24. Why, O Plato, do you in
the Meno3561
| 3561 In
this dialogue (st. p. 81) Socrates brings forward the doctrine of
reminiscence as giving a reasonable ground for the pursuit of
knowledge, and then proceeds to give a practical illustration of it by
leading an uneducated slave to solve a mathematical problem by means of
question and answer. |
put to a
young
slave certain
questions relating to the
doctrines of number, and
strive to
prove by his answers that what we
learn we do not
learn, but
that we
merely call back to memory those things which we knew in
former times? Now, if he answers you correctly,—for it
would not be becoming that we should refuse credit to what you
say,—he is led
to do so not by his real
knowledge,
3562
but by his
intelligence; and it results from his having some acquaintance with
numbers, through using them every day, that when questioned he follows
your meaning, and that the very process of multiplication always
prompts him. But if you are really assured that the
souls of
men are immortal and endowed with
knowledge when they fly
hither, cease to
question that
youth whom you see to be
ignorant
3563
| 3563
So the ms. and edd., reading
i-gnarum rerum, except LB., which by merely omitting the
i gives the more natural meaning, “acquainted with the
things,” etc. |
and accustomed
to the ways of men;
3564
| 3564
Lit., “established in the limits of humanity.” |
call to you that man of forty years, and
ask of him, not anything out of the way or obscure about triangles,
about squares,
not what a cube is, or a second
power,
3565
| 3565
i.e., a square numerically or algebraically. The
ms., both Roman edd., and Canterus read
di-bus aut dynam-us, the former word being defended by Meursius
as equivalent to binio, “a doubling,”—a sense,
however, in which it does not occur. In the other edd., cubus
aut dynamis has been received from the margin of Ursinus. |
the ratio of
nine to eight, or finally, of four to three; but ask him that with
which all are acquainted—what twice two are, or twice
three. We wish to see, we wish to know, what answer he gives when
questioned—whether he solves the desired problem. In such a
case will he perceive, although his
ears are open, whether you are
saying anything, or asking anything, or requiring some answer from him?
and will he not stand like a stock, or the Marpesian
rock,
3566
as the saying
is, dumb and speechless, not understanding or knowing even
this—whether you are talking with him or with another, conversing
with another or with him;
3567
| 3567
This clause is with reason rejected by Meursius as a gloss. |
whether that is intelligible speech
which you utter, or
merely a cry having no meaning, but drawn
out and protracted to no purpose?
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
