[487b]
would be
able to controvert these statements of yours. But, all the same, those who
occasionally hear you1 argue
thus feel in this way2: They think that
owing to their inexperience in the game of question and answer3
they are at every question led astray4 a little bit by the argument,
and when these bits are accumulated at the conclusion of the discussion
mighty is their fall5 and the apparent contradiction of what
they at first said6; and that just as by expert draught-players7 the unskilled are finally
shut in and cannot make a move,
1 Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 35 n. 236, and What Plato Said, p. 488 on Crito 48 B. A speaker in Plato may thus refer to any fundamental Platonic doctrine. Wilamowitz' suggested emendation (Platon, ii. p. 205)ἃ ἂν λέγῃς is due to a misunderstanding of this.
2 Alocus classicus for Plato's anticipation of objections. Cf. 475 B, Theaet. 166 A-B, Rep. 609 C, 438-439, and Apelt, Republic, p. 492. Plato does it more tactfully than Isocrates, e.g.Demon. 44.
3 Cf. Apelt, Aufsätze, p. 73, Minto, Logic, Induction and Deduction, pp. 4 ff.; also Gorg. 461 D, 462 A, Soph. 230 B.
4 Cf. Phaedrus 262 B.
5 Cf. 451 A, and Theaet. 166 A, 168 A, 534 Cἀπτῶτι.
6 Cf. Phaedr. 262 B, Cleitophon 410 A, Gorg. 495 A, schol.,τοὺς πρώτους λόγους τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ δηλονότι, Gorg. 457 Eοἷς τὸ πρῶτον ἔλεγες, and also Agathon in Symp. 201 B.
7 For this figure Cf. Laws 739 A, 820 C-D, 903 D, Eryxias 395 A-B, Hipparchus 220 E, Eurip.Suppl. 409. Aristotle, Soph. El. 165 a 10 ff., borrows the metaphor, but his ψῆφοι are those of book-keeping or reckoning. Cf. also Dem.De cor. 227 f.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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