
Alc. Well, it must be, Socrates. For it looks as though it were not as I thought.
Soc. And I think so too. But there is another way of regarding it.
Alc. I wonder what way you mean.
Soc. Well, I will tell you. We conceive there are some who are sick, do we not?
Alc. We do, to be sure.
Soc. And do you believe that a sick man must necessarily have the gout, or a fever, or ophthalmia? Do you not think that, although he may be afflicted in none of these ways, he may be suffering from some other disease? For surely there are many of them: these are not the only ones.
Alc. I agree.
Soc. And is every ophthalmia, in your opinion, a disease?
Alc. Yes.
Soc. And is every disease also ophthalmia?
Alc. No, I should think not: still, I am in doubt as to my meaning.