Alcibiades 2 (138-139)

Soc. Alcibiades, are you on your way to offer a prayer to the god?

Alc. I am, certainly, Socrates.

Soc. You seem, let me say, to have a gloomy look, and to keep your eyes on the ground, as though you were pondering something.

Alc. And what might one ponder, Socrates?

Soc. The greatest of questions, Alcibiades, as I believe. For tell me, in Heaven’s name, do you not think that the gods sometimes grant in part, but in part refuse, what we ask of them in our private and public prayers, and gratify some people, but not others?

Alc. I do, certainly.

Soc. Then you would agree that one should take great precautions against falling unawares into the error of praying for great evils in the belief that they are good, while the gods happen to be disposed to grant freely what one is praying for? Just as Oedipus, they say, suddenly prayed that his sons might divide their patrimony with the sword: it was open to him to pray that his present evils might by some means be averted, but he invoked others in addition to those which he had already. Wherefore not only were those words of his accomplished, but many other dread results therefrom, which I think there is no need to recount in detail.

Alc. But you have instanced a madman, Socrates: why, do you suppose that anyone could bring himself, while he was in a sound state, to utter such a prayer?

Soc. Do you regard madness as the opposite of wisdom?

Alc. Certainly I do.

Soc. And there are some men whom you regard as unwise, and others as wise?

Alc. Why, yes.

Soc. Come then, let us consider who these people are. We have admitted that some are unwise, some wise, and others mad.

Alc. Yes, we have.

Soc. And again, there are some in sound health?

Alc. There are.

Soc. And others also who are in ill-health?

Alc. Quite so.

Soc. And they are not the same?

Alc. No, indeed.

Soc. And are there any others besides, who are found to be in neither state?

Alc. No, to be sure.

Soc. For a human being must needs be either sick or not sick.

Alc. I agree.

Soc. Well then, do you hold the same view about wisdom and unwisdom?

Alc. How do you mean?

Soc. Tell me, do you think it is only possible to be either wise or unwise, or is there some third condition between these, which makes a man neither wise nor unwise?

Alc. No, there is not.

Soc. So he must needs be in one or the other of these two conditions.

Alc. I agree.

Soc. And you remember that you admitted that madness is the opposite of wisdom?

Alc. I do.

Soc. And further, that there is no third condition between these, which makes a man neither wise nor unwise?

Alc. Yes, I admitted that.

Soc. Well now, can there possibly be two opposites of one thing?

Alc. By no means.

Soc. Then it looks as though unwisdom and madness were the same.

Alc. Yes, apparently.

Soc. So we shall be right, Alcibiades, in saying that all unwise persons are mad; for example, such of your contemporaries as happen to be unwise—some such there are—and of your elders, even: for tell me, in Heaven’s name, do you not think that in our city the wise people are but few, whereas the majority are unwise, and these you call mad?

Alc. I do.

Soc. Well, do you suppose we could safely live with so many madmen as our fellow-citizens, and should not long ago have paid the penalty for it in knocks and blows at their hands, and all the usual proceedings of madmen? Consider now, my wonderful friend, whether the case is not quite different?

Alc. Well, it must be, Socrates. For it looks as though it were not as I thought.

Soc. And I think so too. But there is another way of regarding it.

Alc. I wonder what way you mean.

Soc. Well, I will tell you. We conceive there are some who are sick, do we not?

Alc. We do, to be sure.

Soc. And do you believe that a sick man must necessarily have the gout, or a fever, or ophthalmia? Do you not think that, although he may be afflicted in none of these ways, he may be suffering from some other disease? For surely there are many of them: these are not the only ones.

Alc. I agree.

Soc. And is every ophthalmia, in your opinion, a disease?

Alc. Yes.

Soc. And is every disease also ophthalmia?

Alc. No, I should think not: still, I am in doubt as to my meaning.