Plato Hippias Minor 367

But what of falsehoods about these same things? And please answer this with the same splendid frankness as my previous questions, Hippias. If some one were to ask you how much three times seven hundred is, would you have the most power to tell falsehoods and always uniformly to say false things about these matters, if you wished to tell falsehoods and never to reply truly; 367a or would he who is ignorant of calculations have more power to tell falsehoods than you, if you wished to do so? Or would the ignorant man often, when he wished to tell falsehoods, involuntarily tell the truth, if it so happened, because he did not know, whereas you, the wise man, if you wished to tell falsehoods, would tell them always and uniformly?

Yes, it is as you say.

Is the false man, then, false about other things, but not about number, and would he not tell falsehoods when dealing with number?

He is false about number also, by Zeus.

Shall we, then, assume this also, 367b that there is such a person as a man who is false about calculation and number?

Yes.

Now who would that man be? Must he not, as you just now agreed, have power to tell falsehoods, if he is to be false? For it was said by you, if you recollect, that he who has not the power to tell falsehoods would never be false.

Yes, I recollect, that was said.

And just now you were found to have most power to tell falsehoods about calculations, were you not?

Yes, that also was said.

Have you, then, also most power to tell the truth about calculations?

Certainly.

Then the same man has most power to speak both falsehood and truth about calculations; and this man is the one who is good in respect to them, namely the calculator.

Yes.

Who, then, becomes false in respect to calculation, Hippias, other than the good man? For the same man is also powerful and he is also true.

So it appears.

You see, then, that the same man is both false and true in respect to these matters, and the true is in no wise better than the false? For he is indeed the same man, and the two are not utter opposites, 367d as you thought just now.

Apparently not, at least in this field.

Shall we, then, investigate elsewhere?

If you like.

Well, then, are you expert in geometry also?

I am.

Well, has not the same man most power to speak falsehood and truth about geometry, namely the geometrician?

Yes.

In respect to that, then, is any other good than he?

No, no other.

The good and wise geometrician, then, has the most power in both respects, has he not? And if anyone is false in respect to diagrams, it would be this man, the good geometrician? For he has the power, and the bad one was powerless, to speak falsehood; so that he who has no power to speak falsehood would not become false, as has been agreed.

That is true.