Plato : HIPPIAS (major) Persons of the dialogue: Socrates - Hippias Translated by Benjamin Jowett - 37 Pages - Greek fonts Search Plato's works / Plato Anthology / The Greek Word Library = Note by Elpenor

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Page 25

Soc.: So by this argument the beautiful persons and beautiful customs and all that we mentioned just now are beautiful because they are beneficial.

Hip.: Evidently.

Soc.: Then the beneficial seems to us to be the beautiful, Hippias.

Hip.: Yes, certainly, Socrates.

Soc.: But the beneficial is that which creates good.

Hip.: Yes, it is.

Soc.: But that which creates is nothing else than the cause ; am I right?

Hip.: It is so.

Soc.: Then the beautiful is the cause of the good.

Hip.: Yes, it is.

Soc.: But surely, Hippias, the cause and that of which the cause is the cause are different ; for the cause could not well be the cause of the cause. But look at it in this way was not the cause seen to be creating?

Hip.: Yes, certainly.

Soc.: By that which creates, then, only that is created which comes into being, but not that which creates. Is not that true?

Hip.: That is true.

Soc.: The cause, then, is not the cause of the cause, but of that which comes into being through it.

Hip.: Certainly.

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