GIFT OF
H.B.Wilson
PLATO THE TEACHER
Being Selections from the ^Apology, Euthydemus,
Protagoras, 'Symposium, Ph^drus, Republic,
AND Ph/EDO OF PLATO ,
£D/T£D W/77/ INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
WILLIAM LOWE BRYAN, Ph.D.
PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY, INDIANA UNIVERSITY
AND
CHARLOTTE LOWE BRYAN, A.M.
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1897
£5 3^8
08
?&?
EDUCATION DEFT.
Copyright, 1897, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK
**
In memory
OF
HENRY BATES
A lover of men
677760
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface, ix
General Introduction, xiii
Introduction to Apology, 3
Apology, 5
Introduction to Euthydemus, 33
euthydemus, 35
Introduction to Protagoras, 63
Protagoras, 67
Introduction to the Symposium, . . . .105
The Symposium, 107
Introduction to Ph^edrus, 137
Ph/edrus, 141
Introduction to the Republic, 181
The Republic :
Book I., 187
Book II., 199
Book III., 227
Book IV., 251
Book V., . • 279
Book VI., 291
Book VII., 319 \s
Book VIII., 342
Book IX., 373
Book X., . . .394
Suggestions on the Study of the Ph^edo, . .413
Ph^edo, . .417
PREFACE
Plato's fame as a philosopher prevents many
from reading him far enough to discover that he
is also a teacher of the folk. He is one of very-
few who can speak at times for the masters alone,
and at other times so that the " common people hear
him gladly." The historic Socrates drew about him
all sorts and conditions of men, from the philoso-
pher to the rake, each by the proper magic ; and all
sorts and conditions of men may yet feel something
of his magic through the dialogues of Plato. To
help publish the open secret that Plato speaks with
simplicity and charm and power to all of us, is the-^t^ . ^/
pui£P£e_oi this_boojc. $
The . ftpologv is placed first as the best possiblefc^*
introdu ^tionjo t he life and spirit of Socrates. The d-&~j J J
^ Euthydemus shows Socrates in contrast w jth_the ^
b aser So phis ts, the-*ffrota goras in contr ast with the
sjLi^ejuor_Sop_hists. The*Symposium and^Phsedrus
shQ_ w_philosophically an d dramatically Plato's con -
cerjjjojuiLlQ_ve_ as thebasis of scien ce and nf jfeacj?-
ing. This is Plato's most important contribution to
Education. The* Republic gives Plato's entire sche me
oXj^ducaiion, as d etermin e d by_ the__Jndi vidua l and
***+,
X PREFACE
bv his social re lations. This is an inexhaustible mine
of wisdom for the teacher. The^Phaedp is intro-
duced partly for its own sake and partly because all
Plato's thought about t^educatkni^i Lmanjyas de -
terniined bxhis ^conceptio jL-Qf the absolute jiatLire
and destiny _of man .
^ The introducti ons to the several dialogues are in-
^**^vi2^ tended only to give a few suggestive clews which
may prove useful to elementary readers. The in-
tr.oductjp_.il to the_PhaedQ is an outline for the study
of that dialogue.
The notes, constitute a dictionary of the biograph-
ical, geographical, and mythological terms or refer-
ences in the text. Scholars will observe that the
notes have been written with great reserve. While
we have sought the highest accuracy in every line,
we have sought no less to exclude all antiquarian
lore that would not directly assist the elementary
reader to understand the text.
In the preparation of this book the endeavor
throughout has been toJeXPJ^tp_s_rje_aJ_Li^
The notes and i ntroductions are intended only to
elucidate and not to criticise. To prevent possible
misunderstanding, however, it may be well to state
a few of the more important points in which we do
^^uli^. no t acce pt Plato's teaching , (i.) It is scarcely neces-
^%c^ sar y t0 sa y that the modern Christian world has out-
grown many of Plato's ideas of morality. In criti-
cising these, however, it should be remembered that
no one is wholly free from the influence of his age,
and that in many things Plato was better than his
age. (2.) We prefer actual democracy even to
Plato's ideal aristocracy. (3.) We believe that con-
PREFACE Xi
tact with the earth through the senses and hands is
not, as Plato seems to have believed, a degradation
to the soul, but is a spiritual necessity. (4.) We be-
lieve that Plato's conception of God and of man's
relation to God, far as it is beyond that which is
often found among Christians, falls far short of that
shown to us by our Lord.
The translation used is that of Jowett (the Charles
Scribner's Sons' Edition). In a few cases where
Jowett uses a foreign phrase or an expression pre-
senting special difficulty to those unread in the
classics, slight alterations have been made.
In the preparation of the notes we have used the
Greek text of Plato; Liddell and Scott's Greek Dic-
tionary ; * Harper's Classical Dictionary ; Johnson's
Cyclopaedia; Smith's Classical Dictionary; Bulfinch's,
Guerber's, and Gayley's Manuals of Mythology ;
Jowett's Introductions and Analyses ; The Index to
Jowett's Plato, third edition ; Zeller's Plato and the
Older Academy ; Zeller's Socrates ; Grote's History
of Greece ; Grote's Plato ; Bosanquet's Companion
to Plato's Republic ; Socrates, Talks with Socrates
about Life, Talks with Athenian Youth, A Day in
Athens with Socrates, published by Charles Scrib-
ner's Sons ; and Webster's Dictionary, on the pro-
nunciation of proper names.
* Referred to in notes as L. & S.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
THE ATHENS OF PLATO.
/Plato was born at Athens about 427 B.C. His&^v*^
native city was then at the height of its prosperity. p '
At the beginning of that century the Greek states, ^^^'jfa
often at war with each other, and always jealous of ^t^^o
each other, had been forced to unite in a fight for
life against the innumerable hordes of the Persian
Empire. Athens was foremost in this fight, and
when the Persians were finally driven away, she ^^
succeeded in placing herself at the head of a power-
fioLleague of Greek cities. Accordingly, although
thepityhad been captured and burned by the Per-
sians\j3iepr1isently became, under the direction of
the statesman Pericles, far stronger politically and
commercially than ever before. A variety of causes
made this period also a golden age for many of the c -^tt
arts. The city had to be rebuilt. This was done
under direction of the sculptor Phidias, with a
splendor and artistic perfection perhaps never else-
where equalled. The democratic Athenian govern- As^^
ment, according to which questions of State were
decided in a general assembly of all the people,
gave occasion for the development of oratory of
XIV GENERAL INTRODUCTION
the highest order. Finally, in this century, the
drama which had gradually developed in connection
with the worship of Dionysus, came to classic per-
fection in the comedies of Aristophanes and the
tragedies of ^Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
Athens had yet another glory of which some of
her citizens were not proud. She had become the
principal seat of philosophy. In order to appreciate
the state of philosophy at this time, and the feeling
of the people toward it, we must give a brief ac-
count of the preceding history of philosophy.
GREEK PHILOSOPHY BEFORE PLATO.
^v-h^L The deliberate search after scientific or p hilo-
^^o^^ophicJxu^h^r^se first, so far as we know, about two
r* :?hundred years before the time, of Plato , among the
Greeks who lived qn_ the weste rn coast of Asia
Minor. There were a dozen Greek cities on that
coast and the adjacent islands of the JBge'an archi-
pelago, as far back as authentic history runs. These
^,) cities were fortunately placed. They had at their
' back a prosperous country and before them the sea.
They developed a great trade all around the JEgean
and Mediterranean Seas, — with Tyre and Sidon,
with Egypt, and with the widely scattered Greek
colonies. They became very rich. But that was
not all. By contact with new peoples, they ac-
quired new ideas and the habit of looking out for
new ideas. They were without doubt especially
indebted to Egypt. Indirectly through Phoenicia,
they got from Egypt the alphabet which is substan-
tially the one we use to-day. Besides this invalu-
GENERAL INTRODUCTION XV
able gift, they got from the Egyptians a first lesson
in science. The study of the heavenly bodies had,
been from ancient times part of the religious duty
of the Egyptian priests, who therefore had consider-
able knowledge of astronoj ny. On account of the
yearly overflow of the Nile, it had been necessary
to have some method of measuring land in order to
re-establish boundary lines. The Egyptians had
accordingly some knowledge of geom etry . In the
course of time Greek travelers acquired this learn-
ing. We find, for example, that Thales, a Greek of
Miletus, predicted an eclipse of the sun which oc-
curred in 585 B.C.
But, as I have said, these Greeks acquired by Q
their travel, not only new ideas, but also an eagery*,//^
curiosity for more new ideas. They were not at alr*-^-^/^
satisfied to accept the learning of Egypt and of
Tyre and Sidon, as they found it. That learning
helped t o free the m somewhat from faith in the
myths by which their ancestors had explained all
things in heaven and earth, but gave them no suffi-
cient substitute for the old faith. It is, at any rate,
certain that about 650 B.C., a few sages in the Ionic
cities were beginning to grope toward a natural
explanation of things. In the movements of the
heavenly., bodies, for example, where the supersti-
tious saw only the caprice of the gods, they had
learned to see an order such that future events /^^h*;
could be predicted. This led some of the wiser^^^o
men to believe that there is an order__ruji ng in
n^iuj^jev^rvjvhere^ They began to raise questions
accordingly, not only about the true length of the
year, and the means of measuring time, but also
XVI GENERAL INTRODUCTION
cr> very general questions, such as: What is the world
u2^Â¥ made of? What force has caused it to be gener-
ated ? What law has ruled in this generation ? We
have authentic accounts of more than a dozen dis-
tinguished men, living between 650 B.C. and the
time of Plato's birth (427 B.C.), whose lives were
spent in trying to answer questions of this sort.
If you read the answers they were able to make
-^uv^v^to these questions, ignorantly or carelessly enough,
'you may think them little better tljan childish. (jfe^ 6v
said that the world is made of wate?, which thickens
and hardens to make solid bodies, and thins to make
air and fire. f^QOtlier^said that the world is Jiiade
orai?'; anomerthat it is made oPfire ; anjofnerrofit it
is made of four elements— i %xth 2 _^Ji^_fii^i_^aLwatejr.
iW?iner*sai d that %\\ things are in_eternal JD oti on
and that when we think that anything is at rest, our
senses deceive us. Another said that tiL Lthings are
etern ally a t jjest and that when we think we see
motion, our senses deceive us. 0$e^#f9niat all
/things in nature move by numerical harmony, like
the notes of the musical scale, /mojmersaid that
love and hate are the two forces tjjat bring: all
things together or keep them apart. WTareuJanone
of them expressed in some form the belief that the
' evolution of the world is dire cted by o ne supreme
intelligence . Many of them expressed views on par-
ticular scientific questions which are very similar to
those now accepted. So, -for example, ; A Jiajrinland£r,
t ^J x *- who lived about 600 B.C., held sopre views about
(/^ the s_tru ctu r ^_ of_th e solar s ystem /which were more
nearly correct than the theories generally accepted
down to the time of Copernicus (a.d. 1543). I shall
GENERAL INTRODUCTION XV11
not, however, discuss the value of this early p hiloso-
phizing further than to say that the more deeplyfrtf^W /
one studies it, the more surely one sees _that these Q
men werejiot fools L and that, in spite of their crudi.
ties, simi^jDfJ^hejn^^ What I
wish now to do is to discuss their influence upon
the public mind of Greece. <^1K
As might be expected, they produced one kind^^*,
of effect upon the few who paid special attention /
to them and an altogether different effect upon the
general public. Even with the former, the effect
was by no means always flattering to the philoso-
phers. Just in the period between the Persian wars
and the birth of Plato, a great many of the Greeks
who devoted themselves to learning were coming
to the conclusion that philosophy was a failure.
"The philosophers," they said in substance, "tell us
that we cannot trust our senses for the truth of any-
thing, and that we must learn the truth of them.
We go to them and find that they contradict one
another at every point . The truth is," some went
on to say, " there is no truth which is truth always
and everywhere. The world is different at every
point and is always changing. Men are all different
from each other and every one is constantly chang-
ing. How can a changing man find anything in al
changing world which every other man will alwaysl
find just so? It is impossible. That is true iorWlajfp
each man which he finds true. Let us cease the*^/
vain search for a universal and absolute truth. Let
us be content to learn how to be practically effect-
ive. Let us learn how to fight, how to write, how
to speak, how to plead in the courts and before the
>tf
XVlll GENERAL INTRODUCTION
assembly of the people. Let us acquire skill to get
on in the world. There is no other wisdom than
this."
The class of men who took substantially this
1 position called themselves Sophists, that is, wise
^'raen. Some of them were very talented, very
lVu ^W thoroughly schooled in the learning of that time,
*^ ^tf> and very skillful in the practical arts which they
professed to teach. They gave s peci aLajtlcn tion to
language — that is, to grammar, rhetoric, an dorgjojT-
They are, given credit for_thejdevelopm ent of Greek
prose style , as it appears, for example, in the ora-
tions of Demosthenes, a century later, and indirect-
ly for the development of the same art among the
Romans. Some of the Sophists were, of course, in-
ferior. I need only refer to the dialogue Euthy-
demus, in this volume, to show that some of them
were despicably so. Such men cared for nothing
but their own advantage, and were, without doubt,
gross corrupters of the youth.
Now, the general public did not draw any fine
distinctions between the superior Sophists, such as
S&L£ Protagoras, and the baser sort, such as Euthydemus
f" and Dionysodqrus. A Moreover/ the 7 public did not
distinguish between the Sophists and the philoso-
phers. Although the philosophers had sought ear-
nestly for the truth, and believed that they had found
some truth, while the Sophists believed all such
search vain, the Athenian public, intelligent as they
were in many things, lumped all men of learning
together, and called them Sophists. As a result
of this failure to distinguish between men whose
views were directly opposed, the public attributed
)
GENERAL INTRODUCTION XIX
to all of them substantially all the faults they found
or suspected in any of them. Some of the philoso-
phers had outgrown the popular religion ; the people
were accordingly quick to believe that any learned
man was an atheist. Some of the Sophists rejected
the conventional notions of morals; every scholar
was, therefore, readily suspected of being a cor-
rupter of the youth, and if any youth who consorted
with scholars turned out badly, his ruin was charged
up to the new learning.
The public opinion, with its muddle-headed oppo-
sition to the whole movement of science and phi-
losophy, was expressed perfectly in a comedy by
the great Athenian, Aristophanes. The story of
the play, called " The Clouds," runs as follows:
A certain man finds himself in debt, without ability
to pay. He is told that there is a school of the
Sophists where he can be taught how to argu
himself out of all his debts. The school is de-
scribed, with Socrates as chief teacher. Socrates
is represented as engaged in profound investiga-
tions on various nonsensical questions about things
in heaven and beneath the earth. He is calculat-
ing, for example, the distance from one place to
another in terms of the foot of a flea. The man
is taught how to argue away his debt ; but his
son gets from the same teachers a lesson which
enables him to prove his right to thrash his father.
It is easy to see how the average Athenian, who
looked and laughed at thfs play, would lump all
the philosophers together, and attribute to each of
them, but especially to Socrates, a nonsense and a
knavery which would bring the country to ruin.
XX GENERAL INTRODUCTION
So far nothing has been said about the real belief
and purposes of Socrates or of Plato. What it is
, , necessary to see is the actual situation which they
^A
^tfH&C&i i. There were the old philosophers, reaching back
nearly two hundred years to Thales of Meletus, who
had been floundering and struggling toward the
truth about nature, without coming to an agree-
ment.
2. There were the Sophists, some of them scholars
and gentlemen, some of them ignorant tricksters,
who rejected all the foregoing philosophy, and, more
or less, also the popular ideas of religion, law, and
morals.
3. There were the Athenian people, proud of
their military glory, their growing wealth, and their
ftautiful city, but ignorant of the new learning and
hostile to it.
^^Z^^iy^^Li^^- PLATO'S MASTER. ^^ i^^^^i^ ( 4%uA f <*
The foregoing pages touch the principal features
— political, economic, artistic, philosophical, and so-
cial, of the situation in Athens at the.time of Plato's
birth. One element in the situation has been barely
mentioned, Plato's master, Socrates.
Socrates had more influence upon Plato and upon
subsequent philosophy than had any of the men or
.conditions heretofore mentioned. I shall not, how-
ever, in this place give an account of his life and
teachings. I refrain from doing this solely because
those who read this book may become acquainted
with Socrates far better, as well as far more delight-
fully, through the dialogues of Plato that are given
GENERAL INTRODUCTION XXI
here, than from any biography that could be written ^
about, him. Indeed, one main object of this book iSg_^ ^h*.
just to make those who read it personally acquainted
with Socrates. There is, however, one matter of
fact, in this connection, which should be thoroughly
understood.
Socrates wrote nothing. We kno w of his life
and teachings l chierly through the writing s of tw_o
gf _his disciples, Xenophon _ and Plato . Xenophon
probably told the truth about his master as well as
he could. But J^mopjipji^was like some of those,^/ .
who heard the teachings crfouT15avT©OT=-^l^ "^^
~~4s J __bujL^nj3t_Jj^^ *^-w*
Plato understood Socrates better than any one '^•*'cfi
else did, and he could have given us, without
doubt, a trustworthy picture of his master. The
difficulty in getting at the real Socrates through the
writings of Plato is this. All Plato's writings are in
dialog ue. In almost all the dialogues, Pla to's own ^,
orjinio-QS-ar£ _put into .the mouth of Socrates . Plato's^Y^£^
own views, however, became in the course of time ]?■&£
considerably different from those of his master. It is,
consequently, impossible to be sure just how far the
speeches of Socrates, in Plato's dialogues, represent
the actual opinions of Socrates, and how far they
represent opinions acquired by Plato after his
master's death. It is, indeed, true that Plato's phi-
losophy was developed out of that of Socrates, and
we may be sure that, as a rule, in ascribing his own
opinions to Socrates, Plato did not greatly violate
the spirit of the master's teaching. It should, how-
ever, be understood that the Socrates who speaks in
Plato's writings i§ more orle ss a{dramat ic_j^reiUJ0Q
I&S&L
XX11 GENERAL INTRODUCTION
PLATO'S LIFE.
Of Plato's life and work only the bare outlines
will be given here. He was born about 427 B.C., of a
wealthy and aristocratic family. He had the best
^^. educ ation which the world then afforded, becom-
ing in time master of all branches of learning then
known. He was particularly proficient in mathe -
matics. When he was twenty years old, he became
vC ^£- &
until the death of the latter in 399./ Later, he trav-
V^rx^f e l e d in Egypt, (^rene, Italy, and Sicily, pursuing
philosophic studies. In Sicily he was sold as a
slave. After being ransomed, he QJ^enecj^a school
§* of mathematics and philosophy in Athens, where,
"***- among others, he had Aristotle for a pupil. Twice,
by invitation of LTion, ruler of Sicily, he attempted
to apply his political theories to an actual govern-
ment, but both attempts were failures. His death
occurred at Athens, 347 B.C. f cUa^4^.
No philosophy can be adequately represented by
an outline, even if the outline were made by the
philosopher himself, because the definite doctrines
which can be stated in an outline are always to be
understood in connection with the thousand subtle
meanings that lie between his lines. There is, how-
ever, special reason why Plato cannot be represent-
ed by an outline of his philosophy. He was, in fact,
far more than a mere _QhiIasQPJier. He was a dra-
UL ^>^^ matic artist He was more than that. He was a
oyer oilmen. And in the measure that he was
these three — philosopher, dramatist, and lover — he
was aj^ea cher .
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xxiii
PLATO THE PHILOSOPHER.
In this place will be given first an account of
£hvto^s^n^ral_docjtnrie, and then a view of his atti-
tude toward the ^%^i^M^^^^^JU^u. .
The Doctrine of Ideas > Plato s doctrine of ideas
varied at different periods of his life. Its established
features may be stated as follows:
Every one knows what a common noun is, as tree,
horse, stone, etc. A moment's thought will show
that common nouns may be arranged in a system.
Children recognize some such system in their game*'
of twenty questions, when they ask if the thing you
have thought of is material or immaterial ; if mate-
rial, whether it is animal, vegetable, or mineral ; if
an animal, whether aland animal or a water animal;
and so on until they have run down the particular
thing or class of things thought of. In any such
system the special classes run together into gen-
eral classes, until at last all run together into one
class, say the class being, which includes all beings,
divine and human, living and dead.
Now Plato believed (i) that correspondi ng to
every common noun there is a real, eternal, and :pe.r-
fect being, in the likeness~oTwnich and by the power
of which every particular being coming under that
class is made ; (2) that, corresponding to the system
of common nouns, there is a system of such real,
eternal, and perfect beings ; and (3) that, correspond-
ing to the highest common noun, there is a Highest
Being, which is the prime source of all lower beings
and so of all things whatever. The real, eternal, and
perfect beings corresponding to our common nouns
XXIV GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Plato called ideas. He did not, therefore, use the
word idea in the sense that we are most accustomed
to The highest idea is God. «*WA*^*k>&~<
Now while he believed that these ideas are pure,
holy, and beautiful, he believed that the particular
objects which the world that we see is made of — the
actual trees, horses, etc. — are only imperfect copies
of their ideas, and are, therefore, not at all pure,
holy, and beautiful, but just the contrary. The
h^^^
^ M££ ,t[TiQo^is the £e^tplth£ug]r^^^kto's_ philosopJiy.
Man has or may have knowledge of both. With his
^'^^eyes and ears and other senses he comes into con-
#^^^ tact witt/ the world_j ollhillgs- With his soul he may
know directly theVorld ofjd eal being , which cul-
minates in God. Contact with the world through
the senses, gives us no t tru e__or valuable knowl-
edge, but only the appearance of true wisdom.
Contact with the eternal ideal beings, by means of
the eye of the soul, gives us the only true and divine
wisdom.
To account for the fact that the soul may know
^Xg^^tjnje ideal being s.?Plato held that the soul has ex js_te_ cUtA^
always ; that before being born into this earthly life
the sjduI lived in the world of ideal beings ; that the
s^lilJXiajn£_^jrLejno^ that we
may^recallthe knowjedgejwe, had in a fo rmer life ,
if we will withdraw our senses from the things of '