Book 12
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Ath. and as they watch, they pass on their perceptions to the organs of memory,—that is, they report to the elder wardens all that goes on in the State,— while the old men, who are likened to the reason because of their eminent wisdom in many matters of importance, act as counsellors, and make use of the young men as ministers and colleagues also in their counsels, so that both these classes by their co-operation really effect the salvation of the whole State. Is this the way, or ought we to contrive some other? Should the State, do you think, have all its members equal instead of having some more highly trained and educated?
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Clin. Nay, my good sir, that were impossible.
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Ath. We must proceed, then, to expound a type of education that is higher than the one previously described.
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Clin. I suppose so.
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Ath. Will the type which we hinted at just nowPlat. Laws 962e, Plat. Laws 963b ff. prove to be that which we require?
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Clin. Certainly.
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Ath. Did we not sayCp. Plat. Laws 903c, Plat. Laws 903d, Plat. Laws 961e. that he who is a first-class craftsman or warden, in any department, must not only be able to pay regard to the many, but must be able also to press towards the OneCp. Plat. Rep. 537b ff., where the dialectic method is described as a kind of induction (συναγωγή) whereby the mind ascends from the many particulars to the one universal concept or idea: a comprehensive view (σύνοψις) of the whole is what marks the dialectician (ὁ συνοπτικὸς διαλεκτικός). so as to discern it and, on discerning it, to survey and organize all the rest with a single eye to it?
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Clin. Quite right.
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Ath. Can any man get an accurate vision and view of any object better than by being able to look from the many and dissimilar to the one unifying form?
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Clin. Probably not.
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Ath. It is certain, my friend, rather than probable, that no man can possibly have a clearer method than this.
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Clin. I believe you, Stranger, and I assent; so let us employ this method in our subsequent discourse.
