οἱ εἰς φιλοσοφίαν ἀνάγοντες
: ‘those who would lead us upwards to philosophy (“welche zur Wissenschaftsliebe hinaufführen wollen,” Schneider). Plato is thinking of teachers who recognise (with Isocr.
Antid. 261) that Astronomy and kindred subjects are the
παρασκευὴ φιλοσοφίας, but nevertheless teach Astronomy on methods directly calculated to turn the soul's eye down. His description fits some of the Sophists, particularly Hippias (see
Prot. 318 E
and cf. Isocr.
Pan. 26—28). In
οἱ—ἀνάγοντες Plato takes them at their own valuation. For the Greek cf. 521 C
ψυχῆς περιαγωγὴ ἐκ νυκτερινῆς τινος ἡμέρας εἰς ἀληθινήν, τοῦ ὄντος οὖσαν ἐπάνοδον, ἣν δὴ φιλοσοφίαν ἀληθῆ φήσομεν εἶναι, where
ἀληθῆ points the contrast with the false philosophy to which some would lead the soul.
ἀνάγοντες preserves the idea of education as an ascent, in harmony with the prevailing metaphor throughout this book. The translation “those who embark on philosophy” (D. and V.) is untenable: so also are the two other versions in J. and C. (‘raise astronomy to the rank of a science,’ ‘refer astronomy to philosophy’), as Shorey—whose view is more nearly correct—has pointed out (
A. J. Ph. XVI p. 237).
οὐκ ἀγεννῶς
: ‘with a fine audacity,’ “non sine generosa fiducia” (Schneider), as in
Gorg. 492 D
οὐκ ἀγεννῶς γε—ἐπεξέρχει τῷ λόγῳ παρρησιαζόμενος, and elsewhere.
κινδυνεύεις γὰρ κτλ.
Glauco conceives of astronomy in exactly the same way as the Aristophanic Socrates; and this indignant repudiation by the Platonic Socrates is the more intelligible, if (with Nettleship
Lect. and Rem. II p. 274 note) we suppose that Plato is thinking of the
Clouds. Our astronomy (says Plato in effect),
our vision upward, is not what Aristophanes made it appear to be, but something very different. See below on
ἄνω κεχηνώς in B and
ἐξ ὑπτίας νέων in C.
ἄλλο τι νομίσαι κτλ.
: ‘think any other study one that makes,’ etc. “Aliud esse puto
νομίσαι τι ποιεῖν, aliud
ποιοῦν idque huic loco magis aptum, scilicet non solum facere sive faciendo in praesentia occupatum esse, sed vim et consuetudinem faciendi habere aliquid existimare” (Schneider).
ποιοῦν is half adjectival, like
συμφέρον in Xen.
Rep. Lac. I 6 (quoted by Ast)
τοῦτο συμφέρον τῇ εὐγονίᾳ νομίζων. Heindorf's conjecture
ποιεῖν was approved by Kühner
Gr. Gr. II p. 631; but
ποιοῦν is in all the MSS, and should be retained.
ἐάν τέ τις κτλ.
: ‘and if any one attempts to learn aught which is
perceivable I care not whether his open mouth yawn upwards or his closed mouth look below—he will
never, as I hold, learn’ etc. For
ἐάν τε, Hermann and Stallbaum read
ἐὰν δέ on slight MS authority; but
οὐ δύναμαι and
οὔ (
τε)—
φημι are properly joined by
τε (Schneider). The English translators understand
συμμεμυκώς of closed eyes; but the eyes must of course be open in any case, and the balance with
ἄνω κεχηνώς is conclusive against this view.
συμμύω, as the
Lexica shew, is used of closing any bodily aperture. The state of the mouth is ludicrously irrelevant, but
κεχηνώς, which betokens rapt stupidity, inevitably suggests
συμμεμυκώς, and the whole expression is a finely indignant outburst of exuberant and extravagant satire on a gross misapprehension of Socratico-Platonic views.
ἄνω κεχηνώς
refers perhaps specifically to
Clouds 171—173
ζητοῦντος αὐτοῦ τῆς σελήνης τὰς ὁδοὺς |
καὶ τὰς περιφορὰς εἶτ’ ἄνω κεχηνότος |
ἀπὸ τῆς ὀροφῆς νύκτωρ γαλεώτης κατέχεσεν. It will be admitted that Plato had some ground for his anger. I don't in the least care, he says in effect to Aristophanes, whether your Socrates looks up or down: so long as he studies
αἰσθητά, he is not
my Socrates, and I disown your caricature. For the general sense cf. (with J. and C.)
Tim. 91 D
.
ἐπιστήμην ‐‐ ἔχειν
: ‘admits of knowledge.’
τὴν ψυχήν
: though his bodily eye looks upwards.
κἂν ἐξ ὑπτίας κτλ.
: ‘aye, even though the learner float face upwards on land or in the sea.’ I understand
ἐξ ὑπτίας νεῖν ἐν γῇ as an allusion to Socrates in the
κρεμάθρα: cf.
Ap. 19 C
ταῦτα γὰρ ἑωρᾶτε καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν τῇ Ἀριστοφάνους κωμῳδίᾳ, Σωκράτη τινὰ ἐκεῖ περιφερόμενον, φάσκοντά τε ἀεροβατεῖν κτλ. and see
Ar.
Clouds 218
—226. If we suppose that Socrates lay supine in his swinging
κρεμάθρα, as presumably he did, since he was looking at the moon, then any one who had seen the
Clouds would at once catch the allusion, especially after
ἄνω κεχηνώς and the other references just above. For
νεῖν of floating in the air, cf.
ἀερονηχής
Ar.
Clouds 337
, with Blaydes ad loc. and on
Peace 831.
ἢ ἐν θαλάττῃ
is thrown in by Plato with the same extravagant mockery as
κάτω συμμεμυκώς. Float him on land, float him, if you like, in the sea; but though his body's eye looks upward, his soul looks down. On the text and other views of this passage see App. IX.
ταῦτα μὲν κτλ.
‘Yonder embellishments in the heavens, forasmuch as they are wrought in that which is seen with the bodily eye, we should indeed consider more beautiful and perfect than anything visible, but far inferior to those which are genuine and true—far inferior to the movements wherewith essential speed and essential slowness, in true and genuine number and in all true forms, are moved in relation to each other and therewithal make that which is essentially in them to move: the true adornments, which are apprehended by reasoning and the mathematical intelligence, but not by sight.’ The clause
κάλλιστα μὲν —ἔχειν is concessive, and
ἐπείπερ ἐν ὁρατῷ πεποίκιλται gives the reason why
τὰ ἐν οὐρανῷ ποικίλματα πολὺ ἐνδεῖ τῶν ἀληθινῶν (sc.
ποικιλμάτων), for the
ἀληθινὰ ποικίλματα are wrought, not
ἐν ὁρατῷ, but
ἐν νοητῷ, i.e. in the lower
νοητόν, with which and which alone the true astronomer as such is conversant. See App. I. The clause
ἃς τὸ ὀ=ν τάχος—φορὰς κτλ. explains
τῶν ἀληθινῶν (
ποικιλμάτων), being equivalent, as Schneider points out, to
τοῦτ’ ἔστι, τῶν φορῶν, ἂς κτλ., ‘that is, the movements which’ etc. So much for the relation between the different members of the sentence. In order to grasp the meaning of Plato, we should read the sentence aloud, letting the full stress of the voice fall on the words
ἀληθινῶν, ὄν, οὖσα, ἀληθινῷ, ἀληθέσι and
‐όντα in
τὰ ἐνόντα φέρει. Each of these words is emphatic, and expresses that degree of Truth or Being which belongs to the mathematical realities of true astronomy, as opposed to the sensibles or
αἰσθητά which form the subject-matter of the astronomy which Plato has just condemned. Popular astronomy observes with the bodily eye the movements of visible and material planets, e.g. Mercury and Mars. These two planets
φορὰς πρὸς ἄλληλα φέρει in
γιγνόμενος or
κινητὸς ἀριθμός, i.e. in time (cf.
Tim. 37 C
ff.), Mercury, as astronomers tell us, completing his orbit in about three, and Mars in about twenty-three, months. In the second place, these planets travel in
γιγνόμενα (not
ἀληθῆ)
σχήματα, i.e. in forms or orbits which belong to the world of
γιγνόμενα, and as they travel they carry with them the
γιγνόμενα which they contain, Mars for example his snow-caps and canals. The Platonic astronomer, on the other hand, looks with the eye of
διάνοια at the
ἀληθινὰ ποικίλματα, i.e. at the motions of true or mathematical stars. These mathematical stars
φορὰς πρὸς ἄλληλα φέρεται ἐν τῷ ἀληθινῷ ἀριθμῷ, i.e. in mathematical number, e.g. in 3 and 23 (not three
months, etc.), and also
ἐν ἀληθέσι σχήμασιν, i.e. in mathematical orbits, viz. the perfect ellipses which are imperfectly reproduced in the orbits of the visible material planets. Furthermore, although here perhaps our imagination may refuse to follow Plato in his flight, just as the visible Mars in his journey carries with him the
γιγνόμενα which he contains, so Plato represents the true stars of mathematical astronomy as carrying round with them
τὰ ἐνόντα, i.e. the mathematical
realities which are in them. The mathematical counterpart of Mars, for example, will take with it in its revolution those perfect mathematical forms which are imperfectly reproduced in the canals and snow-caps of the visible Mars. Plato in short conceives of a mathematical
οὐρανός of which the visible heavens are but a blurred and imperfect expression in time and space, just as every visible and material triangle is only an approximation to a true or perfect, i.e. a mathematical, triangle. The following remark of Aristotle's is intended as an objection to Plato's theory, but, according to the doctrine of this part of the
Republic, Plato would have accepted the criticism as containing a just and true account of the astronomy which he prescribes:
ἔτι δὲ εἴ τις παρὰ τὰ εἴδη καὶ τὰ αἰσθητὰ τὰ μεταξὺ θήσεται, πολλὰς ἀπορίας ἕξει. δῆλον γὰρ ὡς ὁμοίως γραμμαί τε παρ’ αὐτὰς καὶ τὰς αἰσθητὰς ἔσονται καὶ ἕκαστον τῶν ἄλλων γενῶν. ὥστ’ ἐπείπερ ἀστρολογία μία τούτων ἐστίν, ἔσται τις καὶ οὐρανὸς παρὰ τὸν αἰσθητὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ ἥλιός τε καὶ σελήνη καὶ τἄλλα ὁμοίως τὰ κατὰ τὸν οὐρανόν (
Met. B 2. 997^{b} 12 ff.). It remains to speak of two particular difficulties. What does Plato mean by
ταῦτα τὰ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ποικίλματα, and by
τὸ ὂν τάχος καὶ ἡ οὖσα βραδυτής? The
ποικίλματα seem to be generally identified with the stars and nothing more. But inasmuch as astronomy deals with
φορὰ βάθους, and the ordinary astronomer, according to Plato, studies
τὰς τῶν ἄστρων φοράς (cf. 533 A) rather than
ἄστρα themselves, it may be presumed that the
ποικίλματα ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ in reality denote the stars regarded as moving bodies, i.e., strictly speaking, the movements of the heavenly bodies revolving in their orbits (cf.
Tim. 39 D
and 40 C); and the presumption becomes a certainty when we reach the words
τῶν ἀληθινῶν, ἃς—φέρει, for since the true
ποικίλματα which true astronomy studies are identified with the movements of true stars, we are bound in like manner to suppose that the
γιγνόμενα ποικίλματα which observational astronomy studies are the movements of
γιγνόμενα ἄστρα. Some may be disposed to think that
τὰ ἐν οὐρανῷ ποικίλματα refers to the intricate and complex patterns which the orbits of the celestial bodies weave upon the Heavens: cf.
Tim. 39 D
τὰς τούτων πλάνας, πλήθει μὲν ἀμηχάνῳ χρωμένας, πεποικιλμένας δὲ θαυμαστῶς. But in view of expressions like
Aesch.
P. V. 24
ἡ ποικιλείμων νύξ and
Eur.
Hel. 1102
ἀστέρων ποικίλματα, it is better to hold that Plato adopts the word which was usually applied to the ‘spangles’ in the heavens, the “patines of bright gold,” with which “the floor of heaven is thick inlaid” (
Merchant of Venice V 1), and uses it of the movements of the stars, especially as throughout this chapter he consistently represents the visible stars which popular astronomy investigates as nothing but visible or material
φοραί. I understand
τὸ ὂν τάχος and
ἡ οὖσα βραδυτής as the mathematical counterparts of visible stars. This interpretation is, I think, the only one which gives a proper sense to
φοράς τε πρὸς ἄλληλα φέρεται καὶ τὰ ἐνόντα φέρει, and no other solution preserves in its full and unimpaired significance the necessary contrast between the astronomy of observation and Plato's form of the science. The place which in popular astronomy is occupied by a
γιγνόμενον τάχος, e.g. the planet Mercury, and a
γιγνομένη βραδυτής, e.g. the planet Mars, is in true astronomy filled by
ὂν τάχος and
οὖσα βραδυτής. Plato's conception of a true science of Astronomy is a remarkable product of his peculiar half-poetical, half-philosophical imaginative faculty, and differs fundamentally from the theory and practice of the science both in antiquity and now. But it must in fairness be allowed that if a science of astronomy could be constructed on Platonic principles, admitting no element of sense-perception, and dealing exclusively with incorporeal mathematical abstractions, it would prove a better prelude to the study of the
ἀχρώματός τε καὶ ἀσχημάτιστος καὶ ἀναφὴς οὐσία (
Phaedr. 247 C
) than could ever be provided by the astronomy which depends on observation of the heavenly bodies. See further App. II, and for other views of this passage App. X.
παραδείγμασι κτλ.
The visible heavens may be used as a moving orrery, but nothing more.
ὁμοίως κτλ. is a singularly apt illustration, because the special feature of Daedalus' statues was that they moved (
Euthyph. 11 B
ff.,
Men. 97 D
ff.,
Eur.
Frag. 373
).
