Phaedo.
By Zeus,
said he, I am far from thinking that I know the
cause of any of these things, I who do not even dare to say, when one is added
to one, whether the one to which the addition was made has become two, or the
one which was added, or the one which was added and
the one to which it was added
became two by the addition of each to the other. I think it is wonderful that
when each of them was separate from the other, each was one and they were not
then two, and when they were brought near each other this juxtaposition was the
cause of their becoming two. And I cannot yet believe that if one is divided,
the division causes it to become two; for this is the opposite of
the cause which produced two in the former case; for
then two arose because one was brought near and added to another one, and now
because one is removed and separated from other. And I no longer believe that I
know by this method even how one is generated or, in a word, how anything is
generated or is destroyed or exists, and I no longer admit this method, but have
another confused way of my own.Then one
day I heard a man reading from a book, as he said, by Anaxagoras,
that it is the mind that arranges and causes all
things. I was pleased with this theory of cause, and it seemed to me to be
somehow right that the mind should be the cause of all things, and I thought,
If this is so, the mind in arranging things arranges everything and establishes
each thing as it is best for it to be. So if anyone wishes to find the cause of
the generation or destruction or existence of a particular thing, he must find
out what sort of existence, or passive state of any kind, or activity is best
for it. And therefore in respect to
that
particular thing, and other things too, a man need examine nothing but what is
best and most excellent; for then he will necessarily know also what is
inferior, since the science of both is the same.
As I considered these things I
was delighted to think that I had found in Anaxagoras a teacher of the cause of
things quite to my mind, and I thought he would tell me whether the earth is
flat or round, and when
he had told me that,
would go on to explain the cause and the necessity of it, and would tell me the
nature of the best and why it is best for the earth to be as it is; and if he
said the earth was in the center, he would proceed to show that it is best for
it to be in the center; and I had made up my mind that
if he made those things clear to
me, I would no longer yearn for any other kind of cause.