[528c]
to submit to his guidance. But if the state
as a whole should join in superintending these studies and honor them, these
specialists would accept advice, and continuous and strenuous investigation
would bring out the truth. Since even now, lightly esteemed as they are by the
multitude and hampered by the ignorance of their students1 as to the true reasons for pursuing them,2 they
nevertheless in the face of all these obstacles force their way by their
inherent charm3
1 This interpretation is, I think, correct. For the construction of this sentence cf. Isoc. xv. 84. The text is disputed; see crit. note.
2 Lit. “in what respect they are useful.” Plato is fond of the half legal καθ᾽ ὅ τι. Cf. Lysis 210 C, Polit. 298 C.
3 An eminent modern psychologist innocently writes: “The problem of why geometry gives pleasure is therefore a deeper problem than the mere assertion of the fact. Furthermore, there are many known cases where the study of geometry does not give pleasure to the student.” Adam seems to think it may refer to the personality of Eudoxus.
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.