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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: --He supposes a feeble and valiant man to have assaulted a strong and
cowardly one, and to have robbed him of his coat or of something or other;
he is brought into court, and then Tisias says that both parties should
tell lies: the coward should say that he was assaulted by more men than
one; the other should prove that they were alone, and should argue thus:
'How could a weak man like me have assaulted a strong man like him?' The
complainant will not like to confess his own cowardice, and will therefore
invent some other lie which his adversary will thus gain an opportunity of
refuting. And there are other devices of the same kind which have a place
in the system. Am I not right, Phaedrus?
PHAEDRUS: Certainly.
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