Plato, Republic, Paul Shorey (Translator), 7.532

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[532] “This, then, at last, Glaucon,” I said, “is the very law which dialectics¹ recites, the strain which it executes, of which, though it belongs to the intelligible, we may see an imitation in the progress² of the faculty of vision, as we described³ its endeavor to look at living things themselves and the stars themselves and finally at the very sun. In like manner, when anyone by dialectics attempts through discourse of reason and apart from all perceptions of sense⁴ to find his way to the very essence of each thing and does not desist 532b till he apprehends by thought itself the nature of the good in itself, he arrives at the limit of the intelligible, as the other in our parable, came to the goal of the visible.” “By all means,” he said. “What, then, will you not call this progress of thought dialectic?” Surely. “And the release from bonds,” I said, “and the conversion from the shadows to the images⁵ that cast them and to the light and the ascent⁶ from the subterranean cavern to the world above,⁷ and there the persisting inability⁸ to look directly at animals and plants and the light of the sun, 532c but the ability to see the phantasms created by God⁹ in water and shadows of objects that are real and not merely, as before, the shadows of images cast through a light which, compared with the sun, is as unreal as they—all this procedure of the arts and sciences that we have described indicates their power to lead the best part of the soul up to the contemplation of what is best among realities, as in our parable the clearest organ in the body was turned to the contemplation of what is brightest 532d in the corporeal and visible region.” “I accept this,” he said, “as the truth; and yet it appears to me very hard to accept, and again, from another point of view, hard to reject.¹⁰ Nevertheless, since we have not to hear it at this time only, but are to repeat it often hereafter, let us assume that these things are as now has been said, and proceed to the melody itself, and go through with it as we have gone through the prelude. Tell me, then, what is the nature of this faculty of dialectic? 532e Into what divisions does it fall? And what are its ways? For it is these, it seems, that would bring us to the place where we may, so to speak, rest on the road and then come to the end of our journeying.”

Republic. Plato. Paul Shorey (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1935-37.

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Current edition Perseus

Republic (English) (Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 5-6. Shorey, Paul, translator. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1935-37 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Πολιτεία Perseus (Platonis Opera Tomus IV: Tetralogia VIII. Burnet, John, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 7.532 focus

[532] 532a
οὐκοῦν, εἶπον, ὦ Γλαύκων, οὗτος ἤδη αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ νόμος ὃν τὸ διαλέγεσθαι περαίνει; ὃν καὶ ὄντα νοητὸν μιμοῖτʼ ἂν ἡ τῆς ὄψεως δύναμις, ἣν ἐλέγομεν πρὸς αὐτὰ ἤδη τὰ ζῷα ἐπιχειρεῖν ἀποβλέπειν καὶ πρὸς αὐτὰ τὰ ἄστρα τε καὶ τελευταῖον δὴ πρὸς αὐτὸν τὸν ἥλιον. οὕτω καὶ ὅταν τις τῷ διαλέγεσθαι ἐπιχειρῇ ἄνευ πασῶν τῶν αἰσθήσεων διὰ τοῦ λόγου ἐπʼ αὐτὸ ὃ ἔστιν ἕκαστον ὁρμᾶν, καὶ μὴ ἀποστῇ πρὶν 532b ἂν αὐτὸ ὃ ἔστιν ἀγαθὸν αὐτῇ νοήσει λάβῃ, ἐπʼ αὐτῷ γίγνεται τῷ τοῦ νοητοῦ τέλει, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος τότε ἐπὶ τῷ τοῦ ὁρατοῦ.
παντάπασι μὲν οὖν, ἔφη.
τί οὖν; οὐ διαλεκτικὴν ταύτην τὴν πορείαν καλεῖς;
τί μήν;
ἡ δέ γε, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, λύσις τε ἀπὸ τῶν δεσμῶν καὶ μεταστροφὴ ἀπὸ τῶν σκιῶν ἐπὶ τὰ εἴδωλα καὶ τὸ φῶς καὶ ἐκ τοῦ καταγείου εἰς τὸν ἥλιον ἐπάνοδος, καὶ ἐκεῖ πρὸς μὲν τὰ ζῷά τε καὶ φυτὰ καὶ τὸ τοῦ ἡλίου φῶς ἔτι ἀδυναμία 532c βλέπειν, πρὸς δὲ τὰ ἐν ὕδασι φαντάσματα θεῖα καὶ σκιὰς τῶν ὄντων, ἀλλʼ οὐκ εἰδώλων σκιὰς διʼ ἑτέρου τοιούτου φωτὸς ὡς πρὸς ἥλιον κρίνειν ἀποσκιαζομένας—πᾶσα αὕτη ἡ πραγματεία τῶν τεχνῶν ἃς διήλθομεν ταύτην ἔχει τὴν δύναμιν καὶ ἐπαναγωγὴν τοῦ βελτίστου ἐν ψυχῇ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ἀρίστου ἐν τοῖς οὖσι θέαν, ὥσπερ τότε τοῦ σαφεστάτου ἐν σώματι πρὸς τὴν τοῦ φανοτάτου ἐν τῷ σωματοειδεῖ τε καὶ 532d ὁρατῷ τόπῳ.
ἐγὼ μέν, ἔφη, ἀποδέχομαι οὕτω. καίτοι παντάπασί γέ μοι δοκεῖ χαλεπὰ μὲν ἀποδέχεσθαι εἶναι, ἄλλον δʼ αὖ τρόπον χαλεπὰ μὴ ἀποδέχεσθαι. ὅμως δέ—οὐ γὰρ ἐν τῷ νῦν παρόντι μόνον ἀκουστέα, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὖθις πολλάκις ἐπανιτέον —ταῦτα θέντες ἔχειν ὡς νῦν λέγεται, ἐπʼ αὐτὸν δὴ τὸν νόμον ἴωμεν, καὶ διέλθωμεν οὕτως ὥσπερ τὸ προοίμιον διήλθομεν. λέγε οὖν τίς ὁ τρόπος τῆς τοῦ διαλέγεσθαι δυνάμεως, καὶ 532e κατὰ ποῖα δὴ εἴδη διέστηκεν, καὶ τίνες αὖ ὁδοί· αὗται γὰρ ἂν ἤδη, ὡς ἔοικεν, αἱ πρὸς αὐτὸ ἄγουσαι εἶεν, οἷ ἀφικομένῳ ὥσπερ ὁδοῦ ἀνάπαυλα ἂν εἴη καὶ τέλος τῆς πορείας.

Notes on the current edition

Republic

1. Cf. Phileb. 58 D, Meno 75 C-D, Charm. 155 A, Cratyl. 390 C, and on 533 B, pp. 200 f., note f.

2. This is not a literal rendering, but gives the meaning.

3. Cf. 516 A-B. Plato interprets his imagery again here and in B infra.

4. Cf. p. 180, note a, and p. 187, note c. Cf. also 537 D, and on 476 A ff. Cf. Bergson, Introduction to Metaphysics, p. 9:

Metaphysics, then, is the science which claims to dispense with symbols

; E. S. Robinson, Readings in General Psych. p. 295:

A habit of suppressing mental imagery must therefore characterize men who deal much with abstract ideas; and as the power of dealing easily and firmly with these ideas is the surest criterion of a high order if intellect . . .

; Pear, Remembering and Forgetting, p. 57:

He (Napoleon) is reported to have said that there are some who, from some physical or moral peculiarity of character, form a picture (tableau) of everything. No matter what knowledge, intellect, courage, or good qualities they may have, these men are unfit to command

; A. Bain, Mind, 1880, p. 570:

Mr. Galton is naturally startled at finding eminent scientific men, by their own account, so very low in the visualizing power. His explanation, I have no doubt, hits the mark; the deficiency is due to the natural antagonism of pictorial aptitude and abstract thought.

; Judd, Psychology of High School Subjects, p. 921:

It did not appear on superficial examination of the standings of students that those who can draw best are the best students from the point of view of the teacher of science.

5. εἴδωλα: cf. my Idea of Good in Plato’s Republic, p. 238; also 516 A, Theaet. 150 C, Soph. 240 A, 241 E, 234 C, 266 B with 267 C, and Rep. 517 D

ἀγαλμάτων

6. ἐπάνοδος became almost technical in Neoplatonism. Cf. also 517 A, 529 A, and p. 124, note b.

7. Lit. sun, i.e. the world illumined by the sun, not by the fire in the cave.

8. See crit. note. The text of Iamblichus is the only reasonable one. The reading of the manuscripts is impossible. For the adverb modifying a noun cf. 558 B

οὐδ’ ὁπωστιοῦν σμικρολογία

, Laws 638 B

σφόδρα γυναικῶν

, with England’s note, Theaet. 183 E

πάνυ πρεσβύτης

, Laws 791 C

παντελῶς παίδων

, 698 C

σφόδρα φιλία

, Rep. 564 A

ἄγαν δουλείαν

, with Stallbaum’s note.

9. θεῖα because produced by God or nature and not by man with a mirror or a paintbrush. See crit. note and Class. Review, iv. p. 480. I quoted Sophist 266 B-D, and Adam with rare candor withdrew his emendation in his Appendix XIII. to this book. Apelt still misunderstands and emends, p.296 and note.

10. This sentence is fundamental for the understanding of Plato’s metaphysical philosophy generally. Cf. Unity of Plato’s Thought, p. 30, n. 192, What Plato Said, p. 268 and 586 on Parmen. 135 C. So Tennyson says it is hard to believe in God and hard not to believe.

Commentary

Commentary on Plato, Republic (Plato. The Republic, Vol 1-2. Adam, James, editor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902-1903.) focus

τότε . 516 B.

ἡ δέ γε κτλ. Having described διαλεκτική in terms of the cave-simile, Plato now proceeds to describe his προπαιδεία in the same way: cf. 515 C, 516 A notes Bosanquet finds a difficulty in ἡ λύσις—ἐπάνοδος, and thinks it just conceivable that these words describe the training in music and gymnastic and not the προπαιδεία (so also Susemihl Gen. Entw. II p. 201). But Plato's language is perfectly definite; and τῶν τεχνῶν ἂς διήλθομεν (532 C) cannot mean anything beyond or except the five studies just described. Nor is this the only passage where the ‘turning round’ of the prisoners while still in the cave and their gradual ascent are identified with the προπαιδεία, or with part of it: see 521 C. Plato means that the emancipation of the soul is a gradual process, and that we are not to expect our mathematical studies to deliver us from δόξα all at once. ἡ λύσις —εἴδωλα suggests that their first effect will be to loosen our intellectual bonds, and turn us as it were from reflected to original δόξαι—from εἰκασία to πίστις (VI 511 E, VII 517 A notes). The higher we mount, the less of δόξα we retain, and in the higher stages of the προπαιδεία (symbolized by ἐκεῖ—ἀποσκιαζομένας) we escape from δόξα altogether. See App. I.

καὶ ἐκεῖ κτλ. ‘and when there, their inability still to look upon animals and plants and the light of the sun, but upon divine reflections in water and shadows of things real, not, as before, shadows of images thrown by a light which is itself but an image compared with the sun.’ Cf. 516 A, B. ἔτι ἀδυναμία is due to Iamblichus: see cr. n. and cf. Bywater in J. Ph. X p. 78. Nägelsbach also conjectured ἔτ’ ἀδυναμία. The difference between ἔτι and ἐπ in an uncial MS is practically nil. With πρὸς δὲ τὰ κτλ. the positive counterpart of ἀδυναμία ( βλέπειν) is to be supplied: cf. Ap. 36 B (where Schanz's insertion of οὔ after οἱ πολλοί is inelegant and unnecessary) and Kühner Gr. Gr. II p. 1072. For ἔτι with a verbal noun cf. IV 434 C note ‘Divine’ φαντάσματα is a half-technical Platonic phrase for reflections of natural objects produced by natural lights: they are θεῖα because θείας ἔργα ποιήσεως ( Soph. 266 C , where the whole matter is very clearly explained). Even without the aid of the Sophist, we might deduce the meaning from the antithetical clause ἀλλ’ οὐκ —ἀποσκιαζομένας, if we remember that the sun is a θεός (VI 508 A). The adjective is regularly placed after the substantive when two coordinate qualifications have to be expressed (here ἐν τοῖς ὕδασιν and θεῖα): cf. III 397 D τὸν τοῦ ἐπιεικοῦς μιμητὴν ἄκρατον, IX 573 A τῶν ἐν ταῖς τοιαύταις συνουσίαις ἡδονῶν ἀνειμένων. Other examples are given by Jebb on Soph. O. T. 1245 and Sandys on Arist. Ath. Pol. 51. 3: cf. also Stallbaum on Phil. 20 B . The present passage explains why Plato was so careful to make the originals in the Cave σκευαστά and εἴδωλα, and not φυτευτά: see on 514 B. Other views of this sentence are discussed in App. XIII.

πᾶσα κτλ. The anacoluthon is illustrated by Engelhardt Anac. Pl. Spec. III p. 45.

ταύτην τὴν δύναμιν : viz. λύσιν ἀπὸ τῶν δεσμῶν κτλ.

Plato Republic 7.532

Paul Shorey (Translator)

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