ALCIBIADES (I) by Plato - Complete text

Page 23

Soc.: Then you are not perplexed about what you do not know, if you know that you do not know it?

Alc.: I imagine not.

Soc.: Do you not see, then, that mistakes in life and practice are likewise to be attributed to the ignorance which has conceit of knowledge?

Alc.: Once more, what do you mean?

Soc.: I suppose that we begin to act when we think that we know what we are doing?

Alc.: Yes.

Soc.: But when people think that they do not know, they entrust their business to others?

Alc.: Yes.

Soc.: And so there is a class of ignorant persons who do not make mistakes in life, because they trust others about things of which they are ignorant?

Alc.: True.

Soc.: Who, then, are the persons who make mistakes? They cannot, of course, be those who know?

Alc.: Certainly not.

Soc.: But if neither those who know, nor those who know that they do not know, make mistakes, there remain those only who do not know and think that they know.

Alc.: Yes, only those.

Soc.: Then this is ignorance of the disgraceful sort which is mischievous?

Alc.: Yes.

Soc.: And most mischievous and most disgraceful when having to do with the greatest matters?

Alc.: By far.

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Plato : ALCIBIADES (I)

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