| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: virtue?
CRITIAS: Yes.
SOCRATES: But can a man learn any kind of knowledge which is imparted by
word of mouth if he is wholly deprived of the sense of hearing?
CRITIAS: Certainly not, I think.
SOCRATES: And will not hearing be useful for virtue, if virtue is taught
by hearing and we use the sense of hearing in giving instruction?
CRITIAS: Yes.
SOCRATES: And since medicine frees the sick man from his disease, that art
too may sometimes appear useful in the acquisition of virtue, e.g. when
hearing is procured by the aid of medicine.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: the idea of good which he approaches in a tentative or hesitating manner,
but the investigations of physiology. These he regards, not seriously, as
a part of philosophy, but as an innocent recreation (Tim.).
Passing on to the Parmenides, we find in that dialogue not an exposition or
defence of the doctrine of ideas, but an assault upon them, which is put
into the mouth of the veteran Parmenides, and might be ascribed to
Aristotle himself, or to one of his disciples. The doctrine which is
assailed takes two or three forms, but fails in any of them to escape the
dialectical difficulties which are urged against it. It is admitted that
there are ideas of all things, but the manner in which individuals partake
of them, whether of the whole or of the part, and in which they become like
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: hillside, a ring of gray stones until this day.
But Perseus rowed westward toward Argos, and landed, and went
up to the town. And when he came, he found that Acrisius his
grandfather had fled. For Proetus his wicked brother had
made war against him afresh; and had come across the river
from Tiryns, and conquered Argos, and Acrisius had fled to
Larissa, in the country of the wild Pelasgi.
Then Perseus called the Argives together, and told them who
he was, and all the noble deeds which he had done. And all
the nobles and the yeomen made him king, for they saw that he
had a royal heart; and they fought with him against Argos,
|
