Thesauros Literature Philosophy Θεαίτητος

Θεαίτητος

Θεαίτητος Plato
170 SOC. Well then, Protagoras, what shall we do about the doctrine? Shall we say that the opinions which men have are always true, or sometimes true and sometimes false? For the result of either statement is that their opinions are not always true, but may be either true or false. Just think, Theodorus, would any follower of Protagoras, or you yourself care to contend that no person thinks that another is ignorant and has false opinions?
170 THEO. No, that is incredible, Socrates.
170 SOC. And yet this is the predicament to which the doctrine that man is the measure of all things inevitably leads.
170 THEO. How so?
170 SOC. When you have come to a decision in your own mind about something, and declare your opinion to me, this opinion is, according to his doctrine, true to you; let us grant that; but may not the rest of us sit in judgement on your decision, or do we always judge that your opinion is true? Do not myriads of men on each occasion oppose their opinions to yours, believing that your judgement and belief are false?
170 THEO. Yes, by Zeus, Socrates, countless myriads in truth, as Homer Hom. Od. 16.121 Hom. Od.17.432 Hom. Od. 19.78 says, and they give me all the trouble in the world.
170 SOC. Well then, shall we say that in such a case your opinion is true to you but false to the myriads?
170 THEO. That seems to be the inevitable deduction.
171 SOC. And what of Protagoras himself? If neither he himself thought, nor people in general think, as indeed they do not, that man is the measure of all things, is it not inevitable that the truth which he wrote is true to no one? But if he himself thought it was true, and people in general do not agree with him, in the first place you know that it is just so much more false than true as the number of those who do not believe it is greater than the number of those who do.
171 THEO. Necessarily, if it is to be true or false according to each individual opinion.

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