ALCIBIADES (I) by Plato - Complete text

Page 11

Soc.: But just before you said that you did not know them by learning; now, if you have neither discovered nor learned them, how and whence do you come to know them?

Alc.: I suppose that I was mistaken in saying that I knew them through my own discovery of them; whereas, in truth, I learned them in the same way that other people learn.

Soc.: So you said before, and I must again ask, of whom? Do tell me.

Alc.: Of the many.

Soc.: Do you take refuge in them? I cannot say much for your teachers.

Alc.: Why, are they not able to teach?

Soc.: They could not teach you how to play at draughts, which you would acknowledge (would you not) to be a much smaller matter than justice?

Alc.: Yes.

Soc.: And can they teach the better who are unable to teach the worse?

Alc.: I think that they can; at any rate, they can teach many far better things than to play at draughts.

Soc.: What things?

Alc.: Why, for example, I learned to speak Greek of them, and I cannot say who was my teacher, or to whom I am to attribute my knowledge of Greek, if not to those good - for - nothing teachers, as you call them.

Soc.: Why, yes, my friend; and the many are good enough teachers of Greek, and some of their instructions in that line may be justly praised.

Alc.: Why is that?

Soc.: Why, because they have the qualities which good teachers ought to have.

Alc.: What qualities?

Soc.: Why, you know that knowledge is the first qualification of any teacher?

Alc.: Certainly.

Soc.: And if they know, they must agree together and not differ?

Alc.: Yes.

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Plato : ALCIBIADES (I)

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