ΘΕΑΙΤΗΤΟΣ
H.N. Fowler (Loeb, 1921)
Plato · H.N. Fowler (Loeb, 1921)
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
Eu: Just in from the country, Terpsion, or did you come some time ago?
Terp: Quite a while ago; and I was looking for you in the market-place and wondering that I could not find you.
Eu: Well, you see, I was not in the city.
Terp: Where then?
Eu: As I was going down to the harbor I met Theaetetus being carried to Athens from the camp at Corinth.
Terp: Alive or dead?
Eu: Just barely alive; for he is suffering severely from wounds, and, worse than that, he has been taken with the sickness that has broken out in the army.
Terp: You mean the dysentery?
Eu: Yes.
Terp: What a man he is who you say is in danger!
Eu: A noble man, Terpsion, and indeed just now I heard some people praising him highly for his conduct in the battle.
Terp: That is not at all strange; it would have been much more remarkable if he had not so conducted himself. But why did he not stop here in Megara?
Eu: He was in a hurry to get home; for I begged and advised him to stop, but he would not. So I went along with him, and as I was coming back I thought of Socrates and wondered at his prophetic gift, especially in what he said about him. For I think he met him a little before his own death, when Theaetetus was a mere boy, and as a result of acquaintance and conversation with him, he greatly admired his qualities. When I went to Athens he related to me the conversation he had with him, which was well worth hearing, and he said he would surely become a notable man if he lived.
Terp: And he was right, apparently. But what was the talk? Could you relate it?
Eu: No, by Zeus, at least not offhand. But I made notes at the time as soon as I reached home, then afterwards at my leisure, as I recalled things, I wrote them down, and whenever I went to Athens I used to ask Socrates about what I could not remember, and then I came here and made corrections; so that I have pretty much the whole talk written down.
Terp: That is true. I heard you say so before; and really I have been waiting about here all along intending to ask you to show it to me. What hinders us from reading it now? Certainly I need to rest, since I have come from the country.
Eu: And I myself went with Theaetetus as far as Erineum, so I also should not be sorry to take a rest. Come, let us go, and while we are resting, the boy shall read to us.
Terp: Very well.
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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.
Plato · H.N. Fowler (Loeb, 1921). Each edition has its page, the reader and a plain-text file:
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