ALCIBIADES (I) by Plato - Complete text

Page 8

Soc.: Very good; and now please to tell me what is the excellence of war and peace; as the more musical was the more excellent, or the more gymnastical was the more excellent, tell me, what name do you give to the more excellent in war and peace?

Alc.: But I really cannot tell you.

Soc.: But if you were offering advice to another and said to him—This food is better than that, at this time and in this quantity, and he said to you—What do you mean, Alcibiades, by the word 'better'? you would have no difficulty in replying that you meant 'more wholesome,' although you do not profess to be a physician: and when the subject is one of which you profess to have knowledge, and about which you are ready to get up and advise as if you knew, are you not ashamed, when you are asked, not to be able to answer the question? Is it not disgraceful?

Alc.: Very.

Soc.: Well, then, consider and try to explain what is the meaning of 'better,' in the matter of making peace and going to war with those against whom you ought to go to war? To what does the word refer?

Alc.: I am thinking, and I cannot tell.

Soc.: But you surely know what are the charges which we bring against one another, when we arrive at the point of making war, and what name we give them?

Alc.: Yes, certainly; we say that deceit or violence has been employed, or that we have been defrauded.

Soc.: And how does this happen? Will you tell me how? For there may be a difference in the manner.

Alc.: Do you mean by 'how,' Socrates, whether we suffered these things justly or unjustly?

Soc.: Exactly.

Alc.: There can be no greater difference than between just and unjust.

Soc.: And would you advise the Athenians to go to war with the just or with the unjust?

Alc.: That is an awkward question; for certainly, even if a person did intend to go to war with the just, he would not admit that they were just.

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Plato : ALCIBIADES (I)

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