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[367a] or would he who is ignorant of calculations have more power to tell falsehoods than you, if you wished to do so? Or would the ignorant man often, when he wished to tell falsehoods, involuntarily tell the truth, if it so happened, because he did not know, whereas you, the wise man, if you wished to tell falsehoods, would tell them always and uniformly?

Hippias
Yes, it is as you say.

Socrates
Is the false man, then, false about other things, but not about number, and would he not tell falsehoods when dealing with number?

Hippias
He is false about number also, by Zeus.

Socrates
Shall we, then, assume this also, [367b] that there is such a person as a man who is false about calculation and number?

Hippias
Yes.

Socrates
Now who would that man be? Must he not, as you just now agreed, have power to tell falsehoods, if he is to be false? For it was said by you, if you recollect, that he who has not the power to tell falsehoods would never be false.

Hippias
Yes, I recollect, that was said.

Socrates
And just now you were found to have most power to tell falsehoods about calculations, were you not?

Hippias
Yes, that also was said. [367c]

Socrates
Have you, then, also most power to tell the truth about calculations?

Hippias
Certainly.

Socrates
Then the same man has most power to speak both falsehood and truth about calculations; and this man is the one who is good in respect to them, namely the calculator.

Hippias
Yes.

Socrates
Who, then, becomes false in respect to calculation, Hippias, other than the good man? For the same man is also powerful and he is also true.

Hippias
So it appears.

Socrates
You see, then, that the same man is both false and true in respect to these matters, and the true is in no wise better than the false? For he is indeed the same man, and the two are not utter opposites, [367d] as you thought just now.

Hippias
Apparently not, at least in this field.

Socrates
Shall we, then, investigate elsewhere?

Hippias
If you like.

Socrates
Well, then, are you expert in geometry also?

Hippias
I am.

Socrates
Well, has not the same man most power to speak falsehood and truth about geometry, namely the geometrician?

Hippias
Yes.

Socrates
In respect to that, then, is any other good than he? [367e]

Hippias
No, no other.

Socrates
The good and wise geometrician, then, has the most power in both respects, has he not? And if anyone is false in respect to diagrams, it would be this man, the good geometrician? For he has the power, and the bad one was powerless, to speak falsehood; so that he who has no power to speak falsehood would not become false, as has been agreed.

Hippias
That is true.

Socrates
Let us, then, investigate also the third man, the astronomer, whose art you think you know even better than those of the previous ones;


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