[965b]
Clinias
I suppose so.Athenian
Will the type which we hinted at just now1 prove to be that which we require?Clinias
Certainly.Athenian
Did we not say2 that he who is a first-class craftsman or warden, in any department, must not only be able to pay regard to the many, but must be able also to press towards the One3 so as to discern it and, on discerning it, to survey and organize all the rest with a single eye to it?Clinias
Quite right.
1 Plat. Laws 962e, Plat. Laws 963b ff.
2 Cp. Plat. Laws 903c, Plat. Laws 903d, Plat. Laws 961e.
3 Cp. Plat. Rep. 537b ff., where the “dialectic” method is described as a kind of induction (συναγωγή) whereby the mind ascends from “the many” particulars to “the one” universal concept or “idea”: a comprehensive view (σύνοψις) of the whole is what marks the dialectician (ὁ συνοπτικὸς διαλεκτικός).
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 10 & 11 translated by R.G. Bury. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967 & 1968.
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