Complete Works (340 page)

We now see that these arts enable us to possess the necessities of life, [d] but that none of them makes anyone wise. Next in order is a kind of play, which is mostly imitative and in no way serious. Its practitioners make use of many instruments and many bodily gestures—and not wholly becoming ones at that. This includes skills that employ words, all the arts of the Muses, and the genres of visual representation, which are responsible for producing many varied figures in many media, both wet and dry. But the imitative art makes no one wise in any of these things, even those who practice their craft with the utmost seriousness.

Now that all these subjects have been dealt with, the next group turns [e] out to be kinds of defense, which come in many different forms and which benefit many people. The chief and most widespread of these, the art of war, which is known as military strategy, has the highest reputation for utility, but requires the greatest amount of good luck and is granted to
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people through courage more than wisdom. The art called medicine too is surely a defense, in this case against all the ravages the climate inflicts upon animals through cold, unseasonable heat, and other things of the sort. But none of these arts is distinguished for wisdom of the truest sort. They lack measure, are carried along by opinion, and proceed by guesswork. We will also call both sea-captains and sailors defenders, but no one should encourage us by proclaiming any single one of these men [b] wise. No one could know the anger or friendship of the wind, even though the art of sailing would find this knowledge most agreeable. Nor are those men wise who claim to be defenders in lawsuits by virtue of their speaking ability. Their attention to people’s characters is based on memory and rote acquaintance with opinion, and they stray wide of the truth about what is genuinely just.

As a candidate for the reputation of wisdom there still remains a certain strange ability, which most would call not wisdom, but a natural gift. Some [c] people easily learn whatever they are learning and accurately remember a great number of things, and some can call to mind what is useful for each person—what would be fitting if it were to take place—and quickly bring it about. When we notice such people, some will regard all these traits as a natural gift, while others will call them wisdom and still others a natural agility of mind. But no intelligent person will ever be willing to call anyone genuinely wise for having any of them.

But surely there must turn out to be some science whose possession makes a wise person genuinely wise and not merely wise by reputation. [d] Let us see, then. We are tackling an extremely difficult subject—to discover a different science from the ones we have discussed, one which may be both genuinely and plausibly called wisdom, and which will make its possessor neither vulgar nor foolish, but a wise and good citizen of his city, a just ruler and subject, and in tune with himself and the world as well. First let us identify this science. Of all the sciences that now exist, which one would render humans the most unintelligent and senseless of living things if it completely disappeared from the human race or had not [e] been developed? In point of fact, it is not at all hard to identify. If we compare, so to speak, one science with another, we will see that the one that has given the gift of number would have this effect upon the entire mortal race.

It is God himself, I believe, and not some good fortune that saves us by making us this gift. But I must say which god I mean, though it will seem
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strange, though yet in a way not strange. How can we keep from believing that what causes all things that are good for us is also the cause of the good that is by far the greatest, namely, wisdom? So, Megillus and Clinias, what god am I speaking of with such solemnity? Uranus (i.e., the heaven), the god whom above all others it is most just to pray to and to honor, as all the other divinities and gods do. We will unanimously agree that he has been the cause of all other good things for us. But we declare that he is really the one who gave us number too, and he will continue to give [b] it, supposing that we are willing to follow him closely. If we come to contemplate him in the right way—whether we prefer to call him Cosmos or Olympus or Heaven [Uranus]—let us call him as we like, but let us notice carefully how by decorating himself and making the stars revolve in himself through all their orbits, he brings about the seasons and provides nourishment for all. Together with the entirety of number, he also furnishes, we would insist, everything else that involves intelligence and everything that is good. But this is the greatest thing, for a person to receive from him the gift of numbers and go on to examine fully the entire revolution of the heavens.

Next, let us return to a point made a little while ago and recall that we [c] were very right to observe that if the human race were deprived of number, we would never come to be intelligent in anything. We would be animals unable to give a rational account, and our soul would never obtain the whole of virtue. An animal that does not know two and three or odd and even, one that is completely ignorant of number, could never give an account of the things it has grasped by the only means available to it—perception and memory. But while nothing prevents it from possessing [d] the remainder of virtue—courage and moderation—no one deprived of the ability to give a true account can ever become wise, and anyone lacking wisdom, which is the greatest part of all virtue, can never become completely good or, in consequence, happy. Thus it is altogether necessary to employ number as a basis, though why this is necessary would require a still longer account than all I have said. But we will also be right in stating the present point, that regarding the achievements attributed to the other arts, the ones we recently surveyed when we allowed all the arts to exist, [e] not a single one remains. They are all completely eliminated when we take away the science of number.

If we reflect upon the arts, we might well suppose that there are a few purposes for which the human race needs numbers—although even this concession is important. Further, if we contemplate the divine and the mortal elements in the generated world, we will discover reverence for the divine and also number in its true nature. But even so, not every one
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of us will yet understand either how great a power intimate knowledge of the whole of number can confer upon us (since in addition to what I have mentioned, all musical phenomena clearly require movement and sounds that are based on number), or—the most important thing—that number causes all good things. We must also understand well that it causes no evil that may occur. By contrast, movement that is irrational, disorderly, unseemly, unrhythmical and inharmonious is wholly lacking in number, as is everything that shares in any evil. This is how anyone who is going [b] to die happy must think. And as regards justice, goodness, beauty, and all such things, without knowledge no one who has attained true opinion will ever give a numerical account that is at all likely to persuade either himself or anyone else.

Now let us go on to take up this very topic, number. How did we learn to count? How did we come to have the concepts of one and two? The [c] Universe has endowed us with the natural capacity to have concepts, whereas many other living things lack even the capacity to learn from the Father how to count. With us humans, the first thing God caused to dwell in us was the capability to understand what we are shown, and then he proceeded to show us, and he still does. And of the things he shows us, taken one by one, what can we behold more beautiful than the day? Later, [d] when we come to see the night, everything appears different to our vision. Since Heaven never stops making these bodies ply their course night after night and day after day, he never stops teaching humans one and two, until even the slowest person learns well enough to count. For each of us who sees them will also form the concepts of three, four, and many. Out of these many, God made a unit by constructing a moon which goes through its course sometimes appearing larger and sometimes smaller, [e] thus always revealing each day as different until fifteen days and nights have passed. This
is
a period, if one is willing to treat the entire cycle as a unit. As a result, even the stupidest of the animals God has endowed with the ability to learn is able to learn it. Every living being that can has become quite knowledgeable in numbers this far [i.e., up to fifteen] and
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in these numbers, by considering each thing individually. Next, for the purpose of reckoning on each occasion all things in relation to one another as numbers
¹
and also for a purpose which I regard as greater—after creating the moon, waxing and waning as we said, God established months in relation to the year, and so all the living beings who could began to comprehend number in relation to number, with the blessing of Good Fortune. Thanks to these celestial events we have crops, the earth bears food for all living things, and the winds that blow and the rains that fall [b] are not violent or without measure. If on the contrary anything turns out for the worse, we must not blame God, but humans, for not rightly managing their own lives.

Now in our inquiry about Laws we found that the other things that are best for humans are easy to know, and that we are all competent both to understand what we are told and to act on that basis, as long as we know what is likely to be advantageous and the reverse. Indeed, we found then [c] and we still maintain that none of the other pursuits is particularly difficult, but how to become good people is an extremely difficult problem. Also, to acquire everything else that is good—property in the right amount and a body of the right sort—is, as the saying goes, both possible and not difficult. Further, everyone will grant that the soul should be good, and as to how it should be good, everyone says it must be just, moderate, brave, and wise as well. But when it comes to the precise form of wisdom [d] it must have, as we have recently shown in detail, there is no longer any agreement, at least among the many. But as a matter of fact we have just now discovered over and above all the former kinds of wisdom one that is by no means insignificant, at least in that anyone who masters the material we have outlined is guaranteed a reputation for wisdom. But are those who know these things really wise and good? This is precisely what requires a satisfactory account.

C
LINIAS
: How right you were, my friend, to say that you were setting out to say important things on important subjects!

A
THENIAN
: Indeed, they are not trivial, Clinias. But—and this is even [e] more difficult—I am attempting to say things that are wholly and universally true.

C
LINIAS
: I agree completely. But even so, please don’t get weary of telling me your ideas.

A
THENIAN
: Of course, but don’t you two get tired of listening, either.

C
LINIAS
: Don’t worry—and I am speaking on behalf of the two of us.

A
THENIAN
: Very well. We must begin from the beginning. In the first
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place, it appears that above all we must find a single name, if we can, for this thing we hold to be wisdom. If we simply cannot do this, our second objective will be to determine what and how many kinds of wisdom a person must know in order to be wise according to our account.

C
LINIAS
: Please go on.

A
THENIAN
: The next point is that no one can blame the lawgiver for fashioning an account of the gods that is finer and better than those given up to now, engaging, so to speak, in noble play and honoring the gods, and [b] for him to pass his whole life celebrating them with hymns of happiness.

C
LINIAS
: Well said, my friend! I hope that this is the goal of your laws, that people will sing hymns to the gods and live purer lives, and then meet with the end that is at once best and finest.

A
THENIAN
: What are we saying, then, Clinias? Does it seem that by singing hymns to the gods we are honoring them greatly, praying that we will be led to say the finest and best things about them? Is this what you mean, or something else?

C
LINIAS
: Precisely that. But pray to the gods with confidence and state [c] the account that it occurs to you to offer about the fine things that concern the gods and goddesses.

A
THENIAN
: This will happen if God himself guides me. Only please join in my prayer.

C
LINIAS
: Please go on to the next point.

A
THENIAN
: Since people in the past have failed badly in describing the generation of gods and living things, it appears that I must begin by constructing an account based on my previous one, taking up again my attack on impious accounts,
²
and declaring that there are gods who care [d] for all things, great and small, who are inexorable in matters of justice. I suppose you remember, Clinias, since you have even received a written record. What we said then was quite true. The most important point was that as a whole, soul is older than any body. Do you recall? You surely must remember. For what is superior, older and more godlike is obviously [e] so in relation to what is inferior, younger and less honorable, and what rules or leads is in every way older than what is ruled or led. Let us accept
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this point, then, that soul is older than body. But if this is so, the first step in our first account of generation will be more plausible. Let us take it, then, that the beginning of our beginning is more seemly and that we are taking exactly the right steps in approaching the most important part of wisdom, the generation of gods.

C
LINIAS
: Anyone must grant that we are stating these matters the best we can.

A
THENIAN
: Next, when a soul and a body come together to form a single structure and produce a single form, do we assert that this is most truly said to be a living thing, in virtue of its nature?