Phaedo. And you would not
accept the statement, if you were told that one man was greater or smaller than
another by a head,
but you would insist that you say only that every greater
thing is greater than another by nothing else than greatness, and that it is
greater by reason of greatness, and that which is smaller is smaller by nothing
else than smallness and is smaller by reason of smallness. For you would, I
think, be afraid of meeting with the retort, if you said that a man was greater
or smaller than another by a head, first that the greater is greater and the
smaller is smaller by the same thing, and secondly, that
the greater man is greater by a head, which is small, and
that it is a monstrous thing that one is great by something that is small. Would
you not be afraid of this?
And Cebes
laughed and said, Yes, I should.
Then,
he continued, you would be afraid to say that ten
is more than eight by two and that this is the reason it is more. You would say
it is more by number and by reason of number; and a two cubit measure is greater
than a one-cubit measure not by half but by magnitude, would you not? For you
would have the same fear.
Certainly,
said he.Well,
then, if one is added to one
or if one is
divided, you would avoid saying that the addition or the division is the cause
of two? You would exclaim loudly that you know no other way by which any thing
can come into existence than by participating in the proper essence of each
thing in which it participates, and therefore you accept no other cause of the
existence of two than participation in duality, and things which are to be two
must participate in duality, and whatever is to be one must participate in
unity, and you would pay no attention to the divisions and additions and other
such subtleties, leaving those for wiser men to explain. You would distrust
your inexperience and would be afraid,
as the saying goes, of your own shadow; so you would cling to that safe
principle of ours and would reply as I have said. And if anyone attacked the
principle, you would pay him no attention and you would not reply to him until
you had examined the consequences to see whether they agreed with one another or
not; and when you had to give an explanation of the principle, you would give it
in the same way by assuming some other principle which seemed to you the best of
the higher ones, and so on until
you reached
one which was adequate. You would not mix things up, as disputants do, in
talking about the beginning and its consequences, if you wished to discover any
of the realities; for perhaps not one of them thinks or cares in the least about
these things.
They are so clever that they succeed in being well pleased with
themselves even when they mix everything up;
but if you are a philosopher, I think
you will do as I have said.