[511a]
only by the mind.1” “True,” he said.“This then is the class that I described as
intelligible, it is true,2 but with the reservation first that
the soul is compelled to employ assumptions in the investigation of it, not
proceeding to a first principle because of its inability to extricate itself
from and rise above its assumptions, and second, that it uses as images or
likenesses the very objects that are themselves copied and adumbrated by the
class below them, and that in comparison with these latter3 are esteemed as clear and held in honor.4” “I
understand,”
1 Stenzel, Handbuch, 118 “das er nur mit dem Verstande(διανοίᾳ)sieht” is mistaken. διανοίᾳ is used not in its special sense (“understanding.” See p. 116, note c), but generally for the mind as opposed to the senses. Cf. 511 c.
2 For the concessive μέν cf. 546 E, 529 D, Soph. 225 C.
3 The loosely appended dative ἐκείνοις is virtually a dative absolute. Cf. Phaedo 105 A. Wilamowitz' emendation (Platon, ii. p. 384) to πρὸς ἐκεῖνα, καὶ ἐκείνοις rests on a misunderstanding of the passage.
4 The translation of this sentence is correct. But cf. Adam ad loc.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.