109
Soc. How now, friend Alcibiades? Have you overlooked your own ignorance of this matter, or have I overlooked Cf. above, Plat. Alc.1 106e. your learning it and taking lessons of a master who taught you to distinguish the more just and the more unjust? And who is he? Inform me in my turn, in order that you may introduce me to him as another pupil.
109
Alc. You are joking, Socrates.
109
Soc. No, I swear by our common God of Friendship, whose name I would by no means take in vain. Come, if you can, tell me who the man is.
109
Alc. But what if I cannot? Do you think I could not know about what is just and unjust in any other way?
109
Soc. Yes, you might, supposing you discovered it.
109
Alc. But do you not think I might discover it?
109
Soc. Yes, quite so, if you inquired.
109
Alc. And do you not think I might inquire?
109
Soc. I do, if you thought you did not know.
109
Alc. And was there not a time when I held that view?
110
Soc. Well spoken. Then can you tell me at what time it was that you thought you did not know what is just and unjust? Pray, was it a year ago that you were inquiring, and thought you did not know? Or did you think you knew? Please answer truly, that our debates may not be futile.
110
Alc. Well, I thought I knew.
110
Soc. And two years, and three years, and four years back, were you not of the same mind?
110
Alc. I was.
110
Soc. But, you see, before that time you were a child, were you not?
110
Alc. Yes.
110
Soc. So I know well enough that then you thought you knew.
110
Alc. How do you know it so well?
110
Soc. Many a time I heard you, when as a child you were dicing or playing some other game at your teacher’s or elsewhere, instead of showing hesitation about what was just and unjust, speak in very loud and confident tones about one or other of your playmates, saying he was a rascal and a cheat who played unfairly. Is not this a true account?
110
Alc. But what was I to do, Socrates, when somebody cheated me?
110
Soc. Yet if you were ignorant then whether you were being unfairly treated or not, how can you ask—What are you to do?
