o)\n bebai/ôs e)sti\ tê\n au)tou= phu/sin e)/chon . . . ou(/tô de\
kai\ to\ mê\ o)\n kata\ tau)to\n ê)=n te kai\ e)/stin mê\ o)/n,
e)na/rithmon tô=n pollô=n o)/ntôn ei)=dos e(/n.]]
I say nothing about contrariety (concludes Plato), or about any
thing contrary to Ens; nor will I determine whether Non-Ens in
this sense be rationally possible or not. What I mean by Non-Ens
is a particular case under the general doctrine of the communion
or combination of Forms: the combination of Ens with Diversum,
composing that which is different from Ens, and which is therefore
Non-Ens. Thus Ens itself, being different from all other Forms, is
Non-Ens in reference to them all, or an indefinite number of
times[119] (_i.e._ an indefinite number of negative predications
may be made concerning it).
[Footnote 119: Plato, Sophist. pp. 258 E-259 A. [Greek: ê(mei=s
ga\r peri\ me\n e)nanti/ou tino\s au)tô=| (tô=| o)/nti) chai/rein
pa/lai le/gomen, ei)/t' e)/stin ei)/te mê\ lo/gon e)/chon ê)\ kai\
panta/pasin a)/logon; o(\ de\ nu=n ei)rê/kamen ei)=nai to\ mê\
o)/n], &c.]
Non-Ens being thus shown to be one among the many other Forms,
disseminated among all the others, and entering into communion
with Ens among the rest--we have next to enquire whether it enters
into communion with the Form of Opinion and Discourse. It is the
communion of the two which constitutes false opinion and false
proposition: if therefore such communion be possible, false
opinion and false proposition are possible, which is the point
that Plato is trying to prove.[120]
[Footnote 120: Plato, Sophist. p. 260 B.]
[Side-note: Communion of Non-Ens with proposition--possible and
explicable.]
Now it has been already stated (continues Plato) that some Forms
or Genera admit of communion with each other, others do not. In
like manner some words admit of communion with each other--not
others. Those alone admit of communion, which, when put together,
make up a proposition significant or giving information respecting
Essence or Existence. The smallest proposition must have a noun
and a verb put together: the noun indicating the agent, the verb
indicating the act. Every proposition must be a proposition
concerning something, or must have a logical subject: every
proposition must also be of a certain quality. Let us take (he
proceeds) two simple propositions: _Theætêtus is sitting
down_--_Theætêtus is flying._[121] Of both these two, the subject is
the same: but the first is true, the second is false. The first gives
things existing as they are, respecting the subject: the second
gives respecting the subject, things different from those
existing, or in other words things non-existent, as if they did
exist.[122] A false proposition is that which gives things
different as if they were the same, and things non-existent as if
they were existent, respecting the subject.[123]
[Footnote 121: Plato, Sophist. p. 263 A. [Greek: Theai/têtos
ka/thêtai . . . Theai/têtos pe/tetai.]]
[Footnote 122: Plato, Sophist. p. 263 B. [Greek: le/gei de\
au)tô=n] ([Greek: tô=n lo/gôn] of the two propositions) [Greek: o(
me\n a)lêthê\s ta\ o)/nta, ô(s e)sti peri\ sou= . . . O( de\ dê\
pseudê\s e(/tera tô=n o)/ntôn . . . Ta\ mê\ o)/nt' a)/ra ô(s
o)/nta le/gei . . . O)/ntôn de/ ge o)/nta e(/tera peri\ sou=.
Polla\ me\n ga\r e)/phamen o)/nta peri\ e(/kaston ei)=nai/ pou,
polla\ de\ ou)k o)/nta.]]
[Footnote 123: Plato, Sophist. p. 263 D. [Greek: Peri\ dê\ sou=
lego/mena me/ntoi tha/tera ô(s ta\ au)ta/, kai\ mê\ o)/nta ô(s
o)/nta, panta/pasin, ô(s e)/oiken, ê( toiau/tê su/nthesis e)/k te
r(êma/tôn gignome/nê kai\ o)noma/tôn o)/ntôs te kai\ a)lêthô=s
gi/gnesthai lo/gos pseudê/s.]
It is plain that this explanation takes no account of negative
propositions: it applies only to affirmative propositions.]
[Side-note: Imperfect analysis of a proposition--Plato does not
recognise the predicate.]
The foregoing is Plato's explanation of Non-Ens. Before we remark
upon it, let us examine his mode of analysing a proposition. He
conceives the proposition as consisting of a noun and a verb. The
noun marks the logical _subject_, but he has no technical word
equivalent to _subject_: his phrase is, that a proposition must be
_of something_ or _concerning something_. Then again, he not only
has no word to designate the predicate, but he does not even seem
to conceive the predicate as distinct and separable: it stands
along with the copula embodied in the verb. The two essentials of
a proposition, as he states them, are--That it should have a
certain subject--That it should be of a certain quality, true or
false.[124] This conception is just, as far as it goes: but it
does not state all which ought to be known about proposition, and
it marks an undeveloped logical analysis. It indicates moreover
that Plato, not yet conceiving the predicate as a distinct
constituent, had not yet conceived the copula as such: and
therefore that the substantive verb [Greek: e)/stin] had not yet
been understood by him in its function of pure and simple copula.
The idea that the substantive verb when used in a proposition must
mark _existence_ or _essence_, is sufficiently apparent in several
of his reasonings.
[Footnote 124: Since the time of Aristotle, the _quality_ of a
proposition has been understood to designate its being either
affirmative or negative: that being _formal_, or belonging to its
form only. Whether affirmative or negative, it may be true or
false: and this is doubtless a _quality_, but belonging to its
matter, not to its form. Plato seems to have taken no account of
the formal distinction, _negative_ or _affirmative_.]
I shall now say a few words on Plato's explanation of Non-Ens. It
is given at considerable length, and was, in the judgment of
Schleiermacher, eminently satisfactory to Plato himself. Some of
Plato's expressions[125] lead me to suspect that his satisfaction
was not thus unqualified: but whether he was himself satisfied or
not, I cannot think that the explanation ought to satisfy others.
[Footnote 125: Plato, Sophistês, p. 259 A-B. Schleiermacher,
Einleitung zum Sophistes, vol. iv. p. 134, of his translation of
Plato.]
[Side-note: Plato's explanation of Non-Ens is not
satisfactory--Objections to it.]
Plato here lays down the position--That the word _Not_ signifies
nothing more than difference, with respect to that other word to
which it is attached. It does not signify (he says) what is
contrary; but simply what is different. _Not-great_,
_Not-beautiful_--mean what is different from great or beautiful:
Non-Ens means, not what is contrary to Ens, but simply what is
different from Ens.
First, then, even if we admit that Non-Ens has this latter meaning
and nothing beyond--yet when we turn to Plato's own definition of
Ens, we shall find it so all-comprehensive, that there can be
absolutely nothing different from Ens:--these last words can have
no place and no meaning. Plato defines Ens so as to include all
that is knowable, conceivable, thinkable.[126] One portion of this
total differs from another: but there can be nothing which differs
from it all. The Form or nature of Diversum (to use Plato's
phrase) as it is among the knowable or conceivable, is already
included in the total of Ens, and comes into communion (according
to the Platonic phraseology) with one portion of that total as
against another portion. But with Ens as a whole, it cannot come
into communion, for there is nothing apart from Ens. Whenever we
try to think of any thing apart from Ens, we do by the act of
thought include it in Ens, as defined by Plato. _Different from
great_--_different from white_ (_i.e._ not great, not white, sensu
Platonico) is very intelligible: but _Different from Ens_, is not
intelligible: there is nothing except the inconceivable and
incomprehensible: the words professing to describe it, are mere
unmeaning sound. Now this is just[127] what Parmenides said about
Non-Ens. Plato's definition of Ens appears to me to make out the
case of Parmenides about Non-Ens; and to render the Platonic
explanation--_different from Ens_--open to quite as many
difficulties, as those which attach to Non-Ens in the ordinary
sense.
[Footnote 126: Plato, Sophist. pp. 247-248.]
[Footnote 127: Compare Kratylus, 430 A.]
Secondly, there is an objection still graver against Plato's
explanation. When he resolves negation into an affirmation of
something different from what is denied, he effaces or puts out of
sight one of the capital distinctions of logic. What he says is
indeed perfectly true: _Not-great_, _Not-beautiful_, _Non-Ens_,
are respectively different from _great_, _beautiful_, _Ens_. But
this, though true, is only a part of the truth; leaving unsaid
another portion of the truth which, while equally essential, is at
the same time special and characteristic. The negative not only
differs from the affirmative, but has such peculiar meaning of its
own, as to exclude the affirmative: both cannot be true together.
_Not-great_ is certainly different from _great_: so also, _white_,
_hard_, _rough_, _just_, _valiant_, &c, are all different from
_great_. But there is nothing in these latter epithets to exclude
the co-existence of great. _Theætêtus is great_--_Theætêtus is
white_; in the second of these two propositions I affirm something
respecting Theætêtus quite different from what I affirm in the
first, yet nevertheless noway excluding what is affirmed in the
first.[128] The two propositions may both be true. But when I
say--_Theætêtus is dead_--_Theætêtus is not dead_: here are two
propositions which cannot both be true, from the very form of the
words. To explain _not-great_, as Plato does, by saying that it
means _only_ something different from great,[129] is to suppress
this peculiar meaning and virtue of the negative, whereby it
simply excludes the affirmative, without affirming any thing in
its place. Plato is right in saying that _not-great_ does not
affirm the _contrary_ of great, by which he means _little_.[130]
The negative does not affirm any thing: it simply denies. Plato
seems to consider the negative as a species of affirmative:[131]
only affirming something different from what is affirmed by the
term which it accompanies. Not-Great, Not-Beautiful, Not-Just--he
declares to be Forms just as real and distinct as Great,
Beautiful, Just: only different from these latter. This, in my
opinion, is a conception logically erroneous. Negative stands
opposed to affirmative, as one of the modes of distributing both
terms and propositions. A purely negative term cannot stand alone
in the subject of a proposition: _Non-Entis nulla sunt
prædicata_--was the scholastic maxim. The apparent exceptions to
this rule arise only from the fact, that many terms negative in
their form have taken on an affirmative signification.
[Footnote 128: Proklus, in his Commentary on the Parmenidês (p.
281, p. 785, Stallbaum), says, with reference to the doctrine laid
down by Plato in the Sophistês, [Greek: o(/lôs ga\r ai(
a)potha/seis e)ggonoi/ ei)si tê=s e(tero/têtos tê=s noera=s; dia\
tou=to ga\r _ou)ch i(/ppos_, o(/ti e(/teron--kai\ dia\ tou=to
_ou)k a)/nthrôpos_, o(/ti a)/llo.]
Proklus here adopts and repeats Plato's erroneous idea of the
negative proposition and its function. When I deny that Caius is
just, wise, &c., my denial does not intimate simply that I know
him to be something _different_ from just, wise; for he may have
fifty _different_ attributes, co-existent and consistent with
justice and wisdom.
To employ the language of Aristotle (see a pertinent example,
Physic. i. 8, 191, b. 15, where he distinguishes [Greek: to\ mê\
o)\n kath' au(to\] from [Greek: to\ mê\ o)\n kata\ sumbebêko/s]),
we may say that it is not of the essence of the Different to deny
or exclude that from which it is different: the Different may deny
or exclude, but that is only by _accident_--[Greek: kata\
sumbebêko/s]. Plato includes, in the essence of the Different,
that which belongs to it only by accident.
Aristotle in more than one place distinguishes [Greek: diaphora\]
from [Greek: e)nanti/ôsis]--not always in the same language. In
Metaphysic. I. p. 1055 a. 33, he considers that the root of all
[Greek: e)nanti/ôsis] is [Greek: e(/xis] and [Greek: ste/rêsis],
understood in the widest sense, _i.e._ affirmative and negative.
See Bonitz, not. ad loc., and Waitz, ad Categor. p. 12, a. 26. The
last portion of the treatise [Greek: Peri\ E(rmênei/as] was
interpreted by Syrianus with a view to uphold Plato's opinion here
given in the Sophistes (Schol. ad Aristot. p. 136, a. 15
Brandis).]
[Footnote 129: Plato, Sophist. p. 258 B. [Greek: ou)k e)nanti/on
e)kei/nô| sêmai/nousa, a)lla\ _tosou=ton mo/non_, e(/teron
e)kei/nou.]
If we look to the Euthydêmus we shall see that this confusion
between what is different from A, and what is incompatible with or
exclusive of A, is one of the fallacies which Plato puts into the
mouth of the two Sophists Euthydêmus and Dionysodôrus, whom he
exhibits and exposes in that dialogue. [Greek: A)/llo ti ou)=n
e(/teros, ê)= d' o(/s] (Dionysodorus), [Greek: ô)\n li/thou, ou)
li/thos ei)=? kai\ e(/teros ô)\n chrusou=, ou) chruso\s ei)=?
E)/sti tau=ta. Ou)kou=n kai\ o( Chaire/dêmos, e)/phê, e(/teros
ô)\n patro/s, ou)k a)\n patê\r ei)/ê?] (Plat. Euthydem. p. 298
A).]
[Footnote 130: Plato, Sophist. p. 257 B.]
[Footnote 131: Plato, Sophist. pp. 257 E, 258 A.
[Greek: O)/ntos dê\ pro\s o)\n a)nti/thesis, ô(s e)/oik', ei)=nai
xumbai/nei to\ _mê\ kalo/n_. . . .
O(moi/ôs a)/ra to\ mê\ me/ga, kai\ to\ me/ga au)to\ _ei)=nai_
lekte/on.]
Plato distinctly recognises here Forms or Ideas [Greek: tô=n
a)popha/seôn], which the Platonists professed not to do, according
to Aristotle, Metaphys. A. 990, b. 13--see the instructive Scholia
of Alexander, p. 565, a. Brandis.]
[Side-note: Plato's view of the negative is erroneous. Logical
maxim of contradiction.]
The view which Plato here takes of the negative deserves the
greater notice, because, if it were adopted, what is called the
maxim of contradiction would be divested of its universality.
Given a significant proposition with the same subject and the same
predicate, each taken in one and the same signification--its
affirmative and its negative cannot both be true. But if by the
negative, you mean to make a new affirmation, different from that
contained in the affirmative--the maxim just stated cannot be
broadly maintained as of universal application: it may or may not
be valid, as the case happens to stand. The second affirmation may
be, as a matter of fact, incompatible with the first: but this is
not to be presumed, from the mere fact that it is different from
the first: proof must be given of such incompatibility.
[Side-note: Examination of the illustrative propositions chosen by
Plato--How do we know that one is true, the other false?]
We may illustrate this remark by looking at the two propositions
which Plato gives as examples of true and false. _Theætêtus is
sitting down_--_Theætêtus is flying_. Both the examples are of
affirmative propositions: and it seems clear that Plato, in all
this reasoning, took no account of negative propositions: those
which simply deny, affirming nothing. The second of these
propositions (says Plato) affirms _what is not_, as if it were,
respecting the subject But how do we know this to be so? In the
form of the second proposition there is nothing to show it: there
is no negation of any thing, but simply affirmation of a different
positive attribute. Although it happens, in this particular case,
that the two attributes are incompatible, and that the affirmation
of the one includes the negation of the other--yet there is
nothing in the form of either proposition to deny the other:--no
formal incompatibility between them. Both are alike affirmative,
with the same subject, but different predicates. These two
propositions therefore do not serve to illustrate the real nature
of the negative, which consists precisely in this formal
incompatibility. The proper negative belonging to the
proposition--_Theætêtus is sitting down_--would be, _Theætêtus
is not sitting down_. Plato ought to maintain, if he followed out
his previous argument, that Not-Sitting down is as good a Form as
Sitting-down, and that it meant merely--Different from Sitting down.
But instead of doing this Plato gives us a new affirmative proposition,
which, besides what it affirms, conceals an implied negation of the
first proposition. This does not serve to illustrate the purpose
of his reasoning--which was to set up the formal negative as a new
substantive attribute, different from its corresponding
affirmative. As between the two, the maxim of contradiction
applies: both cannot be true. But as between the two propositions
given in Plato, that maxim has no application: they are two
propositions with the same subject, but different predicates;
which happen in this case to be, the one true, the other false--but
which are not formally incompatible. The second is not false
because it differs from the first; it has no essential connection
with the first, and would be equally false, even if the first were
false also.
The function of the negative is to deny. Now denial is not a
species of affirmation, but the reversal or antithesis of
affirmation: it nullifies a belief previously entertained, or
excludes one which might otherwise be entertained,--but it affirms
nothing. In particular cases, indeed, the denial of one thing may
be tantamount to the affirmation of another: for a man may know
that there are only two suppositions possible, and that to shut
out the one is to admit the other. But this is an inference drawn
in virtue of previous knowledge possessed and contributed by
himself: another man without such knowledge would not draw the
same inference, nor could he learn it from the negative
proposition _per se_. Such then is the genuine meaning of the
negative; from which Plato departs, when he tells us that the
negative is a kind of affirmation, only affirming something
different--and when he illustrates it by producing two affirmative
propositions respecting the same subject, affirming different
attributes, the one as matter of fact incompatible with the other.
[Side-note: Necessity of accepting the evidence of sense.]
But how do we know that the first proposition--_Theætêtus is
sitting down_--affirms what is:--and that the second
proposition--_Theætêtus is flying_--affirms what is not? If present,
our senses testify to us the truth of the first, and the falsehood
of the second: if absent, we have the testimony of a witness, combined
with our own past experience attesting the frequency of facts
analogous to the one, and the non-occurrence of facts analogous to
the other. When we make the distinction, then,--we assume that
what is attested by sense or by comparisons and inductions from
the facts of sense, is real, or _is_: and that what is merely
conceived or imagined, without the attestation of sense (either
directly or by way of induction), is not real, or _is not_. Upon
this assumption Plato himself must proceed, when he takes it for
granted, as a matter of course, that the first proposition is
true, and the second false. But he forgets that this assumption
contradicts the definition which, in this same dialogue,[132] he
had himself given of Ens--of the real or _the thing that is_. His
definition was so comprehensive, as to include not only all that
could be seen or felt, but also all that had capacity to be known
or conceived by the mind: and he speaks very harshly of those who
admit the reality of things perceived, but refuse to admit equal
reality to things only conceived. Proceeding then upon this
definition, we can allow no distinction as to truth or falsehood
between the two propositions--_Theætêtus is sitting
down_--_Theætêtus is flying_: the predicate of the second affirms
what is, just as much as the predicate of the first: for it affirms
something which, though neither perceived nor perceivable by
sense, is distinctly conceivable and conceived by the mind. When
Plato takes for granted the distinction between the two, that the
first affirms _what is_, and the second _what is not_--he
unconsciously slides into that very recognition of the testimony
of sense (in other words, of fact and experience), as the
certificate of reality, which he had so severely denounced in the
opposing materialist philosophers: and upon the ground of which he
thought himself entitled, not merely to correct them as mistaken,
but to reprove them as wicked and impudent.[133]
[Footnote 132: Plato, Sophist. pp. 247 D-E, 248 D-E.]
[Footnote 133: Plato, Sophist. p. 246 D.]
[Side-note: Errors of Antisthenes--depended partly on the imperfect
formal logic of that day.]
I have thus reviewed a long discussion--terminating in a
conclusion which appears to me unsatisfactory--of the meaning and
function of the negative. I hardly think that Plato would have
given such an explanation of it, if he had had the opportunity of
studying the Organon of Aristotle. Prior to Aristotle, the
principles and distinctions of formal logic were hardly at
all developed; nor can we wonder that others at that time fell
into various errors which Plato scornfully derides, but very
imperfectly rectifies. For example, Antisthenes did not admit the
propriety of any predication, except identical, or at most
essential, predication: the word [Greek: e)/stin] appeared to him
incompatible with any other. But we perceive in this dialogue,
that Plato also did not conceive the substantive verb as
performing the simple function of copula in predication: on the
contrary he distinguishes [Greek: e)/stin], as marking identity
between subject and predicate--from [Greek: mete/chei], as marking
accidental communion between the two. Again, there were men in
Plato's day who maintained that Non-Ens ([Greek: to\ mê\ o)\n])
was inconceivable and impossible. Plato, in refuting these
philosophers, gives a definition of Ens ([Greek: to\ o)\n]), which
puts them in the right--fails in stating what the true negative
is--and substitutes, in place of simple denial, a second
affirmation to overlay and supplant the first.
[Side-note: Doctrine of the Sophistês--contradicts that of other
Platonic dialogues.]
To complete the examination of this doctrine of the Sophistês,
respecting Non-Ens, we must compare it with the doctrine on the
same subject laid down in other Platonic dialogues. It will be
found to contradict, very distinctly, the opinion assigned by
Plato to Sokrates both in the Theætêtus and in the fifth Book of
the Republic:[134] where Sokrates deals with Non-Ens in its usual
sense as the negation of Ens: laying down the position that
Non-Ens can be neither the object of the cognizing Mind, nor the
object of the opining ([Greek: doxa/zôn]) or cogitant Mind: that
it is uncognizable and incogitable, correlating only with
Non-Cognition or Ignorance. Now we find that this doctrine (of
Sokrates, in Theætêtus and Republic) is the very same as that
which is affirmed, in the Sophistês, to be taken up by the
delusive Sophist: the same as that which the Eleate spends much
ingenuity in trying to refute, by proving that Non-Ens is not the
negation of Ens, but only that which differs from Ens, being
itself a particular variety of Ens. It is also the same doctrine
as is declared, both by the Eleate in the Sophistês and by
Sokrates in the Theætêtus, to imply as an undeniable consequence,
that the falsehood of any proposition is impossible. "A false
proposition is that which speaks the thing that is not ([Greek:
to\ mê\ o)/n]). But this is an impossibility. You can neither
know, nor think, nor speak, the thing that is not. You cannot know
without knowing something: you cannot speak without speaking
something (_i. e._ something that is)." Of this consequence--which
is expressly announced as included in the doctrine, both by the
Eleate in the Sophistês and by the Platonic Sokrates in the
Theætêtus--no notice is taken in the Republic.[135]
[Footnote 134: Plato, Republic, v. pp. 477-478. Theætêt. pp.
188-189. Parmenidês, pp. 160 C, 163 C. Euthydêmus, p. 284 B-C.
Aristotle (De Interpretat. p. 21, a. 22) briefly expresses his
dissent from an opinion, the same as what is given in the Platonic
Sophistês--that [Greek: to\ mê\ o)/n] is [Greek: o)/n ti]. He
makes no mention of Plato, but Ammonius in the Scholia alludes to
Plato (p. 129, b. 20, Schol. Bekk.).
We must note that the Eleate in the Sophistês states both opinions
respecting [Greek: to\ mê\ o)/n]: first that which he
refutes--next that which he advances. The Scholiast may, therefore,
refer to both opinions, as _stated_ in the Sophistês, though one of
them is stated only for the purpose of being refuted.
We may contrast with these views of Plato (in the Sophistês)
respecting [Greek: to\ mê\ o)/n], as not being a negation [Greek:
tou= o)/ntos], but simply a something [Greek: e(/teron tou=
o)/ntos], the different views of Aristotle about [Greek: to\ mê\
o)/n], set forth in the instructive Commentary of M. Ravaisson,
Essai sur la Métaphysique d'Aristote, p. 360.
"Le non-être s'oppose à l'être, comme sa négation: ce n'est donc
pas, non plus que l'être, une chose simple; et autant il y a de
genres de l'être, autant il faut que le non-être ait de genres.
Cependant l'opposition de l'être et du non-être, différente, en
realité, dans chacune des catégories, est la même dans toutes par
sa forme. Dans cette forme, le second terme n'exprime pas autre
chose que l'absence du premier. Le rapport de l'être et du
non-être consiste donc dans une pure contradiction: dernière forme
à laquelle toute opposition doit se ramener."
Aristotle seems to allude to the Sophistês, though not mentioning
it by its title, in three passages of the Metaphysica--E. 1026, b.
14; K. 1064, b. 29; N. 1089, a. 5 (see the note of Bonitz on the
latter passage)--perhaps also elsewhere (see Ueberweg, pp.
153-154). Plato replied in one way, Leukippus and Demokritus in
another, to the doctrine of Parmenides, who banished Non-Ens as
incogitable. Leukippus maintained that Non-Ens equivalent to
[Greek: to\ keno/n], and that the two elements of things were
[Greek: to\ plê=res] and [Greek: to\ keno/n], for which he used
the expressions [Greek: de\n] and [Greek: ou)de/n]. Plato replied
as we read in the Sophistês: thus both he and Leukippus tried in
different ways to demonstrate a positive nature and existence for
Non-Ens. See Aristot. Metaph. A. 985, b. 4, with the Scholia, p.
538, Brandis. The Scholiast cites Plato [Greek: e)n tê=|
Politei/a|], which seems a mistake for [Greek: e)n tô=|
Sophi/stê|].]
[Footnote 135: Socher (Ueber Platon's Schriften, pp. 264-265) is
upon this point more satisfactory than the other Platonic
commentators. He points out--not only without disguise, but even
with emphasis--the discrepancies and contradictions between the
doctrines ascribed to the Eleate in the Sophistês, and those
ascribed to Sokrates in the Republic, Phædon, and other Platonic
dialogues. These are the main premisses upon which Socher rests
his inference, that the Sophistês is not the composition of Plato.
I do not admit his inference: but the premisses, as matters of
fact, appear to me undeniable. Stallbaum, in his Proleg. to the
Sophistês, p. 40 seq., attempts to explain away these
discrepancies--in my opinion his remarks are obscure and
unsatisfactory. Various other commentators, also holding the
Sophistês to be a genuine work of Plato, overlook or extenuate
these premisses, which they consider unfavourable to that
conclusion. Thus Alkinous, in his [Greek: Ei)sagôgê/], sets down
the explanation of [Greek: to\ mê\ o)\n] which is given in the
Sophistês, as if it were the true and Platonic explanation, not
adverting to what is said in the Republic and elsewhere (Alkin. c.
35, p. 189 in the Appendix Platonica annexed to the edition of
Plato by K. F. Hermann). The like appears in the [Greek:
Prolego/mena tê=s Pla/tônos philosophi/as]: c. 21, p. 215 of the
same edition. Proklus, in his Commentary on the Parmenidês, speaks
in much the same manner about [Greek: to\ mê\ o)\n]--considering
the doctrine advanced and defended by the Eleate in the Sophistês,
to represent the opinion of Plato (p. 785 ed. Stallbaum; see also
the Commentary of Proklus on the Timæus, b. iii. p. 188 E, 448 ed.
Schneid.). So likewise Simplikius and the commentators on
Aristotle, appear to consider it--see Schol. ad Aristotel.
Physica, p. 332, a. 8, p. 333, b., 334, a., 343, a. 5. It is plain
from these Scholia that the commentators were much embarrassed in
explaining [Greek: to\ mê\ o)/n]. They take the Sophistês as if it
delivered Plato's decisive opinion upon that point (Porphyry
compares what Plato says in the Timæus, but not what he says in
the Republic or in Theætêtus, p. 333, b. 25); and I think that
they accommodate Plato to Aristotle, in such manner as to obscure
the real antithesis which Plato insists upon in the Sophistês--I
mean the antithesis according to which Plato excludes what is
[Greek: e)nanti/on tou= o)/ntos] and admits only what is [Greek:
e(/teron tou= o)/ntos].
Ritter gives an account (Gesch. der Philos. part ii. pp. 288-289)
of Plato's doctrine in the Sophistês respecting Non-Ens; but by no
means an adequate account. K. F. Hermann also omits (Geschichte
und System der Platonischen Philos. pp. 504-505-507) to notice the
discrepancy between the doctrine of the Sophistês, and the
doctrine of the Republic, and Theætêtus, respecting [Greek: to\
mê\ o)/n]--though he pronounces elsewhere that the Republic is
among the most indisputably positive of all Plato's compositions
(p. 536).]
Again, the doctrine maintained by the Eleate in the Sophistês
respecting Ens, as well as respecting Ideas or Forms, is in other
ways inconsistent with what is laid down in other Platonic
dialogues. The Eleate in the Sophistês undertakes to refute two
different classes of opponents; first, the Materialists, of whom
he speaks with derision and antipathy--secondly, others of very
opposite doctrines, whom he denominates the Friends of Ideas or
Forms, speaking of them in terms of great respect. Now by these
Friends of Forms or Ideas, Schleiermacher conjectures that Plato
intends to denote the Megaric philosophers. M. Cousin, and most
other critics (except Ritter), have taken up this opinion. But to
me it seems that Socher is right in declaring the doctrine,
ascribed to these Friends of Ideas, to be the very same as that
which is laid down by Plato himself in other important
dialogues--Republic, Timæus, Phædon, Phædrus, Kratylus, &c.--and
which is generally understood as that of the Platonic Ideas.[136]
In all these dialogues, the capital contrast and antithesis is that
between Ens or Entia on one side, and Fientia (the transient, ever
generated and ever perishing), on the other: between the eternal,
unchangeable, archetypal Forms or Ideas--and the ever-changing
flux of particulars, wherein approximative likeness of these
archetypes is imperfectly manifested. Now it is exactly this
antithesis which the Friends of Forms in the Sophistês are
represented as upholding, and which the Eleate undertakes to
refute.[137] We shall find Aristotle, over and over again,
impugning the total separation or demarcation between Ens and
Fientia ([Greek: ei)/dê--ge/nesis--chôrista/]), both as the
characteristic dogma, and the untenable dogma, of the Platonic
philosophy: it is exactly the same issue which the Eleate in the
Sophistês takes with the Friends of Forms. He proves that Ens is
just as full of perplexity, and just as difficult to understand,
as Non-Ens:[138] whereas, in the other Platonic dialogues, Ens is
constantly spoken of as if it were plain and intelligible. In
fact, he breaks down the barrier between Ens and Fientia, by
including motion, change, the moving or variable, among the world
of Entia.[139] Motion or Change belongs to Fieri; and if it be
held to belong to Esse also (by recognising a Form or Idea of
Motion or Change, as in the Sophistês), the antithesis between the
two, which is so distinctly declared in other Platonic dialogues,
disappears.[140]
[Footnote 136: Socher, p. 266; Schleiermacher, Einleitung zum
Sophistes, p. 134; Cousin, Oeuvres de Platon, vol. xi. 517,
notes.
Schleiermacher gives this as little more than a conjecture; and
distinctly admits that any man may easily suppose the doctrine
ascribed to these Friends of Forms to be Plato's own
doctrine--"Nicht zu verwundern wäre es, wenn Mancher auf den Gedanken
käme, Platon meinte hier sich selbst und seine eigene Lehre," &c.
But most of the subsequent critics have taken up Schleiermacher's
conjecture (that the Megarici are intended), as if it were
something proved and indubitable.
It is curious that while Schleiermacher thinks that the opinions
of the Megaric philosophers are impugned and refuted in the
Sophistês, Socher fancies that the dialogue was composed by a
Megaric philosopher, not by Plato. Ueberweg (Aechtheit der Platon.
Schr. pp. 275-277) points out as explicitly as Socher, the
discrepancy between the Sophistês and several other Platonic
dialogues, in respect to what is said about Forms or Ideas. But he
draws a different inference: he infers from it a great change in
Plato's own opinion, and he considers that the Sophistês is later
in its date of composition than those other dialogues which it
contradicts. I think this opinion about the late composition of
the Sophistês, is not improbable; but the premisses are not
sufficient to prove it.
My view of the Platonic Sophistês differs from the elaborate
criticism on it given by Steinhart (Einleitung zum Soph. p. 417
seq.) Moreover, there is one assertion in that Einleitung which I
read with great surprise. Steinhart not only holds it for certain
that the Sophistes was composed after the Parmenidês, but also
affirms that it solves the difficulties propounded in the
Parmenidês--discusses the points of difficulty "in the best
possible way" ("in der wünschenwerthesten Weise" (pp. 470-471).
I confess I cannot find that the difficulties started in the
Parmenidês are even noticed, much less solved, in the Sophistês.
And Steinhart himself tells that the Parmenidês places us in a
circle both of persons and doctrines entirely different from those
of the Sophistês (p. 472). It is plain also that the other
Platonic commentators do not agree with Steinhart in finding the
Sophistês a key to the Parmenidês: for most of them (Ast, Hermann,
Zeller, Stallbaum, Brandis, &c.) consider the Parmenidês to have
been composed at a later date than the Sophistês (as Steinhart
himself intimates; compare his Einleitung zum Parmenides, p. 312
seq.). Ueberweg, the most recent enquirer (posterior to
Steinhart), regards the Parmenidês as the latest of all Plato's
compositions--if indeed it be genuine, of which he rather doubts.
(Aechtheit der Platon. Schrift. pp. 182-183.)
M. Mallet (Histoire de l'École de Megare, Introd. pp. xl.-lviii.,
Paris, 1845) differs from all the three opinions of
Schleiermacher, Ritter, and Socher. He thinks that the
philosophers, designated as Friends of Forms, are intended for the
Pythagoreans. His reasons do not satisfy me.]
[Footnote 137: Plato, Sophist. pp. 246 B, 248 B. The same opinion
is advanced by Sokrates in the Republic, v. p. 479 B-C. Phædon,
pp. 78-79. Compare Sophist, p. 248 C with Symposion, p. 211 B. In
the former passage, [Greek: to\ pa/schein] is affirmed of the
Ideas: in the latter passage, [Greek: to\ pa/schein mêde/n].]
[Footnote 138: Plato, Sophist p. 245 E. Yet he afterwards talks of
[Greek: to\ lampro\n tou= o)/ntos a)ei\] as contrasted with
[Greek: to\ skoteino\n tou= mê\ o)/ntos], p. 254 A, which seems
not consistent.]
[Footnote 139: Plato, Sophist. p. 249 B. "Ipsæ ideæ per se
simplices sunt et immutabiles: sunt æternæ, ac semper fuerunt ab
omni liberæ mutatione," says Stallbaum ad Platon. Republ. v. p.
476; see also his Prolegg. to the Parmenidês, pp. 39-40. This is
the way in which the Platonic Ideas are presented in the Timæus,
Republic, Phædon, &c., and the way in which they are conceived by
the [Greek: ei)dô=n phi/loi] in the Sophistês, whom the Eleate
seeks to confute.
Zeller's chapter on Plato seems to me to represent not so much
what we read in the separate dialogues, as the attempt of an able
and ingenious man to bring out something like a consistent and
intelligible doctrine which will do credit to Plato, and to soften
down all the inconsistencies (see Philos. der Griech. vol. ii. pp.
394-415-429 ed. 2nd).]
[Footnote 140: See a striking passage about the unchangeableness
of Forms or Ideas in the Kratylus, p. 439 D-E; also Philêbus, p.
15.
In the Parmenidês (p. 132 D) the supposition [Greek: ta\ ei)/dê
e)sta/nai e)n tê=| phu/sei] is one of those set up by Sokrates and
impugned by Parmenides. Nevertheless in an earlier passage of that
dialogue Sokrates is made to include [Greek: ki/nêsis] and [Greek:
sta/sis] among the [Greek: ei)/dê] (p. 129 E). It will be found,
however, that when Parmenides comes to question Sokrates, What
[Greek: ei)/dê] do you recognise? attributes and subjects only
(the latter with hesitation) are included: no such thing as
actions, processes, events--[Greek: to\ poiei=n kai\ pa/schein]
(p. 130). In Republic vii. 529 D, we find mention made of [Greek:
to\ o)\n ta/chos] and [Greek: ê( ou)=sa bradu/tês], which implies
[Greek: ki/nêsis] as among the [Greek: ei)/dê]. In Theætêt. pp.
152 D, 156 A, [Greek: ki/nêsis] is noted as the constituent and
characteristic of Fieri--[Greek: to\ gigno/menon]--which belongs
to the domain of sensible perception, as distinguished from
permanent and unchangeable Ens.]
[Side-note: The persons whom Plato here attacks as Friends of Forms
are those who held the same doctrine as Plato himself espouses in
Phædon, Republic, &c.]
If we examine the reasoning of the Eleate, in the Sophistês,
against the persons whom he calls the Friends of Forms, we shall
see that these latter are not Parmenideans only, but also Plato
himself in the Phædon, Republic, and elsewhere. We shall also see
that the ground, taken up by the Eleate, is much the same as that
which was afterwards taken up by Aristotle against the Platonic
Ideas. Plato, in most of his dialogues, declares Ideas, Forms,
Entia, to be eternal substances distinct and apart from the flux
and movement of particulars: yet he also declares, nevertheless,
that particulars have a certain communion or participation with
the Ideas, and are discriminated and denominated according to such
participation. Aristotle controverts both these doctrines: first,
the essential separation of the two, which he declares to be
untrue: next, the participation or coming together of the two
separate elements--which he declares to be an unmeaning fiction or
poetical metaphor, introduced in order to elude the consequences
of the original fallacy.[141] He maintains that the two (Entia and
Fientia--Universals and Particulars) have no reality except in
conjunction and implication together; though they are separable by
reason ([Greek: lo/gô| chôrista\--tô=| ei)nai, chôrista/]) or
abstraction, and though we may reason about them apart, and must
often reason about them apart.[142] Now it is this implication and
conjunction of the Universal with its particulars, which is the
doctrine of the Sophistês, and which distinguishes it from other
Platonic dialogues, wherein the Universal is
transcendentalized--lodged in a separate world from particulars. No
science or intelligence is possible (says the Eleate in the Sophistês)
either upon the theory of those who pronounce all Ens to be constant
and unchangeable, or upon that of those who declare all Ens to be
fluent and variable. We must recognise both together, the constant
and the variable, as equally real and as making up the totality of
Ens.[143] This result, though not stated in the language which
Aristotle would have employed, coincides very nearly with the
Aristotelian doctrine, in one of the main points on which
Aristotle distinguishes his own teaching from that of his master.
[Footnote 141: Aristot. Metaphys. A. 991-992.]
[Footnote 142: Aristot. Metaph. vi. 1038, a-b. The Scholion of
Alexander here (p. 763, b. 36, Brandis) is clearer than Aristotle
himself. [Greek: To\ prokei/meno/n e)sti dei=xai ô(s ou)de\n tô=n
katho/lou ou)si/a e)/stin; ou)/te ga\r o( katho/lou a)/nthrôpos
ê)\ o( katho/lou i(/ppos, ou)/te a)/llo ou)de/n; a)ll' e(/kaston
au)tôn _dianoi/as a)po/maxi/s_ e)stin _a)po\ tô=n kath' e(/kasta_
kai\ prô/tôs kai\ ma/lista legome/nôn ou)siô=n kai\ o(moi/ôma.]]
[Footnote 143: Plato, Sophist. p. 249 C-D. [Greek: Tô=| dê\
philoso/phô| kai\ tau=ta ma/lista timô=nti pa=sa a)na/gkê dia\
tau=ta mê/te tô=n e(\n ê)\ kai\ ta\ polla\ ei)/dê lego/ntôn to\
pa=n e(stêko\s a)pode/chesthai, tô=n te au)= pantachê=| to\ o)\n
kinou=ntôn mêde\ to\ para/pan a)kou/ein; a)lla\ kata\ tê\n tô=n
pai/dôn eu)chê/n, o(/sa a)ki/nêta/ te kai\ kekinême/na, to\ o)/n
te kai\ to\ pa=n, xunampho/tera le/gein.]
Ritter states the result of this portion of the Sophistês
correctly. "Es bleibt uns als Ergebniss aller dieser
Untersuchungen über das Seyn, dass die Wahrheit sowohl des
Werdens, als auch des beharrlichen Seyns, anerkannt werden müsse"
(Geschichte der Philos. ii. p. 281).]
[Side-note: The Sophistês recedes from the Platonic point of view,
and approaches the Aristotelian.]
That the Eleate in the Sophistes recedes from the Platonic point
of view and approaches towards the Aristotelian, will be seen also
if we look at the lesson of logic which he gives to Theætêtus. In
his analysis of a proposition--and in discriminating such
conjunctions of words as are significant, from such as are
insignificant--he places himself on the same ground as that which
is travelled over by Aristotle in the Categories and the treatise
De Interpretatione. That the handling of the topic by Aristotle is
much superior, is what we might naturally expect from the fact
that he is posterior in time. But there is another difference
between the two which is important to notice. Aristotle deals with
this topic, as he does with every other, in the way of methodical
and systematic exposition. To expound it as a whole, to distribute
it into convenient portions each illustrating the others, to
furnish suitable examples for the general principles laid down--are
announced as his distinct purposes. Now Plato's manner is quite
different. Systematic exposition is not his primary purpose: he
employs it up to a certain point, but as means towards another and
an independent purpose--towards the solution of a particular
difficulty, which has presented itself in the course of the
dialogue.--"_Nosti morem dialogorum._" Aristotle is demonstrative:
Plato is dialectical. In our present dialogue (the Sophistês), the
Eleate has been giving a long explanation of Non-Ens; an
explanation intended to prove that Non-Ens was a particular sort
of Ens, and that there was therefore no absurdity (though
Parmenides had said that this was absurdity) in assuming it as a
passable object of Cognition, Opination, Affirmation. He now goes
a step further, and seeks to show that it is, actually and in
fact, an object of Opination and Affirmation.[144] It is for this
purpose, and for this purpose only, that he analyses a
proposition, specifies the constituent elements requisite to form
it, and distinguishes one proposition from another.
[Footnote 144: Plato, Sophist. p. 261 D.]
Accordingly, the Eleate,--after pointing out that neither a string
of nouns repeated one after the other, nor a string of verbs so
repeated, would form a significant proposition,--declares that the
conjunction of a noun with a verb is required to form one; and
that opination is nothing but that internal mental process which
the words of the proposition express. The smallest proposition
must combine a noun with a verb:--the former signifying the agent,
the latter, the action or thing done.[145] Moreover, the
proposition must be a proposition _of something_; and it must be
of a certain quality. By a proposition _of something_, Plato
means, that what is called technically the subject of the
proposition (in his time there were no technical terms of logic)
must be something positive, and cannot be negative: by the quality
of the proposition, he means that it must be either true or
false.[146]
[Footnote 145: Plato, Sophist. p. 262 C.]
[Footnote 146: Plato, Sophist. p. 262 E. [Greek: Lo/gon
a)nagkai=on, o(/tan per ê)=|, tino\s ei)=nai lo/gon, _mê\ de/
tinos_, a)du/naton . . . Ou)kou=n kai\ poio/n tina au)to\n ei)=nai
dei=?] Compare p. 237 E.
In the words here cited Plato unconsciously slides back into the
ordinary acceptation of [Greek: mê/ ti]: that is, to [Greek: mê\]
in the sense of negation. If we adopt that peculiar sense of
[Greek: mê/], which the Eleate has taken so much pains to prove
just before in the case of [Greek: to\ mê\ o)\n] (that is, if we
take [Greek: mê\] as signifying not negation but simply
difference), the above argument will not hold. If [Greek: ti/s]
signifies one subject (A), and [Greek: mê/ tis] signifies simply
another subject (B) different from A ([Greek: e(/teron]), the
predicate [Greek: a)du/naton] cannot be affirmed. But if we take
[Greek: mê/ tis] in its proper sense of negation, the [Greek:
a)du/naton] will be so far true that [Greek: ou)k a)/nthrôpos, ou)
Theai/têtos], cannot be the subject of a proposition. Aristotle
says the same in the beginning of the Treatise De Interpretatione
(p. 16, a. 30).]
[Side-note: Aristotle assumes without proof, that there are some
propositions true, others false.]
This early example of rudimentary grammatical or logical analysis,
recognising only the two main and principal parts of speech, is
interesting as occurring prior to Aristotle; by whom it is
repeated in a manner more enlarged, systematic,[147] and
instructive. But Aristotle assumes, without proof and without
supposing that any one will dispute the assumption--that there are
some propositions true, other propositions false: that a name or
noun, taken separately, is neither true nor false:[148] that
propositions (enunciations) only can be true or false.
[Footnote 147: Aristotel. De Interpr. init. with Scholia of
Ammonius, p. 98, Bekk.]
[Footnote 148: In the Kratylus of Plato Sokrates maintains that
names may be true or false as well as propositions, pp. 385 D, 431
B.]
[Side-note: Plato in the Sophistês has undertaken an impossible
task--He could not have proved, against his supposed adversary,
that there _are_ false propositions.]
The proceeding of Plato in the Sophistês is different. He supposes
a Sophist who maintains that no proposition either is false or can
be false, and undertakes to prove against him that there are false
propositions: he farther supposes this antagonist to reject the
evidence of sense and visible analogies, and to acknowledge no
proof except what is furnished by reason and philosophical
deduction.[149] Attempting, under these restrictions, to prove his
point, Plato's Eleatic disputant rests entirely upon the peculiar
meaning which he professes to have shown to attach to Non-Ens. He
applies this to prove that Non-Ens may be predicated as well as
Ens: assuming that such predication of Non-Ens constitutes a false
proposition. But the proof fails. It serves only to show that the
peculiar meaning ascribed by the Eleate to Non-Ens is
inadmissible. The Eleate compares two distinct
propositions--_Theætêtus is sitting down_--_Theætêtus is flying_. The
first is true: the second is false. Why? Because (says the Eleate)
the first predicates Ens, the second predicates Non-Ens, or (to
substitute his definition of Non-Ens) another Ens different from
the Ens predicated in the first.[150] But here the reason
assigned, why the second proposition is false, is not the real
reason. Many propositions may be assigned, which predicate
attributes different from the first, but which are nevertheless
quite as much true as the first. I have already observed, that the
reason why the second proposition is false is, because it
contradicts the direct testimony of sense, if the persons debating
are spectators: if they are not spectators, then because it
contradicts the sum total of their previous sensible experience,
remembered, compared, and generalised, which has established in
them the conviction that no man does or can fly. If you discard
the testimony of sense as unworthy of credit (which Plato assumes
the Sophist to do), you cannot prove that the second proposition
is false--nor indeed that the first proposition is true. Plato has
therefore failed in giving that dialectic proof which he promised.
The Eleate is forced to rely (without formally confessing it), on
the testimony of sense, which he had forbidden Theætêtus to
invoke, twenty pages before.[151] The long intervening piece of
dialectic about Ens and Non-Ens is inconclusive for his purpose,
and might have been omitted. The proposition--_Theætêtus is
flying_--does undoubtedly predicate attributes _which are not_ as
if they were,[152] and is thus false. But then we must consult and
trust the evidence of our perception: we must farther accept _are
not_ in the ordinary sense of the words, and not in the sense
given to them by the Eleate in the Platonic Sophistês. His attempt
to banish the specific meaning of the negative particle, and to
treat it as signifying nothing more than difference, appears to me
fallacious.[153]
[Footnote 149: Plato, Sophist. p. 240 A. It deserves note that
here Plato presents to us the Sophist as rejecting the evidence of
sense: in the Theætêtus he presents to us the Sophist as holding
the doctrine [Greek: e)pistê/mê = ai)/sthêsis]. How these
propositions can both be true respecting the Sophists as a class I
do not understand. The first may be true respecting some of them;
the second may be true respecting others; respecting a third class
of them, neither may be true. About the Sophists in a body there
is hardly a single proposition which can be safely affirmed.]
[Footnote 150: Plato, Sophist. p. 263 C.]
[Footnote 151: Theætêtus makes this attempt and is checked by the
Eleate, pp. 239-240. It is in p. 261 A that the Eleate begins his
proof in refutation of the supposed Sophist--that [Greek: do/xa]
and [Greek: lo/gos] may be false. The long interval between the
two is occupied with the reasoning about Ens and Non-Ens.]
[Footnote 152: Plato, Sophist. p. 263 E. [Greek: ta\ mê\ o)/nta
ô(s o)/nta lego/mena], &c.
The distinction between these two propositions, the first as true,
the second as false (Theætêtus is sitting down, Theætêtus is
flying), is in noway connected with the distinction which Plato
had so much insisted upon before respecting the intercommunion of
Forms, Ideas, General Notions, &c., that some Forms will come into
communion with each other, while others will not (pp. 252-253).
There is here no question of repugnancy or intercommunion of
Forms: the question turns upon the evidence of vision, which
informs us that Theætêtus is sitting down and not standing up or
flying. If any predicate be affirmed of a subject, contrary to
what is included in the definition of that subject, then indeed
repugnancy of Forms might be urged.]
[Footnote 153: Plato, Sophist. p. 257 B.]
[Side-note: What must be assumed in all dialectic discussion.]
In all reasoning, nay in all communication by speech, you must
assume that your hearer understands the meaning of what is spoken:
that he has the feelings of belief and disbelief, and is familiar
with those forms of the language whereby such feelings are
expressed: that there are certain propositions which he believes--in
other words, which he regards as true: that there are certain
other propositions which he disbelieves, or regards as false: that
he has had experience of the transition from belief to disbelief,
and _vice versâ_--in other words, of having fallen into error and
afterwards come to perceive that it was error. These are the
mental facts realised in each man and assumed by him to be also
realised in his neighbours, when communication takes place by
speech. If a man could be supposed to believe nothing, and to
disbelieve nothing;--if he had no forms of speech to express his
belief, disbelief, affirmation, and denial--no information could
be given, no discussion would be possible. Every child has to
learn this lesson in infancy; and a tedious lesson it undoubtedly
is.[154] Antisthenes (who composed several dialogues) and the
other disputants of whom we are now speaking, must have learnt the
lesson as other men have: but they find or make some general
theory which forbids them to trust the lesson when learnt. It was
in obedience to some such theory that Antisthenes discarded all
predication except essential predication, and discarded also the
form suited for expressing disbelief--the negative proposition:
maintaining, That to contradict was impossible. I know no mode of
refuting him, except by showing that his fundamental theory is
erroneous.
[Footnote 154: Aristotel. Metaphys. vii. 1043, b. 25. [Greek:
ô(/ste ê( a)pori/a ê(\n oi( A)ntisthe/neioi kai\ oi( ou(/tôs
_a)pai/deutoi_ ê)po/roun, e)/chei tina\ kairo/n], &c.
Compare respecting this paradox or [Greek: the/sis] of
Antisthenes, the scholia of Alexander on the passage of
Aristotle's Topica above cited, p. 259, b. 15, in Schol. Bekk.
If Antisthenes admitted only identical predications, of course
[Greek: to\ a)ntilo/gein] became impossible. I have endeavoured to
show, in a previous note on this dialogue, that a misconception
(occasionally shared even by Plato) of the function of the copula,
lay at the bottom of the Antisthenean theory respecting identical
predication. Compare Aristotel. Physic. i. p. 185, b. 28, together
with the Scholia of Simplikius, pp. 329-330, ed. Bekk., and
Plato, Sophistês, p. 245.]
[Side-note: Discussion and theorising presuppose belief and
disbelief, expressed in set forms of words. They imply
predication, which Antisthenes discarded.]
Discussion and theorising can only begin when these processes,
partly intellectual, partly emotional, have become established and
reproducible portions of the train of mental association. As
processes, they are common to all men. But though two persons
agree in having expressed the feeling of belief, and in expressing
that feeling by one form of proposition--also in having the
feeling of disbelief, and in expressing it by another form of
proposition--yet it does not follow that the propositions which
these two believe or disbelieve are the same. How far such is the
case must be ascertained by comparison--by appeal to sense,
memory, inference from analogy, induction, feeling, consciousness,
&c. The ground is now prepared for fruitful debate: for analysing
the meaning, often confused and complicated, of propositions: for
discriminating the causes, intellectual and emotional, of belief
and disbelief, and for determining how far they harmonise in one
mind and another: for setting out general rules as to sequence, or
inconsistency, or independence, of one belief as compared with
another. To a certain extent, the grounds of belief and disbelief
in all men, and the grounds of consistency or inconsistency
between some beliefs and others, will be found to harmonise: they
can be embodied in methodical forms of language, and general rules
can be laid down preventing in many cases inadvertence or
erroneous combination. It is at this point that Aristotle takes up
rational grammar and logic, with most profitable effect. But he is
obliged to postulate (what Antisthenes professed to discard)
predication, not merely identical, but also accidental as well as
essential--together with names and propositions both negative and
affirmative.[155] He cannot avoid postulating thus much: though he
likewise postulates a great deal more, which ought not to be
granted.
[Footnote 155: See the remarks in Aristotel. Metaphys. [Greek: G].
1005, b. 2, 1006, a. 6. He calls it [Greek: a)paideusi/a--a)paideusi/a
tô=n a)nalutikô=n]--not to be able to distinguish
those matters which can be proved and require to be proved, from
those matters which are true, but require no proof and are
incapable of being proved. But this distinction has been one of
the grand subjects of controversy from his day down to the
present day; and between different schools of philosophers, none
of whom would allow themselves to deserve the epithet of [Greek:
a)pai/deutoi].
Aristotle calls Antisthenes and his followers [Greek:
a)pai/deutoi], in the passage cited in the preceding note.]
[Side-note: Precepts and examples of logical partition, illustrated
in the Sophistês.]
The long and varied predicamental series, given in the Sophistês,
illustrates the process of logical partition, as Plato conceived
it, and the definition of a class-name founded thereupon. You take
a logical whole, and you subtract from it part after part until
you find the _quæsitum_ isolated from every thing else.[156] But
you must always divide into two parts (he says) wherever it can be
done: dichotomy or bipartition is the true logical partition:
should this be impracticable, trichotomy, or division into the
smallest attainable number of parts, must be sought for.[157]
Moreover, the bipartition must be made according to Forms (Ideas,
Kinds): the parts which you recognise must be not merely parts,
but Forms: every form is a part, but every part is not a
form.[158] Next, you must draw the line of division as nearly as
you can through the middle of the _dividendum_, so that the parts
on both sides may be nearly equal: it is in this way that your
partition is most likely to coincide with forms on both sides of
the line.[159] This is the longest way of proceeding, but the
safest. It is a logical mistake to divide into two parts very
unequal: you may find a form on one side of the line, but you
obtain none on the other side. Thus, it is bad classification to
distribute the human race into Hellênes + Barbari: the _Barbari_
are of infinite number and diversity, having no one common form to
which the name can apply. It is also improper to distribute Number
into the myriad on side, and all other numbers on the other--for a
similar reason. You ought to distribute the human race into the
two forms, Male--Female: and number into the two, Odd--Even.[160]
So also, you must not divide gregarious creatures into human
beings on one side, and animals on the other; because this last
term would comprise numerous particulars utterly disparate. Such a
classification is suggested only by the personal feeling of man,
who prides himself upon his intelligence. But if the
classification were framed by any other intelligent species, such
as Cranes,[161] they would distinguish Cranes on the one side from
animals on the other, including Man as one among many disparate
particulars under _animal_.
[Footnote 156: Plato, Politikus, p. 268 D. [Greek: me/ros a)ei\
me/rous a)phairoume/nous e)p' a)/kron e)phiknei=sthai to\
zêtou/menon.]
Ueberweg thinks that Aristotle, when he talks of [Greek: ai(
gegramme/nai diaire/seis] alludes to these logical distributions
in the Sophistês and Politikus (Aechtheit der Platon. Schr. pp.
153-154).]
[Footnote 157: Politik. p. 287 C.]
[Footnote 158: Politik. p. 263 C.]
[Footnote 159: Politik. pp. 262 B, 265 A. [Greek: dei= mesotomei=n
ô(s ma/lista], &c.]
[Footnote 160: Politikus, p. 262 D-E.]
[Footnote 161: Politikus, p. 262 D. [Greek: semnu=non au(to\
e(auto/], &c.]
[Side-note: Recommendation of logical bipartition.]
The above-mentioned principle--dichotomy or bipartition into two
equal or nearly equal halves, each resting upon a characteristic
form--is to be applied as far as it will go. Many different
schemes of partition upon this principle may be found, each
including forms subordinated one to the other, descending from the
more comprehensive to the less comprehensive. It is only when you
can find no more parts which are forms, that you must be content
to divide into parts which are not forms. Thus after all the
characteristic forms, for dividing the human race, have been gone
through, they may at last be partitioned into Hellênes and
Barbari, Lydians and non-Lydians, Phrygians and non-Phrygians: in
which divisions there is no guiding form at all, but only a
capricious distribution into fractions with separate
names[162]--meaning by _capricious_, a distribution founded on some
feeling or circumstance peculiar to the distributor, or shared by him
only with a few others; such as the fact, that he is himself a Lydian
or a Phrygian, &c.
[Footnote 162: Politikus, p. 262 E. [Greek: Ludou\s de\ ê)\
Phru/gas ê)/ tinas e(te/rous pro\s a(/pantas ta/ttôn a)po/schizoi
to/te, ê(ni/ka a)poroi= ge/nos a)/ma kai\ me/ros eu(ri/skein
e(ka/teron tô=n schisthe/ntôn.]]
[Side-note: Precepts illustrated by the Philêbus.]
These precepts in the Sophistês and Politikus, respecting the
process of classification, are illustrated by an important passage
of the Philêbus:[163] wherein Plato tells us that the constitution
of things includes the Determinate and the Indeterminate
implicated with each other, and requiring study to disengage them.
Between the highest One, Form, or Genus--and the lowest array of
indefinite particulars--there exist a certain number of
intermediate Ones or Forms, each including more or fewer of these
particulars. The process of study or acquired cognition is brought
to bear upon these intermediate Forms: to learn how many there
are, and to discriminate them in themselves as well as in their
position relative to each other. But many persons do not recognise
this: they apprehend only the Highest One, and the Infinite Many,
not looking for any thing between: they take up hastily with some
extreme and vague generality, below which they know nothing but
particulars. With knowledge thus imperfect, you do not get beyond
contentious debate. Real, instructive, dialectic requires an
understanding of all the intermediate forms. But in descending
from the Highest Form downwards, you must proceed as much as
possible in the way of bipartition, or if not, then of
tripartition, &c.: looking for the smallest number of forms which
can be found to cover the whole field. When no more forms can be
found, then and not till then, you must be content with nothing
better than the countless indeterminate particulars.
[Footnote 163: Plato, Philêbus, pp. 16-17.
The notes of Dr. Badham upon this passage in his edition of the
Philêbus, p. 11, should be consulted as a just correction of
Stallbaum in regard to [Greek: pe/ras] and [Greek: tô=n e(\n
e)kei/nôn].]
This instructive passage of the Philêbus--while it brings to view
a widespread tendency of the human mind, to pass from the largest
and vaguest generalities at once into the region of particulars,
and to omit the distinctive sub-classes which lie
between--illustrates usefully the drift of the Sophistês and Politikus.
In these two last dialogues it is the method itself of good logical
distribution which Plato wishes to impress upon his readers: the
formal part of the process.[164] With this view, he not only makes
the process intentionally circuitous and diversified, but also
selects by preference matters of common sensible experience,
though in themselves indifferent, such as the art of weaving,[165]
&c.
[Footnote 164: He states this expressly, Politik. p. 286 D.]
[Footnote 165: Plato, Politik. p. 285 D.]
[Side-note: Importance of founding logical Partition on
resemblances perceived by sense.]
The reasons given for this preference deserve attention. In these
common matters (he tells us) the resemblances upon which Forms are
founded are perceived by sense, and can be exhibited to every one,
so that the form is readily understood and easily discriminated.
The general terms can there be explained by reference to sense.
But in regard to incorporeal matters, the higher and grander
topics of discussion, there is no corresponding sensible
illustration to consult. These objects can be apprehended only by
reason, and described only by general terms. By means of these
general terms, we must learn to give and receive rational
explanations, and to follow by process of reasoning from one form
to another. But this is more difficult, and requires a higher
order of mind, where there are no resemblances or illustrations
exposed to sense. Accordingly, we select the common sensible
objects as an easier preparatory mode of a process substantially
the same in both.[166]
[Footnote 166: Plato, Politik. pp. 285 E--286 A. [Greek: tou\s
plei/stous le/lêthen o(/ti toi=s me\n tô=n o)/ntôn r(a|di/ôs
katamathei=n ai)sthêtai/ tines o(moio/têtes pephu/kasin, a(\s
ou)de\n chalepo\n dêlou=n, o(/tan au)tô=n tis boulê/thê| tô=|
lo/gon ai)tou=nti peri\ tou, mê\ meta\ pragma/tôn a)lla\ chôri\s
lo/gou r(a|di/ôs e)ndei/xasthai; toi=s d' au)= megi/stois ou)=si
kai\ timiôta/tois ou)k e)/stin ei)/dôlon ou)de\n pro\s tou\s
a)nthrô/pous ei)rgasme/non e)nargô=s, ou(= deichthe/ntos], &c.
About the [Greek: ei)/dôlon ei)rgasme/non e)nargô=s], which is
affirmed in one of these two cases and denied in the other,
compare a striking analogy in the Phædrus, p. 250 A-E.]
[Side-note: Province of sensible perception--is not so much
narrowed by Plato here as it is in the Theætêtus.]
This explanation given by Plato, in itself just, deserves to be
compared with his view of sensible objects as knowable, and of
sense as a source of knowledge. I noticed in a preceding chapter
the position which Sokrates is made to lay down in the
Theætêtus,[167]--That ([Greek: ai)/sthêsis]) sensible perception
reaches only to the separate impressions of sense, and does not
apprehend the likeness and other relations between them. I have
also noticed the contrast which he establishes elsewhere between
Esse and Fieri: _i.e._, between Ens which alone (according to him)
is knowable, and the perpetual flux of Fientia which is not
knowable at all, but is only matter of opinion or guess-work. Now
in the dialogue before us, the Politikus, there is no such marked
antithesis between opinion and knowledge. Nor is the province of
[Greek: ai)/sthêsis] so strictly confined: on the contrary, Plato
here considers sensible perception as dealing with Entia, and as
appreciating resemblances and other relations between them. It is
by an attentive study and comparison of these facts of sense that
Forms are detected. "When a man (he says) has first perceived by
sense the points of communion between the Many, he must not desist
from attentive observation until he has discerned in that
communion all the differences which reside in Forms: and when he
has looked at the multifarious differences which are visible among
these Many, he must not rest contented until he has confined all
such as are really cognate within one resemblance, tied together
by the essence of one common Form."[168]
[Footnote 167: Plato, Theæt. pp. 185-186. See above p. 161.]
[Footnote 168: Plato, Politikus, p. 285 B. [Greek: de/on, o(/tan
me\n tê\n tô=n pollô=n tis pro/teron ai)/sthêtai koinôni/an, mê\
proaphi/stasthai pri\n a)\n e)n au)tê=| ta\s diaphora\s i)/dê|
pa/sas o(po/sai per e)n ei)/desi kei=ntai; ta\s de\ au)=
pantodapa\s a)nomoio/têtas, o(/tan e)n plê/thesin o)phthô=si, mê\
dunato\n ei)=nai dusôpou/menon pau/esthai, pri\n a)\n xu/mpanta
ta\ oi)kei=a e)nto\s mia=s o(moio/têtos e(/rxas ge/nous tino\s
ou)si/a| periba/lêtai.]]
[Side-note: Comparison of the Sophistês with the Phædrus.]
These passages may be compared with others of similar import in
the Phædrus.[169] Plato here considers the Form, not as an Entity
_per se_ separate from and independent of the particulars, but as
implicated in and with the particulars: as a result reached by the
mind through the attentive observation and comparison of
particulars: as corresponding to what is termed in modern language
abstraction and generalisation. The self-existent Platonic Ideas
do not appear in the Politikus:[170] which approximates rather to
the Aristotelian doctrine:--that is, the doctrine of the
universal, logically distinguishable from its particulars, but
having no reality apart from them ([Greek: chôrista\ lo/gô|
mo/non]). But in other dialogues of Plato, the separation between
the two is made as complete as possible, especially in the
striking passages of the Republic: wherein we read that the facts
of sense are a delusive juggle--that we must turn our back upon
them and cease to study them--and that we must face about, away
from the sensible world, to contemplate Ideas, the separate and
unchangeable furniture of the intelligible world--and that the
whole process of acquiring true Cognition, consists in passing
from the higher to the lower Forms or Ideas, without any
misleading illustrations of sense.[171] Here, in the Sophistês and
Politikus, instead of having the Universal behind our backs when
the particulars are before our faces, we see it _in and amidst_
particulars: the illustrations of sense, instead of deluding us,
being declared to conduce, wherever they can be had, to the
clearness and facility of the process.[172] Here, as well as in
the Phædrus, we find the process of Dialectic emphatically
recommended, but described as consisting mainly in logical
classification of particulars, ascending and descending divisions
and conjunctions, as Plato calls them[173]--analysis and
synthesis. We are enjoined to divide and analyse the larger genera
into their component species until we come to the lowest species
which can no longer be divided: also, conversely, to conjoin
synthetically the subordinate species until the highest genus is
attained, but taking care not to omit any of the intermediate
species, in their successive gradations.[174] Throughout all this
process, as described both in the Phædrus and in the Politikus,
the eye is kept fixed upon the constituent individuals. The Form
is studied in and among the particulars which it comprehends: the
particulars are looked at in groups put together suitably to each
comprehending Form. And in both dialogues, marked stress is laid
upon the necessity of making the division dichotomous; as well as
according to Forms, and not according to fractions which are not
legitimate Forms.[175] Any other method, we are told, would be
like the wandering of a blind man.
[Footnote 169: Plato, Phædrus, pp. 249 C, 265 D-E.]
[Footnote 170: This remark is made by Stallbaum in his Prolegg. ad
Politicum, p. 81; and it is just, though I do not at all concur in
his general view of the Politikus, wherein he represents the
dialogue as intended to deride the Megaric philosophers.]
[Footnote 171: See the Republic, v. pp. 476-479, vi. pp.
508-510-511, and especially the memorable simile about the cave
and the shadows within it, in Book vii. pp. 518-519, together with
the [Greek: periagôgê\] which he there prescribes--[Greek: a)po\ tou=
gignome/nou ei)s to\ o)/n]--and the remarks respecting
observations in astronomy and acoustics, p. 529.]
[Footnote 172: Compare the passage of the Phædrus (p. 263 A-C)
where Plato distinguishes the sensible particulars on which men
mostly agree, from the abstractions (Just and Unjust, &c.,
corresponding with the [Greek: a)sô/mata, ka/llista, me/gista,
timiô/tata], Politikus, p. 286 A) on which they are perpetually
dissenting.]
[Footnote 173: Plato, Phædrus, p. 266 B. [Greek: tou/tôn dê\
e)/gôge au)to/s te e)rastê\s tô=n diaire/seôn kai\ sunagôgô=n
. . . tou\s duname/nous au)to\ dra=|n . . . kalô= dialektikou/s.]
The reason which Sokrates gives in the Phædrus for his attachment
to dialectics, that he may become competent in discourse and in
wisdom ([Greek: i(/n' oi(=o/s te ô)= le/gein kai\ phronei=n]), is
the same as that which the Eleate assigns in recommendation of the
logical exercises in the Politikus.]
[Footnote 174: Plato, Phædrus, pp. 271 D, 277 B. [Greek:
o(risa/meno/s te pa/lin kat' ei)/dê me/chri tou= a)tmê/tou
te/mnein e)pistê/thê|.]]
[Footnote 175: Plato, Phædrus, pp. 265 E, 270 E. [Greek: e)oi/koi
a)\n ô(/sper tuphlou= porei/a|.]]
What distinguishes the Sophistês and Politikus from most other
dialogues of Plato, is, that the method of logical classification
is illustrated by setting the classifier to work upon one or a few
given subjects, some in themselves trivial, some important. Though
the principles of the method are enunciated in general terms, yet
their application to the special example is kept constantly before
us; so that we are never permitted, much less required, to divorce
the Universal from its Particulars.
[Side-note: Comparison of the Politikus with the Parmenidês.]
As a dialogue illustrative of this method, the Politikus (as I
have already pointed out) may be compared to the Phædrus: in
another point of view, we shall find instruction in comparing it
to the Parmenidês. This last too is a dialogue illustrative of
method, but of a different variety of method.
[Side-note: Variety of method in dialectic research--Diversity of
Plato.]
What the Sophistês and Politikus are for the enforcement of
logical classification, the Parmenidês is for another part of the
philosophising process--laborious evolution of all the
consequences deducible from the affirmative as well as from the
negative of every hypothesis bearing upon the problem. And we note
the fact, that both in the Politikus and Parmenidês, Plato
manifests the consciousness that readers will complain of him as
prolix, tiresome, and wasting ingenuity upon unprofitable
matters.[176] In the Parmenidês, he even goes the length of saying
that the method ought only to be applied before a small and select
audience; to most people it would be repulsive, since they cannot
be made to comprehend the necessity for such circuitous
preparation in order to reach truth.[177]
[Footnote 176: Plato, Politikus, p. 283 B. [Greek: pro\s dê\ to\
no/sêma to\ toiou=ton], and the long series of questions and
answers which follows to show that the prolixity is unavoidable,
pp. 285 C, 286 B-E.]
[Footnote 177: Plato, Parmenid. p. 136 D-E.]
CHAPTER XXX.
POLITIKUS.
[Side-note: The Politikus by itself, apart from the Sophistês.]
I have examined in the preceding sections both that which the
Sophistês and Politikus present in common--(_viz._ a lesson, as
well as a partial theory, of the logical processes called
Definition and Division)--and that which Sophistês presents apart
from the Politikus. I now advert to two matters which we find in
the Politikus, but not in the Sophistês. Both of them will be
found to illustrate the Platonic mode of philosophising.
[Side-note: Views of Plato on mensuration. Objects measured against
each other. Objects compared with a common standard. In each Art,
the purpose to be attained is the standard.]
I. Plato assumes, that there will be critics who blame the two
dialogues as too long and circuitous; excessive in respect of
prolixity. In replying to those objectors,[1] he enquires, What is
meant by long or short--excessive or deficient--great or little?
Such expressions denote mensuration or comparison. But there are
two varieties of mensuration. We may measure two objects one
against the other: the first will be called great or greater, in
relation to the second--the second will be called little or less
in relation to the first. But we may also proceed in a different
way. We may assume some third object as a standard, and then
measure both the two against it: declaring the first to be great,
greater, excessive, &c., because it exceeds the standard--and the
second to be little, less, deficient, &c., because it falls short
of the standard. Here then are two judgments or estimations
altogether different from each other, and yet both denoted by the
same words _great_ and _little_: two distinct _essences_ (in
Platonic phrase) of great and little, or of greatness and
littleness.[2] The art of mensuration has thus two varieties. One
includes arithmetic and geometry, where we simply compare numbers
and magnitudes with each other, determining the proportions
between them: the other assumes some independent standard; above
which is excess, and below which is deficiency. This standard
passes by different names according to circumstances: the
Moderate, Becoming, Seasonable, Proper, Obligatory, &c.[3] Such a
standard is assumed in every art--in every artistic or scientific
course of procedure. Every art has an end to be attained, a result
to be produced; which serves as the standard whereby each
preparatory step of the artist is measured, and pronounced to be
either excessive or deficient, as the case may be.[4] Unless such
a standard be assumed, you cannot have regular art or science of
any kind; neither in grave matters, nor in vulgar matters--neither
in the government of society, nor in the weaving of cloth.[5]
[Footnote 1: The treatment of this subject begins, Politik. p. 283
C, where Plato intimates that the coming remarks are of wide
application.]
[Footnote 2: Plato, Politik. p. 283 E. [Greek: _di/ttas_ a)/ra
_tau/tas ou)si/as_ kai\ kri/seis tou= mega/lou kai\ tou= smikrou=
thete/on.]]
[Footnote 3: Plato, Politik. p. 284 E. [Greek: to\ me/trion, to\
pre/pon, to\n kairo/n, to\ de/on], &c.
The reader will find these two varieties of mensuration, here
distinguished by Plato, illustrated in the "two distinct modes of
appreciating weight" (the Absolute and the Relative), described
and explained by Professor Alexander Bain in his work on The
Senses and The Intellect, 3rd edition, p. 93. This explanation
forms an item in the copious enumeration given by Mr. Bain of the
fundamental sensations of our nature.]
[Footnote 4: Plato, Politik. p. 283 D. [Greek: kata\ tê\n tê=s
gene/seôs a)nagkai/an ou)si/an].--284 A-C. [Greek: pro\s tê\n tou=
metri/ou ge/nesin].]
[Footnote 5: Plato, Politik. p. 284 C.]
[Side-note: Purpose in the Sophistês and Politikus is--To attain
dialectic aptitude. This is the standard of comparison whereby to
judge whether the means employed are suitable.]
Now what is the end to be attained, by this our enquiry into the
definition of a Statesman? It is not so much to solve the
particular question started, as to create in ourselves dialectic
talent and aptitude, applicable to every thing. This is the
standard with reference to which our enquiry must be criticised--not
by regard to the easy solution of the particular problem, or
to the immediate pleasure of the hearer. And if an objector
complains, that our exposition is too long or our subject-matters
too vulgar--we shall require him to show that the proposed end
might have been attained with fewer words and with more solemn
illustrations. If he cannot show this, we shall disregard his
censure as inapplicable.[6]
[Footnote 6: Plato, Politik. pp. 286 D, 287 A. Compare Plato,
Philêbus, p. 36 D.]
[Side-note: Plato's defence of the Politikus against critics.
Necessity that the critic shall declare explicitly what his
standard of comparison is.]
The above-mentioned distinction between the two varieties of
mensuration or comparison, is here given by Plato, simply to serve
as a defence against critics who censured the peculiarities of the
Politikus. It is not pursued into farther applications. But it
deserves notice, not merely as being in itself just and useful,
but as illustrating one of the many phases of Plato's philosophy.
It is an exhibition of the relative side of Plato's character, as
contra-distinguished from the absolute or dogmatical: for both the
two, opposed as they are to each other, co-exist in him and
manifest themselves alternately. It conveys a valuable lesson as
to the apportionment of praise and blame. "When you blame me" (he
says to his critics), "you must have in your mind some standard of
comparison upon which the blame turns. Declare what that standard
is:--what you mean by the Proper, Becoming, Moderate, &c. There is
such a standard, and a different one, in every different Art. What
is it here? You must choose this standard, explain what it is, and
adhere to it when you undertake to praise or blame." Such an
enunciation (thoroughly Sokratic[7]) of the principle of
relativity, brings before critics the fact--which is very apt to
be forgotten--that there must exist in the mind of each some
standard of comparison, varying or unvarying, well or ill
understood: while at the same time it enforces upon them the
necessity of determining clearly for themselves, and announcing
explicitly to others, what that standard is. Otherwise the
propositions, affirming comparison, can have no uniform meaning
with any two debaters, nor even with the same man at different
times.
[Footnote 7: Xenophon, Memorab. iii. 8, 7, iii. 10, 12.]
[Side-note: Comparison of Politikus with Protagoras, Phædon,
Philêbus, &c.]
To this relative side of Plato's mind belong his frequent
commendations of measurement, numbering, computation, comparison,
&c. In the Protagoras,[8] he describes the art of measurement as
the main guide and protector of human life: it is there treated as
applicable to the correct estimation of pleasures and pains. In
the Phædon,[9] it is again extolled: though the elements to be
calculated are there specified differently. In the Philêbus, the
antithesis of [Greek: Pe/ras] and [Greek: A)/peiron] (the
Determinant or Limit, and the Indeterminate or Infinite) is one of
the leading points of the dialogue. We read in it moreover a
bipartite division of Mensuration or Arithmetic,[10] which is
quite different from the bipartite division just cited out of the
Politikus. Plato divides it there (in the Philêbus) into
arithmetic for theorists, and arithmetic for practical life:
besides which, he distinguishes the various practical arts as
being more or less accurate, according as they have more or less
of measurement and sensible comparison in them. Thus the art of
the carpenter, who employs measuring instruments such as the line
and rule--is more accurate than that of the physician, general,
pilot, husbandman, &c., who have no similar means of measuring.
This is a classification quite different from what we find in the
Politikus; yet tending in like manner to illustrate the relative
point of view, and its frequent manifestation in Plato. In the
Politikus, he seeks to refer praise and blame to a standard of
measurement, instead of suffering them to be mere outbursts of
sentiment unsystematic and unanalysed.
[Footnote 8: Plato, Protagor. p. 357 B.]
[Footnote 9: Plato, Phædon, p. 69 B.]
[Footnote 10: Plato, Philêbus, pp. 25 C, 27 D, 57. [Greek: du/o
a)rithmêtikai\ kai\ du/o metrêtikai/ . . . tê\n didumo/têta
e)/chousai tau/tên, o)no/matos de\ e(no\s kekoinôme/nai.]
This same bipartition, however, is noticed in another passage of
the Politikus, p. 258 D-E.]
[Side-note: Definition of the statesman, or Governor. Scientific
competence. Sokratic point of departure. Procedure of Plato in
subdividing.]
II. The second peculiarity to which I call attention in the
Politikus, is the definition or description there furnished of the
character so-called: that is, the Statesman, the King, Governor,
Director, or Manager, of human society. At the outset of the
dialogue, this person is declared to belong to the Genus--Men of
Science or of Art (the two words are faintly distinguished in
Plato). It is possession of the proper amount of scientific
competence which constitutes a man a Governor: and which entitles
him to be so named, whether he actually governs any society or
not.[11] (This point of departure is purely Sokratic: for in the
Memorabilia of Xenophon,[12] Sokrates makes the same express
declaration.) The King knows, but does not act: yet he is not a
simple critic or spectator--he gives orders: and those orders are
not suggested to him by any one else (as in the case of the
Herald, the Keleustês, and others),[13] but spring from his own
bosom and his own knowledge. From thence Plato carries us through
a series of descending logical subdivisions, until we come to
define the King as the shepherd and feeder of the flock of human
beings.[14] But many other persons, besides the King, are
concerned in feeding the human flock, and will therefore be
included in this definition: which is thus proved to be too
large, and to require farther qualification and restriction.[15]
Moreover the feeding of the human flock belongs to others rather
than to the King. He tends and takes care of the flock, but does
not feed it: hence the definition is, in this way also,
unsuitable.[16]
[Footnote 11: Plato, Politikus, pp. 258 B, 259 B.]
[Footnote 12: Xenophon, Memorab. iii. 9, 10.]
[Footnote 13: Plato, Politik. p. 260 C-E. [Greek: to\ me\n tô=n
basile/ôn ge/nos ei)s tê\n au)tepitaktikê\n the/ntes], &c.]
[Footnote 14: Plato, Politik. pp. 267 B, 268 C.]
[Footnote 15: Plato, Politik. p. 268.]
[Footnote 16: Plato, Politik. p. 275 D-E.]
[Side-note: King during the Saturnian period, was of a breed
superior to the people--not so any longer.]
Our mistake (says Plato) was of this kind. In describing the King
or Governor, we have unconsciously fallen upon the description of
the King, such as he was in the Saturnian period or under the
presidency of Kronus; and not such as he is in the present period.
Under the presidency of Kronus, each human flock was tended and
governed by a divine King or God, who managed every thing for it,
keeping it happy and comfortable by his own unassisted agency: the
entire Kosmos too, with its revolutions, was at that time under
the immediate guidance of a divine mover. But in the present
period this divine superintendance is withdrawn: both the entire
Kosmos, and each separate portion of it, is left to its own
movement, full of imperfection and irregularity. Each human flock
is now tended not by a divine King, as it was then; but by a human
King, much less perfect, less effective, less exalted above the
constituent members. Now the definition which we fell upon (says
Plato) suited the King of the Saturnian period; but does not suit
the King of the present or human period.[17] At the first
commencement of the present period, the human flock, left to
themselves without superintendance from the Gods, suffered great
misery: but various presents from some Gods (fire from Prometheus,
arts from Hephæstus and Athênê, plants and seeds from Dêmêtêr)
rendered their condition more endurable, though still full of
difficulty and hardship.[18]
[Footnote 17: Plato, Politik. pp. 274-275 B.]
[Footnote 18: Plato, Politik. p. 274 C.
Plato embodies these last-mentioned comparisons in an elaborate
and remarkable mythe--theological, cosmical, zoological,
social--which occupies six pages of the Politikus (268 D--274 E).
Meiners and Socher (Ueber Platon's Schriften, pp. 273-275) point out
that the theology of Plato in this fable differs much from what we
read in the Phædon, Republic, &c.: and Socher insists upon such
discrepancy as one of his arguments against the genuineness of the
Politikus. I have already observed that I do not concur in his
inference. I do not expect uniformity of doctrine in the various
Platonic dialogues: more especially on a subject so much beyond
experience, and so completely open to the conjectures of a rich
imagination, as theology and cosmogony. In the Sophistês, pp.
242-243, Plato had talked in a sort of contemptuous tone about those
who dealt with philosophical doctrine in the way of mythe, as a
proceeding fit only for boys: (not unlike the manner of Aristotle,
when he speaks of [Greek: oi( muthikô=s sophizo/menoi--ta\ u(pe\r
ê(ma=s], Metaphys. B. 1000, a. 15-18, [Greek: L]. 1071, b. 27): while
here, in the Politikus, he dilates upon what he admits to be a
boyish mythe, partly because a certain portion of it may be made
available in illustration of his philosophical purpose, partly
because he wishes to enliven the monotony of a long-continued
classification. Again, in the Phædrus (**p. 229 C), the Platonic
Sokrates is made to censure as futile any attempt to find rational
explanations for the popular legends ([Greek: sophi/zesthai]): but
here, in the Politikus, the Eleate expressly adapts his theory
about the backward and forward rotation of the Kosmos to the
explanation of the popular legends--about earthborn men, and about
Helios turning back his chariot, in order to escape the shocking
spectacle of the Thyestean banquet: which legends, when so
explained, Plato declares that people would be wrong to disbelieve
([Greek: oi( nu=n u(po\ pollô=n ou)k o)rthô=s a)pistou=ntai], pp.
271 B, 268 A, B, C).
The differences of doctrine and handling, between the various
Platonic dialogues, are facts not less worthy to be noted than the
similarities. Here, in the mythe of the Politikus, we find a
peculiar theological view, and a very remarkable cosmical
doctrine--the rotation and counter-rotation of the Kosmos. The
Kosmos is here declared (as in the Timæus) to be a living and
intelligent Subject; having received these mental gifts from its
Demiurgus. But the Kosmos is also Body as well as Mind; so that it
is incapable of that constant sameness or uniformity which belongs
to the Divine: Body having in itself an incurable principle of
disorder (p. 269 D). The Kosmos is perpetually in movement; but
its movement is only rotatory or circular in the same place: which
is the nearest approximation to uniformity of movement. It does
not always revolve by itself; nor is it always made to revolve by
the Divine Steersman ([Greek: kubernê/tês], p. 272 E), but
alternately the one and the other. This Divine Steersman presides
over its rotation for a certain time, and along with him many
subordinate Deities or Dæmons; until an epoch fixed by some
unassigned destiny has been reached (p. 272 E). Then the Steersman
withdraws from the process to his own watch-tower ([Greek: ei)s
tê\n au)tou= periôpê\n]), and the other Deities along with him.
The Kosmos, being left to itself, ceases to revolve in the same
direction, and begins its counter rotation; revolving by itself
backwards, or in the contrary direction. By such violent revulsion
many of the living inhabitants of the Kosmos are destroyed. The
past phenomena are successively reproduced, but in an inverse
direction--the old men go back to maturity, boyhood, infancy,
death: the dead are born again, and pass through their lives
backwards from age to infancy. Yet the counter-rotation brings
about not simply an inverted reproduction of past phenomena, but
new phenomena also: for we are told that the Kosmos, when left to
itself, did tolerably well as long as it remembered the
Steersman's direction, but after a certain interval became
forgetful and went wrong, generating mischief and evil: so that
the Steersman was at last forced to put his hand again to the
work, and to impart to it a fresh rotation in his own direction
(p. 273 B-D). The Kosmos never goes satisfactorily, except when
the hand of the Steersman is upon it. But we are informed that
there are varieties of this divine administration: one named the
period of Kronus or Saturn; another that of Zeus, &c. The
_present_ is the period of Zeus (p. 272 B). The period of Kronus
was one of spontaneous and universal abundance, under the
immediate superintendence of the Deity. This Divine Ruler was
infinitely superior to the subjects whom he ruled, and left
nothing to be desired. But _now_, in the present period of Zeus,
men are under human rule, and not divine: there is no such marked
superiority of the Ruler to his subjects. The human race has been
on the point of becoming extinct; and has only been saved by
beneficent presents from various Gods--fire from Prometheus,
handicraft from Hephæstus and Athênê (pp. 272 C, 274 C).
All this prodigious bulk of mythical invention ([Greek:
thaumasto\s o)/gkos], p. 277 B) seems to be introduced here for
the purpose of illustrating the comparative ratio between the
Ruler and his subjects; and the material difference in this
respect between King and Shepherd--between the government of
mankind by kings, and that of flocks and herds by the herdsman. In
attempting to define the True and Genuine Ruler (he lays it down),
we can expect nothing better than a man among other men; but
distinguished above his fellows, so far as wisdom, dialectic, and
artistic accomplishment, can confer superiority.
There is much in this copious mythe which I cannot clearly
understand or put together: nor do I derive much profit from the
long exposition of it given by Stallbaum (Proleg. ad Polit. pp.
100-128). We cannot fairly demand either harmonious consistency or
profound meaning in the different features of an ingenious
fiction. The hypothesis of a counter-rotation of the Kosmos
(spinning like a top, [Greek: e)pi\ smikrota/tou bai=non podo\s
i)e/nai], p. 270 A), with an inverted reproduction of past
phenomena, appears to me one of the most singular fancies in the
Greek mythology. I cannot tell how far it may have been suggested
by any such statement as that of the Egyptian priests (Herodot.
ii. 142). I can only repeat the observation made by Phædrus to the
Platonic Sokrates, in the dialogue Phædrus (p. 275 A): "You,
Sokrates, construct easily enough Egyptian tales, or any other
tales that you please".]
[Side-note: Distinction of causes Principal and Causes Auxiliary.
The King is the only Principal Cause, but his auxiliaries pretend
to be principal also.]
The human King, whom we shall now attempt to define, tends the
human flock; but there are other persons also who assist in doing
so, and without whose concurrent agency he could not attain his
purpose. We may illustrate this by comparing with him the weaver
of woollen garments: who requires many subsidiary and preparatory
processes, performed by agents different from himself (such as the
carder of wool, the spinner, and the manufacturer of the
instruments for working the loom) to enable him to finish his
work. In all matters, important as well as vulgar, two separate
processes or arts, or contributory persons, are to be
distinguished: Causes and Co-Causes, _i.e._, Principal Causes, and
Concurrent, Auxiliary, Co-efficient, Subordinate, Causes.[19] The
King, like the Weaver, is distinguishable, from other agents
helping towards the same end, as a Principal Cause from Auxiliary
Causes.[20] The Causes auxiliary to the King, in so far as they
are inanimate, may be distributed roughly under seven heads
(bipartition being here impracticable)--Implements, Vessels,
Vehicles, Protections surrounding the Body, Recreative Objects,
Raw Material of every variety, Nutritive Substances, &c.[21] Other
auxiliary Causes are, the domestic cattle, bought slaves, and all
descriptions of serving persons; being often freemen who
undertake, for hire, servile occupations and low trades. There are
moreover ministerial officers of a higher grade: heralds, scribes,
interpreters, prophets, priests, Sophists, rhetors; and a great
diversity of other functionaries, military, judicial, forensic,
dramatic, &c., who manage different departments of public affairs,
often changing from one post to another.[22] But these higher
ministerial functionaries differ from the lower in this--That they
pretend to be themselves the directors and managers of the
government, not recognising the genuine King: whereas the truth
is, that they are only ministerial and subordinate to him:--they
are Concurrent Causes, while he is the only real or principal
Cause.[23]
[Footnote 19: Plato, Politik. p. 281 D-E.]
[Footnote 20: Plato, Politik. p. 287 D.]
[Footnote 21: Plato, Politik. pp. 288-289.]
[Footnote 22: Plato, Politik. pp. 290-291 B. Plato describes these
men by comparing them to lions, centaurs, satyrs, wild beasts,
feeble and crafty. This is not very intelligible, but I presume
that it alludes to the variety of functions, and the frequent
alternation of functions. I cannot think that such an obscure jest
deserves Stallbaum's compliment:--"Ceterum lepidissima hæc est
istorum hominum irrisio, qui cum leonibus, Centauris, Satyris,
aliisque monstris comparantur". Plato repeats it p. 303 C.]
[Footnote 23: Plato, Politik. p. 291 C.]
[Side-note: Plato does not admit the received classification of
government. It does not touch the point upon which all true
distinction ought to be founded--Scientific or Unscientific.]
Our main object now (says the Eleate) is to distinguish this Real
Cause from the subordinate Causes which are mistaken for its
partners and equals:--the genuine and intelligent Governor, from
those who pretend falsely to be governors, and are supposed often
to be such.[24] We cannot admit the lines of distinction, which
are commonly drawn between different governments, as truly
logical: at least they are only subordinate to ours. Most men
distinguish the government of one, or a few, or the many:
government of the poor or of the rich: government according to
law, or without law:--by consent, or by force. The different names
current, monarchy or despotism, aristocracy, or oligarchy, &c.,
correspond to these definitions. But we hold that these
definitions do not touch the true characteristic: which is to be
found in Science, Knowledge, Intelligence, Art or scientific
procedure, &c., and in nothing else. The true government of
mankind is, the scientific or artistic: whether it be carried on
by one, or a few, or many--whether by poor or rich, by force or
consent--whether according to law, or without law.[25] This is the
right and essential characteristic of genuine government:--it is
government conducted according to science or art. All governments
not conforming to this type are only spurious counterfeits and
approaches to it, more or less defective or objectionable.[26]
[Footnote 24: Plato, Politik. p. 292 D.]
[Footnote 25: Plato, Politik. pp. 292 C, 293 B.]
[Footnote 26: Plato, Politik. p. 293 E. [Greek: tau/tên to/te kai\
kata\ tou\s toiou/tous o(/rous ê(mi=n mo/nên o)rthê\n politei/an
ei)=nai r(ête/on, o(/sas de\ a)/llas le/gomen, ou) gnêsi/as ou)d'
o)/ntôs ou)/sas lekte/on.]]
[Side-note: Unscientific governments are counterfeits. Government
by any numerous body must be counterfeit. Government by the one
scientific man is the true government.]
Looking to the characteristic here suggested, the Eleate
pronounces that all numerous and popular governments must be
counterfeits. There can be no genuine government except by One
man, or by a very small number at most. True science or art is not
attainable by many persons, whether rich or poor: scarcely even by
a few, and probably by One alone; since the science or art of
governing men is more difficult than any other science or art.[27]
But the government of this One is the only true and right
government, whether he proclaims laws or governs without law,
whether he employs severity or mildness--provided only he adheres
to his art, and achieves its purpose, the good and improvement of
the governed.[28] He is like the true physician, who cuts and
burns patients, when his art commands, for the purpose of curing
them. He will not be disposed to fetter himself by fixed general
laws: for the variety of situations and the fluctuation of
circumstances, is so perpetual, that no law can possibly fit all
cases. He will recognise no other law but his art.[29] If he lays
down any general formula or law, it will only be from necessity,
because he cannot be always at hand to watch and direct each
individual case: but he will not hesitate to depart from his own
formula whenever Art enjoins it.[30] That alone is base, evil,
unjust, which he with his political Science or Art declares to be
so. If in any particular case he departs from his own declaration,
and orders such a thing to be done--the public have no right to
complain that he does injustice. No patient can complain of his
physician, if the latter, acting upon the counsels of his art,
disregards a therapeutic formula.[31] All the acts of the true
Governor are right, whether according or contrary to law, so long
as he conducts himself with Art and Intelligence--aiming
exclusively to preserve the people, and to render them better
instead of worse.[32]
[Footnote 27: Plato, Politik. pp. 292 D-E, 297 B, 300 E.]
[Footnote 28: Plato, Politik. p. 293 B-E.]
[Footnote 29: Plato, Politik. p. 297 A. [Greek: ou) gra/mmata
tithei\s a)lla\ tê\n te/chnên no/mon parecho/menos.]]
[Footnote 30: Plato, Politik. pp. 300 C, 295 B-C.]
[Footnote 31: Plato, Politik. p. 296 C-D.]
[Footnote 32: Plato, Politik. p. 297 A.]
[Side-note: Fixed laws, limiting the scientific Governor, are
mischievous, as they would be for the physician and the steersman.
Absurdity of determining medical practice by laws, and presuming
every one to know it.]
How mischievous would it be (continues the Eleate) if we
prescribed by fixed laws how the physician or the steersman should
practise their respective arts: if we held them bound to
peremptory rules, punishing them whenever they departed from those
rules, and making them accountable before the Dikastery, when any
one accused them of doing so: if we consecrated these rules and
dogmas, forbidding all criticism or censure upon them, and putting
to death the free enquirer as a dreaming, prosy, Sophist,
corrupting the youth and inciting lawless discontent![33] How
absurd, if we pretended that every citizen did know, or might or
ought to know, these two arts; because the matters concerning them
were enrolled in the laws, and because no one ought to be wiser
than the laws?[34] Who would think of imposing any such fetters on
other arts, such as those of the general, the painter, the
husbandman, the carpenter, the prophet, the cattle-dealer? To
impose them would be to render life, hard as it is even now,
altogether intolerable. Yet these are the trammels under which in
actual cities the political Art is exercised.[35]
[Footnote 33: Plato, Politik. pp. 298-299. 299 B: [Greek: Kai\
toi/nun e)/ti deê/sei the/sthai no/mon e)pi\ pa=si tou/tois, a)/n
tis kubernêtikê\n kai\ to\ nautiko\n ê)\ to\ u(gieino\n kai\
i)atrikê=s a)lêthei/an . . . zêtô=n phai/nêtai para\ ta\ gra/mmata
kai\ sophizo/menos o(tiou=n peri\ ta\ toiau=ta, prô=ton me\n mê/te
i)atriko\n au)to\n mê/te kubernêtiko\n o)noma/zein, a)lla\
meteôro/logon a)dole/schên tina\ sophistê\n ei)=th' ô(s
diaphthei/ronta a)/llous neôte/rous kai\ a)napei/thonta
e)piti/thesthai kubernêtikê=|], &c.]
[Footnote 34: Plato, Polit. p. 299 C. [Greek: a)\n de\ para\ tou\s
no/mous kai\ ta\ gegramme/na do/xê| pei/thein ei)/te ne/ous ei)/te
presbu/tas, kola/zein toi=s e)scha/tois. Ou)de\n ga\r dei=n tô=n
no/môn, ei)=nai sophô/teron; ou)de/na ga\r a)gnoei=n to/ te
i)atriko\n kai\ to\ u(gieino\n ou)de\ to\ kubernêtiko\n kai\
nautiko/n; e)xei=nai ga\r tô=| boulome/nô| mantha/nein gegramme/na
kai\ pa/tria e)/thê kei/mena.]]
[Footnote 35: Plato, Polit. p. 299 D-E. [Greek: ô(/ste o( bi/os,
ô(n kai\ nu=n chalepo/s, ei)s to\n chro/non e)kei=non a)bi/ôtos
gi/gnoit' a)\n to\ para/pan.]]
[Side-note: Government by fixed laws is better than lawless
government by unscientific men, but worse than lawless government
by scientific men. It is a second-best.]
Such are the mischiefs inseparable, in greater or less degree,
from fixed and peremptory laws. Yet grave as these mischiefs are,
there are others yet graver, which such laws tend to obviate. If
the magistrate appointed to guard and enforce the laws, ventures
to break or contravene them, simulating, but not really
possessing, the Art or Science of the genuine Ruler--he will make
matters far worse. The laws at any rate are such as the citizens
have been accustomed to, and such as give a certain measure of
satisfaction. But the arbitrary rule of this violent and
unscientific Governor is a tyranny:[36] which is greatly worse
than the laws. Fixed laws are thus a second-best:[37] assuming
that you cannot obtain a true scientific, artistic, Governor. If
such a man could be obtained, men would be delighted to live under
him. But they despair of ever seeing such a character, and they
therefore cling to fixed laws, in spite of the numerous
concomitant mischiefs.[38] These mischiefs are indeed so serious,
that when we look at actual cities, we are astonished how they get
on under such a system; and we cannot but feel how firm and deeply
rooted a city naturally is.[39]
[Footnote 36: Plato, Politik. p. 300 A-B, 301 B-C.]
[Footnote 37: Plato, Politik. p. 300 C. [Greek: deu/teros
plou=s].]
[Footnote 38: Plato, Politik. p. 301 D.]
[Footnote 39: Plato, Polit. p. 302 A. [Greek: ê)\ e)kei=no ê(mi=n
thaumaste/on ma=llon, ô(s i)schuro/n ti po/lis e)sti\ phu/sei?]]
[Side-note: Comparison of unscientific governments. The one despot
is the worse. Democracy is the least bad, because it is least of a
government.]
We see therefore (the Eleate goes on) that there is no true
polity--nothing which deserves the name of a genuine political
society--except the government of one chief, scientific or
artistic. With him laws are superfluous and even inconvenient. All
other polities are counterfeits: factions and cabals, rather than
governments:[40] delusions carried on by tricksters and conjurers.
But among these other polities or sham polities, there is a
material difference as to greater or less badness: and the
difference turns upon the presence or absence of good laws. Thus,
the single-headed government, called monarchy (assuming the Prince
not to be a man of science or art) is the best of all the
sham-polities, if the Prince rules along with and in observance of
known good laws: but it is the worst of them all, if he rules
without such laws, as a despot or tyrant. Oligarchy, or the
government of a few--if under good laws, is less good than that of
the Prince under the same circumstances--if without such laws, is
less bad than that of the despot. Lastly, the government of the
many is less good under the one supposition--and less bad under
the other. It is less effective, either for good or for evil. It
is in fact less of a government: the administrative force being
lost by dissipation among many hands for short intervals; and more
free play being thus left to individuals. Accordingly, assuming
the absence of laws, democracy is the least bad or most tolerable
of the six varieties of sham-polity. Assuming the presence of
laws, it is the worst of them.[41]
[Footnote 40: Plato, Polit. pp. 302-303 B-C. [Greek: tou\s
koinônou\s tou/tôn tô=n politeiô=n pasô=n, plê\n tê=s
e)pistê/monos, a)phairete/on ô(s ou)k o)/ntas politikou\s a)lla\
stasiastikou/s, kai\ ei)dô/lôn megi/stôn prosta/tas o)/ntas kai\
au)tou\s ei)=nai toiou/tous, megi/stous de\ o)/ntas mimêta\s kai\
go/êtas megi/stous gi/gnesthai tô=n sophistô=n sophista/s.]]
[Footnote 41: Plato, Polit. p. 302 B. [Greek: ti/s dê\ tô=n ou)k
o)rthô=n politeiô=n tou/tôn ê(/kista chalepê\ suzê=n, pasô=n
chalepô=n ou)sô=n, kai\ ti/s baruta/tê?] Also p. 303 A-B.]
[Side-note: The true governor distinguished from the General, the
Rhetor, &c. They are all properly his subordinates and
auxiliaries.]
We have thus severed the genuine scientific Governor from the
unworthy counterfeits by whom his agency is mimicked in actual
society. But we have still to sever him from other worthier
functionaries, analogous and cognate, with whom he co-operates;
and to show by what characteristic he is distinguished from
persons such as the General, the Judge, the Rhetor or Persuader to
good and just objects. The distinction is, that all these
functions, however honourable functions, are still nevertheless
essentially subordinate and ministerial, assuming a sovereign
guidance from some other quarter to direct them. Thus the General
may, by his strategic art, carry on war effectively; but he must
be directed when, and against whom, war is to be carried on. The
Judge may decide quarrels without fear, antipathy, or favour: but
the general rules for deciding them must be prescribed to him by a
higher authority. So too the Rhetor may apply his art well, to
persuade people, or to work upon their emotions, without teaching
them: but he must be told by some one else, when and on what
occasions persuasion is suitable, and when force must be employed
instead of it.[42] Each of these functionaries must learn, what
his own art will not teach him, the proper seasons, persons, and
limitations, among and under which his art is to be applied. To
furnish such guidance is the characteristic privilege and duty of
the scientific chief, for which he alone is competent. He does not
act himself, but he originates, directs, and controls, all the
real agents and agencies. Without him, none of them are available
or beneficial towards their special ends. He alone can judge of
their comparative value, and of the proper reasons for invoking or
restraining their interference.[43]
[Footnote 42: Plato, Polit. pp. 304-305.]
[Footnote 43: Plato, Polit. p. 305 D. [Greek: tê\n ga\r o)/ntôs
ou)=san basilikê\n ou)k au)tê\n dei= pra/ttein, a)ll' a)/rchein
tô=n duname/nôn pra/ttein, gignô/skousan tê\n a)rchê/n te kai\
o(rmê\n tô=n megi/stôn e)n tai=s po/lesin e)gkairi/as te pe/ri
kai\ a)kairi/as, ta\s d' a)/llas ta\ prostachthe/nta dra=|n.]]
[Side-note: What the scientific Governor will do. He will aim at
the formation of virtuous citizens. He will weave together the
energetic virtues with the gentle virtues. Natural dissidence
between them.]
The great scientific Governor being thus defined, and logically
distinguished from all others liable to be confounded with him,
Plato concludes by a brief statement what his principal functions
are. He will aim at ensuring among his citizens the most virtuous
characters and the best ethical combinations. Like the weaver (to
whom he has been already assimilated) he will put together the
great political web or tissue of improved citizenship,
intertwining the strong and energetic virtues (the warp) with the
yielding and gentler virtues (the woof).[44] Both these
dispositions are parts or branches of virtue; but there is a
natural variance or repulsion between them.[45] Each of them is
good, in proper measure and season: each of them is bad, out of
measure and season. The combination of both, in due proportion, is
indispensable to form the virtuous citizen: and that combination
it is the business of the scientific Governor to form and uphold.
It is with a view to this end that he must set at work all the
agents of teaching and education, and must even interfere to
arrange the intermarriages of the citizens; not allowing the
strong and courageous families to form alliance with each other,
lest the breed should in time become too violent--nor the gentle
and quiet families to do the like, lest the offspring should
degenerate into stupidity.[46]
[Footnote 44: Plato, Polit. pp. 306-307. [Greek: tê\n basilikê\n
sumplokê/n].]
[Footnote 45: Plato, Polit. pp. 306 A-B, 307 C, 308 B.]
[Footnote 46: Plato, Polit. pp. 308-309-310.]
[Side-note: If a man sins by excess of the energetic element, he is
to be killed or banished: if of the gentle, he is to be made a
slave. The Governor must keep up in the minds of the citizens an
unanimous standard of ethical orthodoxy.]
All persons, who, unable to take on this conjunction, sin by an
excess of the strong element, manifesting injustice or
irreligion--must be banished or put to death:[47] all who sin by
excess of the feebler element, exhibiting stupidity and meanness,
must be degraded into slavery. Above all things, the scientific
Governor must himself dictate, and must implant and maintain,
in the minds of all his citizens, an authoritative standard of
orthodox sentiment respecting what is just, honourable, good--and the
contrary.[48] If this be ensured, and if the virtues naturally
discordant be attempered with proper care, he will make sure of a
friendly and harmonious community, enjoying as much happiness as
human affairs admit.[49]
[Footnote 47: Plato, Polit. p. 309 A.]
[Footnote 48: Plato, Polit. pp. 309 C, 310 E.]
[Footnote 49: Plato, Polit. p. 311 B-C.]
* * * * *
[Side-note: Remarks--Sokratic Ideal--Title to govern mankind
derived exclusively from scientific superiority in an individual
person.]
I have thus given a brief abridgment of the main purpose of the
Politikus, and of the definition which Plato gives of the True
Governor and his function. I proceed to make a few remarks upon
it.
Plato's theory of government is founded upon the supposition of
perfect knowledge--scientific or artistic intelligence--in the
person of the Governor: a partial approach, through teaching and
acquired knowledge, to that immense superiority of the Governor
over the Governed, which existed in the Saturnian period. It is
this, and this alone, which constitutes, in his estimation, the
title to govern mankind. The Governor does not himself act: he
directs the agency of others: and the directions are dictated by
his knowledge. I have already observed that Sokrates had himself
enunciated the doctrine--Superior scientific competence (the
special privilege of a professor or an artist) is the only
legitimate title to govern.
[Side-note: Different ways in which this ideal is worked out by
Plato and Xenophon. The man of speculation and the man of action.]