Plato, Laws, Book 12, section 963c

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[963c] just as I, on behalf of many others, defined their objects for you?

Clinias
We are totally unable to do so.

Athenian
Well then, can you declare that we need zeal in discerning both the object itself as a whole and the forms it assumes?

Clinias
Illustrate what you mean by “the forms” you speak of.

Athenian
For example, when we said that there are four forms of virtue, obviously, since there are four, we must assert that each is a separate one.

Clinias
Certainly.

Athenian
And yet we call them all by one name: we assert that courage is virtue, and wisdom virtue,

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 10 & 11 translated by R.G. Bury. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967 & 1968.

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