§7.532οὐκοῦν, εἶπον, ὦ Γλαύκων, οὗτος ἤδη αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ νόμος ὃν τὸ διαλέγεσθαι περαίνει;
"Therefore, Glaucon," I said, "is this not at last the song itself which dialectic performs?
ὃν καὶ ὄντα νοητὸν μιμοῖτʼ ἂν ἡ τῆς ὄψεως δύναμις, ἣν ἐλέγομεν πρὸς αὐτὰ ἤδη τὰ ζῷα ἐπιχειρεῖν ἀποβλέπειν καὶ πρὸς αὐτὰ τὰ ἄστρα τε καὶ τελευταῖον δὴ πρὸς αὐτὸν τὸν ἥλιον.
Which, although being intelligible, the power of sight would imitate—the power which, we were saying, attempts to look at the animals themselves, and at the stars themselves, and finally at the sun itself.
οὕτω καὶ ὅταν τις τῷ διαλέγεσθαι ἐπιχειρῇ ἄνευ πασῶν τῶν αἰσθήσεων διὰ τοῦ λόγου ἐπʼ αὐτὸ ὃ ἔστιν ἕκαστον ὁρμᾶν, καὶ μὴ ἀποστῇ πρὶν ἂν αὐτὸ ὃ ἔστιν ἀγαθὸν αὐτῇ νοήσει λάβῃ, ἐπʼ αὐτῷ γίγνεται τῷ τοῦ νοητοῦ τέλει, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος τότε ἐπὶ τῷ τοῦ ὁρατοῦ. παντάπασι μὲν οὖν, ἔφη.
In the same way, when someone attempts through reason, without any of the senses, to rush towards what each thing itself is, and does not desist until he grasps what the good itself is by intellect alone, he reaches the very end of the intelligible, just as that other person then reached the end of the visible." "Absolutely so," he said.
τί οὖν;
"What then?
οὐ διαλεκτικὴν ταύτην τὴν πορείαν καλεῖς; τί μήν; ἡ δέ γε, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, λύσις τε ἀπὸ τῶν δεσμῶν καὶ μεταστροφὴ ἀπὸ τῶν σκιῶν ἐπὶ τὰ εἴδωλα καὶ τὸ φῶς καὶ ἐκ τοῦ καταγείου εἰς τὸν ἥλιον ἐπάνοδος, καὶ ἐκεῖ πρὸς μὲν τὰ ζῷά τε καὶ φυτὰ καὶ τὸ τοῦ ἡλίου φῶς ἔτι ἀδυναμία βλέπειν, πρὸς δὲ τὰ ἐν ὕδασι φαντάσματα θεῖα καὶ σκιὰς τῶν ὄντων, ἀλλʼ οὐκ εἰδώλων σκιὰς διʼ ἑτέρου τοιούτου φωτὸς ὡς πρὸς ἥλιον κρίνειν ἀποσκιαζομένας—πᾶσα αὕτη ἡ πραγματεία τῶν τεχνῶν ἃς διήλθομεν ταύτην ἔχει τὴν δύναμιν καὶ ἐπαναγωγὴν τοῦ βελτίστου ἐν ψυχῇ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ἀρίστου ἐν τοῖς οὖσι θέαν, ὥσπερ τότε τοῦ σαφεστάτου ἐν σώματι πρὸς τὴν τοῦ φανοτάτου ἐν τῷ σωματοειδεῖ τε καὶ ὁρατῷ τόπῳ. ἐγὼ μέν, ἔφη, ἀποδέχομαι οὕτω.
Do you not call this journey dialectic?" "Of course." "And," I said, "the release from the chains, the turning around from the shadows to the images and the light, the ascent from the underground cave to the sun, and there, while still being unable to look directly at the animals and plants and the light of the sun, looking instead at the divine reflections in water and the shadows of real things (not shadows of images projected by another such light which, compared to the sun, is itself a mere shadow)—all this business of the arts which we have gone through has this power, to lead the best part of the soul up to the contemplation of the best among things that are, just as then the clearest part of the body was led to the brightest thing in the bodily and visible realm." "For my part," he said, "I accept it in this way.
καίτοι παντάπασί γέ μοι δοκεῖ χαλεπὰ μὲν ἀποδέχεσθαι εἶναι, ἄλλον δʼ αὖ τρόπον χαλεπὰ μὴ ἀποδέχεσθαι.
And yet, it seems to me altogether difficult to accept, and on the other hand, in another way, difficult not to accept.
ὅμως δέ—οὐ γὰρ ἐν τῷ νῦν παρόντι μόνον ἀκουστέα, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὖθις πολλάκις ἐπανιτέον —ταῦτα θέντες ἔχειν ὡς νῦν λέγεται, ἐπʼ αὐτὸν δὴ τὸν νόμον ἴωμεν, καὶ διέλθωμεν οὕτως ὥσπερ τὸ προοίμιον διήλθομεν.
Nevertheless—since these things are not to be heard only at the present moment, but must be returned to again and again—let us assume that these things are as they are now said to be, and let us proceed to the law itself, and go through it just as we went through the prelude.
λέγε οὖν τίς ὁ τρόπος τῆς τοῦ διαλέγεσθαι δυνάμεως, καὶ κατὰ ποῖα δὴ εἴδη διέστηκεν, καὶ τίνες αὖ ὁδοί· αὗται γὰρ ἂν ἤδη, ὡς ἔοικεν, αἱ πρὸς αὐτὸ ἄγουσαι εἶεν, οἷ ἀφικομένῳ ὥσπερ ὁδοῦ ἀνάπαυλα ἂν εἴη καὶ τέλος τῆς πορείας. §7.533οὐκέτʼ, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ὦ φίλε Γλαύκων, οἷός τʼ ἔσῃ ἀκολουθεῖν—ἐπεὶ τό γʼ ἐμὸν οὐδὲν ἂν προθυμίας ἀπολίποι—οὐδʼ εἰκόνα ἂν ἔτι οὗ λέγομεν ἴδοις, ἀλλʼ αὐτὸ τὸ ἀληθές, ὅ γε δή μοι φαίνεται—εἰ δʼ ὄντως ἢ μή, οὐκέτʼ ἄξιον τοῦτο διισχυρίζεσθαι·
Tell us, then, what is the character of the power of dialectic, and into what kinds it is divided, and what are its paths; for these, it seems, would be the ones that lead directly to that place where, for one who has arrived, there would be a resting place of the road and the end of the journey." "My dear Glaucon," I said, "you will no longer be able to follow—even though there would be no lack of eagerness on my part—nor would you any longer see an image of what we are speaking of, but the truth itself, as it appears to me at least.
ἀλλʼ ὅτι μὲν δὴ τοιοῦτόν τι ἰδεῖν, ἰσχυριστέον.
Whether it is really so or not is no longer worth insisting upon, but that there is some such thing to be seen must be insisted upon.
ἦ γάρ; τί μήν; οὐκοῦν καὶ ὅτι ἡ τοῦ διαλέγεσθαι δύναμις μόνη ἂν φήνειεν ἐμπείρῳ ὄντι ὧν νυνδὴ διήλθομεν, ἄλλῃ δὲ οὐδαμῇ δυνατόν; καὶ τοῦτʼ, ἔφη, ἄξιον διισχυρίζεσθαι. τόδε γοῦν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, οὐδεὶς ἡμῖν ἀμφισβητήσει λέγουσιν, ὡς αὐτοῦ γε ἑκάστου πέρι ὃ ἔστιν ἕκαστον ἄλλη τις ἐπιχειρεῖ μέθοδος ὁδῷ περὶ παντὸς λαμβάνειν.
Is it not so?" "Of course." "And then, is it not also the case that only the power of dialectic could reveal it to someone experienced in the subjects we have just gone through, and that it is possible in no other way?" "This too," he said, "is worth insisting upon." "At any rate, this much," I said, "no one will dispute when we say that no other method attempts systematically to grasp concerning each thing itself what each thing is.
ἀλλʼ αἱ μὲν ἄλλαι πᾶσαι τέχναι ἢ πρὸς δόξας ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἐπιθυμίας εἰσὶν ἢ πρὸς γενέσεις τε καὶ συνθέσεις, ἢ πρὸς θεραπείαν τῶν φυομένων τε καὶ συντιθεμένων ἅπασαι τετράφαται·
For all the other arts are either directed toward the opinions and desires of humans, or are turned entirely toward generations and compositions, or toward the care of things that grow and are put together.
αἱ δὲ λοιπαί, ἃς τοῦ ὄντος τι ἔφαμεν ἐπιλαμβάνεσθαι, γεωμετρίας τε καὶ τὰς ταύτῃ ἑπομένας, ὁρῶμεν ὡς ὀνειρώττουσι μὲν περὶ τὸ ὄν, ὕπαρ δὲ ἀδύνατον αὐταῖς ἰδεῖν, ἕως ἂν ὑποθέσεσι χρώμεναι ταύτας ἀκινήτους ἐῶσι, μὴ δυνάμεναι λόγον διδόναι αὐτῶν.
And as for the rest, which we said do lay hold of something of reality—such as geometry and those that follow it—we see that they are only dreaming about reality, but it is impossible for them to see it in a waking state, as long as they leave their hypotheses undisturbed, using them without being able to give an account of them.
ᾧ γὰρ ἀρχὴ μὲν ὃ μὴ οἶδε, τελευτὴ δὲ καὶ τὰ μεταξὺ ἐξ οὗ μὴ οἶδεν συμπέπλεκται, τίς μηχανὴ τὴν τοιαύτην ὁμολογίαν ποτὲ ἐπιστήμην γενέσθαι; οὐδεμία, ἦ δʼ ὅς.
For where the starting point is what one does not know, and the end and the middle are woven together from what one does not know, what mechanism could ever turn such an agreement into knowledge?" "None at all," he said.
οὐκοῦν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ἡ διαλεκτικὴ μέθοδος μόνη ταύτῃ πορεύεται, τὰς ὑποθέσεις ἀναιροῦσα, ἐπʼ αὐτὴν τὴν ἀρχὴν ἵνα βεβαιώσηται, καὶ τῷ ὄντι ἐν βορβόρῳ βαρβαρικῷ τινι τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ὄμμα κατορωρυγμένον ἠρέμα ἕλκει καὶ ἀνάγει ἄνω, συνερίθοις καὶ συμπεριαγωγοῖς χρωμένη αἷς διήλθομεν τέχναις·
"Therefore," I said, "the dialectical method alone proceeds in this way, destroying the hypotheses, to the starting point itself so that it may be secure, and quietly drags and leads upward the eye of the soul, which is truly buried in a kind of barbarian mud, using as helpers and guides in the turning around those arts which we have gone through.
ἃς ἐπιστήμας μὲν πολλάκις προσείπομεν διὰ τὸ ἔθος, δέονται δὲ ὀνόματος ἄλλου, ἐναργεστέρου μὲν ἢ δόξης, ἀμυδροτέρου δὲ ἢ ἐπιστήμης—διάνοιαν δὲ αὐτὴν ἔν γε τῷ πρόσθεν που ὡρισάμεθα—ἔστι δʼ, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, οὐ περὶ ὀνόματος ἀμφισβήτησις, οἷς τοσούτων πέρι σκέψις ὅσων ἡμῖν πρόκειται.
These we have often called sciences out of habit, but they need another name, clearer than opinion, but dimmer than science—we defined it somewhere before as understanding.
οὐ γὰρ οὖν, ἔφη.
But, as it seems to me, there is no dispute about a name for those who have before them an inquiry into matters of such importance as we do." "No indeed," he said.
ἀλλʼ ὃ ἂν μόνον δηλοῖ πως τὴν ἕξιν σαφηνείᾳ λέγειν ἐν ψυχῇ ἀρκέσει; ναί.
"But will it be sufficient to speak with any term that merely indicates the state in the soul with clarity?" "Yes."