Plutarch, De recta ratione audiendi, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 10

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[10] This leads up to the matter of proposing problems. Now the person who comes to a dinner is bound to eat what is set before him and not to ask for anything else or to be critical; so he who comes to a feast of reason, if it be on a specified subject, must feel bound to listen to the speaker in silence. For those persons who lead the speaker to digress to other topics, and interject questions, and raise new difficulties, are not pleasant or agreeable company at a lecture; they get no benefit from it, and they confuse both the speaker and his speech. However, when the speaker requests his hearers to ask questions or to propose problems, one should always manifestly propose some problem which is useful and essential. Now Odysseus among the suitors is derided for

Asking for morsels of food and not for swords or for cauldrons,¹

for they regard it just as much a sign of magnanimity to ask for something great as to give it. But there is more reason for ridiculing a hearer who diverts the speaker to petty and frivolous problems, such as some of the young men are in the habit of proposing when they are only fooling and withal showing off their skill in logic or mathematics; take, for example, the question about the division of indeterminate propositions ² or What is movement as determined by the bounding side or by the diagonal ?³ To such ⁴ persons we may retort with the remark of Philotimus ⁵ to the man who was dying of consumption. When he had addressed the physician, asking him for something to cure a sore finger, Philotimus, perceiving his condition from his colour and respiration, said, My dear sir, your concern is not about a sore finger. And so for you, young man, it is not the time to be inquiring about such questions, but how you may be rid of self-opinion and pretension, love affairs and nonsense, and settle down to a modest and wholesome mode of living.

De recta ratione audiendi. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1927.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

On Listening to Lectures (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. I. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1927 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Περὶ τοῦ ἀκούειν. Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol I. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1888.) — 10 focus

[10] ἀκολουθεῖ δὲ τούτοις τὸ περὶ τῶν προβλημάτων 42f παράγγελμα. δεῖ γὰρ τὸν ἐπὶ δεῖπνον ἥκοντα τοῖς παρακειμένοις χρῆσθαι καὶ μηδὲν αἰτεῖν ἄλλο μηδʼ ἐξελέγχειν ὁ δʼ ἐπὶ λόγων ἀφιγμένος ἑστίασιν, ἂν μὲν ἐπὶ ῥητοῖς, ἀκροάσθω σιωπῇ τοῦ λέγοντος οἱ γὰρ εἰς ἄλλας ὑποθέσεις ἐξάγοντες καὶ παρεμβάλλοντες ἐρωτήματα καὶ προσδιαποροῦντες, οὐχ ἡδεῖς οὐδʼ εὐσυνάλλακτοι πρὸς ἀκρόασιν ὄντες, ὠφελοῦνται μὲν οὐδέν, τὸν δὲ λέγοντα καὶ τὸν λόγον ὁμοῦ συνταράττουσιν· ὅταν δὲ τοὺς ἀκούοντας ὁ λέγων ἐρωτᾶν καὶ προβάλλειν κελεύσῃ, χρήσιμόν τι δεῖ καὶ ἀναγκαῖον ἀεὶ προβάλλοντα φαίνεσθαι. ὁ μὲν 5 γὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς καταγελᾶται παρὰ τοῖς μνηστῆρσιν 43a

αἰτίζων ἀκόλους, οὐκ ἄορας οὐδὲ λέβητας·

μεγαλοψυχίας γὰρ ἡγοῦνται σημεῖον, ὡς τὸ διδόναι τι τῶν μεγάλων, καὶ τὸ αἰτεῖν. μᾶλλον δʼ ἄν τις ἀκροατοῦ καταγελάσειεν εἰς μικρὰ καὶ γλίσχρα προβλήματα 10 τὸν διαλεγόμενον κινοῦντος, οἷα τερθρευόμενοί τινες τῶν νέων καὶ παρεπιδεικνύμενοι διαλεκτικὴν ἢ μαθηματικὴν ἕξιν εἰώθασι προβάλλειν περὶ τῆς τῶν ἀορίστων τομῆς, καὶ τίς ἡ κατὰ πλευρὰν ἢ κατὰ διάμετρον κίνησις. πρὸς οὓς ἔστιν 15 43b εἰπεῖν τὸ ὑπὸ Φιλοτίμου πρὸς τὸν ἔμπυον καὶ φθισιῶντα ῥηθέν. ἐπεὶ γὰρ ἐλάλησεν αὐτῷ φαρμάκιον αἰτῶν πρὸς παρωνυχίαν, αἰσθόμενος ἀπὸ τῆς χρόας καὶ τῆς ἀναπνοῆς τὴν διάθεσιν οὐκ ἔστι σοι φησὶν ὦ βέλτιστε περὶ παρωνυχίας ὁ λόγος. οὐδέ σοὶ 20 τοίνυν, ὦ νεανία, περὶ τοιούτων ζητημάτων ὥρα σκοπεῖν, ἀλλὰ πῶς οἰήματος καὶ ἀλαζονείας ἐρώτων τε καὶ φλυαρίας ἀπολυθεὶς εἰς βίον ἄτυφον καὶ ὑγιαίνοντα καταστήσεις σαυτόν.

Translations (1)

Of Hearing Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. I. Goodwin, William W., editor; Hoy, Thomas, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1874.) — 10 focus

[10]

Of asking Questions.

After this, it will be convenient to lay down some directions touching asking of questions. For it is true, he that comes to a great collation must eat what is set before him, not rudely calling for what is not to be had nor finding fault with the provision. But he that is invited to partake of a discourse, if it be with that proviso, must hear with silence; for such disagreeable hearers as occasion digressions by asking impertinent questions and starting foolish doubts are an hindrance both to the speaker and the discourse, without benefiting themselves. But when the speaker encourages them to propose their objections, he must take care that the question be of some consequence The suitors in Homer scorned and derided Ulysses.—

To no brave prize aspired the worthless swain,

’Twas but for scraps he asked, and asked in vain,¹

because they thought it required a great and heroic soul no less to ask than to bestow great gifts. But there is much better reason to slight and laugh at such a hearer as can please himself in asking little trifling questions. Thus some young fellows, to proclaim their smattering in logic and mathematics, upon all occasions enquire about the divisibility of the infinite, or about motion through a diagonal orupon the sides. But we may answer them with Philotimus, who, being asked by a consumptive phthisical person for a remedy against a whitlow, and perceiving the condition he was in by his color and his shortness of breath, replied, Sir, you have no reason to be apprehensive of that. So we must tell them, You have no reason, young gentlemen, to trouble yourselves about these questions; but how to shake off your conceit and arrogance, to have done with your intrigues and fopperies, and to settle immediately upon a modest and well-governed course of life, is the question for you.

Notes on the current edition

On Listening to Lectures

1. Homer, Odyssey, xvii. 222.

2. Apparently a quibble in logic: Man lives and breathes; which man lives and which man breathes?

3. When a body moves are its various positions determined by the position of its diagonal ( i.e. interior lines) or of its exterior lines?

4. by the position of its diagonal (i.e. interior lines) or of its exterior lines ?

5. Again referred to by Plutarch, Moralia, 73 B.

Plutarch De recta ratione audiendi 10

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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Current edition Perseus

Of asking Questions.

Notes on the current edition

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