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ἆρ᾽ οὐ κενότης κτλ. Ignorance, as well as hunger, is κενότης (cf. 584 B note); but whereas we are conscious of physical depletion and therefore suffer pain, we are not—speaking generally— conscious of intellectual depletion, so that Ignorance is not, as a rule, painful; and thus the pleasures of Learning—the πλήρωσις of that whereof Ignorance is the κενότης—not being preceded by pain, are pure. This conclusion is worked out in Phil. 52 A, B, but not here, where the argument takes a different course. On ἴσχω ‘acquire’ ‘get’ see VI 511 D note τὸ δόξης τε ἀληθοῦς κτλ. So in Phil. 60 D μνήμην καὶ φρόνησιν καὶ ἐπιστήμην καὶ ἀληθῆ δόξαν τῆς αὐτῆς ἰδέας τιθέμενος: cf. also ib. 19 D, 21 A, B, D. These objects are here conceived of as the τροφή of the soul, cf. Phaed. 84 B.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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