[507c]
while the ideas can be
thought but not seen.” “By all means.”
“With which of the parts of ourselves, with which of our
faculties, then, do we see visible things?” “With
sight,” he said. “And do we not,” I said,
“hear audibles with hearing, and perceive all sensibles with the
other senses?” “Surely.” “Have you
ever observed,” said I, “how much the greatest
expenditure the creator1 of the senses has lavished
on the faculty of seeing and being seen?2
“Why, no, I have not,” he said. “Well, look at
it thus. Do hearing and voice stand in need of another medium3 so that
the one may hear and the other be heard,
1 Creator,δημιουργός, God, the gods, and nature, are all virtual synonyms in such passages.
2 Cf. Phaedr. 259 D, Tim. 45 B.
3 This is literature, not science. Plato knew that sound required a medium, Tim. 67 B. But the statement here is true enough to illustrate the thought.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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