HIPPIAS (major) by Plato - Complete text

Page 31

Soc.: Very pretty, Hippias. But there is a chance that I think I see a case of that kind which you say is impossible, but do not really see it.

Hip.: There's no chance about it, Socrates, but you quite purposely see wrongly.

Soc.: And certainly many such cases appear before my mind, but I mistrust them because they do not appear to you, a man who has made more money by wisdom than anyone now living, but to me who never made any money at all ; and the thought disturbs me that you are playing with me and purposely deceiving me, they appear to me in such numbers and with such force.

Hip.: Nobody, Socrates, will know better than you whether I am playing with you or not, if you proceed to tell these things that appear to you ; for it will be apparent to you that you are talking nonsense. For you will never find that you and I are both affected by an affection by which neither of us is affected.

Soc.: What are you saying, Hippias? Perhaps you are talking sense, and I fail to understand ; but let me tell more clearly what I wish to say. For it appears to me that it is possible for us both to be so affected as to be something which I am not so affected as to be, and which I am not and you are not either ; and again for neither of us to be so affected as to be other things which we both are.

Hip.: Your reply, Socrates, seems to involve miracles again even greater than those of your previous reply. For consider : if we are both just, would not each of us be just also, and if each is unjust, would not both again also be unjust, or if both are healthy, each of us also? Or if each of us were to be tired or wounded or struck or affected in any other way whatsoever, should we not both of us be affected in the same way? Then, too, if we were to be golden or of silver or of ivory, or, if you please, noble or wise or honored or old or young or whatever else you like of all that flesh is heir to, is it not quite inevitable that each of us be that also?

Soc.: Absolutely.

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Plato : HIPPIAS (major)

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