ALCIBIADES (I) by Plato - Complete text

Page 41

Soc.: Let me make an assertion which will, I think, be universally admitted.

Alc.: What is it?

Soc.: That man is one of three things.

Alc.: What are they?

Soc.: Soul, body, or both together forming a whole.

Alc.: Certainly.

Soc.: But did we not say that the actual ruling principle of the body is man?

Alc.: Yes, we did.

Soc.: And does the body rule over itself?

Alc.: Certainly not.

Soc.: It is subject, as we were saying?

Alc.: Yes.

Soc.: Then that is not the principle which we are seeking?

Alc.: It would seem not.

Soc.: But may we say that the union of the two rules over the body, and consequently that this is man?

Alc.: Very likely.

Soc.: The most unlikely of all things; for if one of the members is subject, the two united cannot possibly rule.

Alc.: True.

Soc.: But since neither the body, nor the union of the two, is man, either man has no real existence, or the soul is man?

Alc.: Just so.

Soc.: Is anything more required to prove that the soul is man?

Alc.: Certainly not; the proof is, I think, quite sufficient.

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Plato : ALCIBIADES (I)

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