ΘΕΑΙΤΗΤΟΣ
Benjamin Jowett
Plato · Benjamin Jowett
Also present: YOUNG SOCRATES a young Athenian; PROTAGORAS of Abdera, renowned sophist; OTHER YOUTHS
Scene: at the house of Euclides in Megara / in a gymnasium in Athens
The Theaetetus is Plato's great examination of the question 'what is knowledge?'. Three answers are proposed and refuted in turn: that knowledge is perception, that it is true belief, and that it is true belief with an account. Each fails, and the dialogue ends in honest aporia — but the inquiry itself, midwifed by Socrates, clears away false conceptions of knowing.
Along the way it gives the famous remark that philosophy begins in wonder, and a memorable digression contrasting the worldly cleverness of the courtroom with the unworldly freedom of the philosopher.
From the Plato Scroll Encyclopedia · open this entry in the reader
Euclid and Terpsion meet in front of Euclid’s house in Megara; they enter the house, and the dialogue is read to them by a servant.
Euclid: Have you only just arrived from the country, Terpsion?
Terpsion: No, I came some time ago: and I have been in the Agora looking for you, and wondering that I could not find you.
Euclid: But I was not in the city.
Terpsion: Where then?
Euclid: As I was going down to the harbour, I met Theaetetus — he was being carried up to Athens from the army at Corinth.
Terpsion: Was he alive or dead?
Euclid: He was scarcely alive, for he has been badly wounded; but he was suffering even more from the sickness which has broken out in the army.
Terpsion: The dysentery, you mean?
Euclid: Yes.
Terpsion: Alas! what a loss he will be!
Euclid: Yes, Terpsion, he is a noble fellow; only to-day I heard some people highly praising his behaviour in this very battle.
Terpsion: No wonder; I should rather be surprised at hearing anything else of him. But why did he go on, instead of stopping at Megara?
Euclid: He wanted to get home: although I entreated and advised him to remain, he would not listen to me; so I set him on his way, and turned back, and then I remembered what Socrates had said of him, and thought how remarkably this, like all his predictions, had been fulfilled. I believe that he had seen him a little before his own death, when Theaetetus was a youth, and he had a memorable conversation with him, which he repeated to me when I came to Athens; he was full of admiration of his genius, and said that he would most certainly be a great man, if he lived.
Terpsion: The prophecy has certainly been fulfilled; but what was the conversation? can you tell me?
Euclid: No, indeed, not offhand; but I took notes of it as soon as I got home; these I filled up from memory, writing them out at leisure; and whenever I went to Athens, I asked Socrates about any point which I had forgotten, and on my return I made corrections; thus I have nearly the whole conversation written down.
Terpsion: I remember — you told me; and I have always been intending to ask you to show me the writing, but have put off doing so; and now, why should we not read it through? — having just come from the country, I should greatly like to rest.
Euclid: I too shall be very glad of a rest, for I went with Theaetetus as far as Erineum. Let us go in, then, and, while we are reposing, the servant shall read to us.
Terpsion: Very good.
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The Athenian who turned Socratic conversation into a written philosophy and founded the Academy.
Plato was born around 428 BCE into a wealthy and politically prominent Athenian family; through his mother Perictione the family traced kinship to the lawgiver Solon, and his relatives Critias and Charmides were among the oligarchs of the Thirty. A late tradition says his given name was Aristocles and that 'Plato' — from the word for 'broad' — was a nickname. He grew up during the long agony of the Peloponnesian War and came of age amid the violence and disillusion that followed Athens' defeat.
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