| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: period of the Parmenides and the Philebus, it is proposed to pass through
the sciences to ontology': or, as he repeats in nearly the same words,--
'whereas in the Republic and in the Phaedo he had dreamt of passing through
ontology to the sciences, he is now content to pass through the sciences to
ontology.'
This theory is supposed to be based on Aristotle's Metaphysics, a passage
containing an account of the ideas, which hitherto scholars have found
impossible to reconcile with the statements of Plato himself. The
preparations for the new departure are discovered in the Parmenides and in
the Theaetetus; and it is said to be expressed under a different form by
the (Greek) and the (Greek) of the Philebus. The (Greek) of the Philebus
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: not.
And would you feel equally undecided, Socrates, about things of which the
mention may provoke a smile?--I mean such things as hair, mud, dirt, or
anything else which is vile and paltry; would you suppose that each of
these has an idea distinct from the actual objects with which we come into
contact, or not?
Certainly not, said Socrates; visible things like these are such as they
appear to us, and I am afraid that there would be an absurdity in assuming
any idea of them, although I sometimes get disturbed, and begin to think
that there is nothing without an idea; but then again, when I have taken up
this position, I run away, because I am afraid that I may fall into a
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: me."
Captain Eliott was immensely amused; he shook with
laughter as he walked. But suddenly he stopped laugh-
ing. A vague recollection had crossed his mind. Hadn't
he heard it said at the time of the Travancore and Deccan
smash that poor Whalley had been cleaned out com-
pletely. "Fellow's hard up, by heavens!" he thought;
and at once he cast a sidelong upward glance at his
companion. But Captain Whalley was smiling austerely
straight before him, with a carriage of the head incon-
ceivable in a penniless man--and he became reassured.
End of the Tether |
