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Three Millennia of Greek Literature
 

Plato Bilingual Anthology : WISDOM

from the 7th Epistle, * 341b-345a, translated by B. Jowett

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ELPENOR EDITIONS IN PRINT
Page 5

Again with regard to the definition, if it is made up of names and verbal forms, the same remark holds that there is no sufficiently durable permanence in it. And there is no end to the instances of the ambiguity from which each of the four suffers; but the greatest of them is that which we mentioned a little earlier, that, whereas there are two things, that which has real being, and that which is only a quality, when the soul is seeking to know, not the quality, but the essence, each of the four, presenting to the soul by word and in act that which it is not seeking (i.e., the quality), a thing open to refutation by the senses, being merely the thing presented to the soul in each particular case whether by statement or the act of showing, fills, one may say, every man with puzzlement and perplexity.

καὶ μὴν περὶ λόγου γε ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος͵ εἴπερ ἐξ ὀνομάτων καὶ ῥημάτων σύγκειται͵ μηδὲν ἱκανῶς βεβαίως εἶναι βέβαιον· μυρίος δὲ λόγος αὖ περὶ ἑκάστου τῶν τεττάρων ὡς ἀσαφές͵ τὸ δὲ μέγιστον͵ ὅπερ εἴπομεν ὀλίγον ἔμπροσθεν͵ ὅτι δυοῖν ὄντοιν͵ τοῦ τε ὄντος καὶ τοῦ ποιοῦ τινος͵ οὐ τὸ ποιόν τι͵ τὸ δὲ τί͵ ζητούσης εἰδέναι τῆς ψυχῆς͵ τὸ μὴ ζητούμενον ἕκαστον τῶν τεττάρων προτεῖνον τῇ ψυχῇ λόγῳ τε καὶ κατ΄ ἔργα͵ αἰσθήσεσιν εὐέλεγκτον τό τε λεγόμενον καὶ δεικνύμενον ἀεὶ παρεχόμενον ἕκαστον͵ ἀπορίας τε καὶ ἀσαφείας ἐμπίμπλησι πάσης ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν πάντ΄ ἄνδρα.

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Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/plato-wisdom.asp?pg=5