What Is Law? Is it some sensation or showing, as when things learnt are learnt by knowledge showing them, or some discovery, as when things discovered are discovered—for instance, the causes of health and sickness by medicine, or the designs of the gods, as the prophets say, by prophecy; for art is surely our discovery of things, is it not? Law is discovery of reality; Lawgivers are “apportioners and shepherds […]
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“Epinomis” by Plato
The Importance of Number Of the properties of all the arts, not a single one can remain, but all of them are utterly defective, when once you remove numeration. If you note the divinity of birth, and its mortality, in which awe of the divine must be acknowledged, and real number, it is not anybody who can tell how great is the power which we owe to the accompaniment of […]
Read more“Theages” by Plato
Socrates’ Spiritual Power “There is something spiritual which, by a divine dispensation, has accompanied me from my childhood up. It is a voice that, when it occurs, always indicates to me a prohibition of something I may be about to do, but never urges me on to anything ; and if one of my friends consults me and the voice occurs, the same thing happens : it prohibits, and does […]
Read more“Menexenus” by Plato
An imitation or parody of Pericles’ funeral oration from Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War“. The speaker gives a sketchy and biased rendering of the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, glossing over defeats of the Athenians and exaggerating their merits. There are noble sentiments of devotion to one’s country and honor, but also smug national and racial superiority. The funeral speech exhorts the sons of the departed to follow […]
Read more“Alcibiades I and II” by Plato
Alcibiades, son of Cleinias, nephew of Pericles, was an ambitious statesman of noble birth. Socrates counseled him to seek wisdom and virtue first, so that he may know, firstly, what is good and fitting for himself and for the nation, and secondly, whether he is qualified to rule. Know Thyself “Consider: if some one were to say to the eye, ‘See thyself,’ as you might say to a man, ‘Know […]
Read more“Hippias Minor” by Plato
Socrates argues in this dialogue that the man who lies (or does any sort of evil) voluntarily is better than he who does so involuntarily, because the former has greater power and knowledge. This paradoxical view is consistent with Plato’s assertion in “Laws” that nobody commits injustice voluntarily. Man desires the good and happiness, but injustice renders the one who commits it evil and miserable, the opposite of what he […]
Read more“Hippias Major” by Plato
What is Beauty? Socrates doesn’t give a definition of beauty, though he does drop some hints at an approximation of the idea, but instead, by the method of elimination, he exhibits what is not beauty, and exposes with abundant sarcasm the ignorance and conceit of him who claims to know the beautiful. “Beautiful things are difficult”, indeed, perhaps because Beauty cannot be defined due to the limitation of language itself. […]
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