207
SOC. Then do you forget that when you began to learn to read you and the others did just that?
207
THEAET. Do you mean when we thought that sometimes one letter and sometimes another belonged to the same syllable, and when we put the same letter sometimes into the proper syllable and sometimes into another?
207
SOC. That is what I mean.
207
THEAET. By Zeus, I do not forget, nor do I think that those have knowledge who are in that condition.
208
SOC. Take an example: When at such a stage in his progress a person in writing Theaetetus thinks he ought to write, and actually does write, TH and E, and again in trying to write Theodorus thinks he ought to write, and does write, T and E, shall we say that he knows the first syllable of your names?
208
THEAET. No, we just now agreed that a person in such a condition has not yet gained knowledge.
208
SOC. Then there is nothing to prevent the same person from being in that condition with respect to the second and third and fourth syllables?
208
THEAET. No, nothing.
208
SOC. Then, in that case, he has in mind the orderly description in terms of letters, and will write Theaetetus with right opinion, when he writes the letters in order?
208
THEAET. Evidently.
208
SOC. But he is still, as we say, without knowledge, though he has right opinion?
208
THEAET. Yes.
208
SOC. Yes, but with his opinion he has rational explanation; for he wrote with the method in terms of letters in his mind, and we agreed that that was rational explanation.
208
THEAET. True.
208
SOC. There is, then, my friend, a combination of right opinion with rational explanation, which cannot as yet properly be called knowledge?
208
THEAET. There is not much doubt about it.