Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 3
Plato · en
See this reasoning of Plato set forth in Zeller, Die Phil. der
Griech. vol. ii. pp. 412-416, ed. 2nd.
_Nous_, according to Plato (Tim. 51 E), belongs only to the Gods
and to a select few among mankind. It is therefore only _to_ the
Gods and _to_ these few men that [Greek: Noêta\] exist. To the
rest of mankind [Greek: Noêta\] are non-apparent and
non-existent.]
[Footnote 23: Plato, Phædon, pp. 76-77. [Greek: i)/sê a)na/gkê
tau=ta/ te] (Ideas or Forms) [Greek: ei)=nai, kai\ ta\s ê(mete/ras
psucha\s pri\n kai\ ê(ma=s gegone/nai--kai\ ei) mê\ tau=ta, ou)de\
ta/de. U(perphuô=s, e)/phê o( Simmi/as, dokei= moi ê( au)tê\
a)na/gkê ei)=nai, kai\ ei)s kalo/n ge katapheu/gei o( lo/gos ei)s
to\ o(moi/ôs ei)=nai tê/n te psuchê\n ê(mô=n pri\n gene/sthai
ê(ma=s kai\ tê\n ou)si/an ê(\n su\ nu=n le/geis.]
Compare p. 92 E of the same dialogue with the notes of Wyttenbach
and Heindorf--"Haec autem [Greek: ou)si/a] Idearum, rerum
intelligibilium, [Greek: au)tê=s e)sti\n] (_sc._ [Greek: tê=s
psuchê=s]) ut hoc loco dicitur, est propria et possessio animæ
nostræ," &c.
About the essential implication of [Greek: Nou=s] with the [Greek:
Noêta/], as well as of [Greek: to\ do/xazon] with [Greek: ta\
doxazo/mena], and of [Greek: to\ ai)sthano/menon] with [Greek: ta\
ai)sthêta/], see Plutarch, De Animæ Procreat. in Timæo, pp.
1012-1024; and a curious passage from Joannes Philoponus ad Aristot.
Physica, cited by Karsten in his Commentatio De Empedoclis
Philosophiâ, p. 372, and Olympiodorus ad Platon. Phædon, p. 21.
[Greek: to\n nou=n phame\n a)kribô=s ginô/skein, dio/ti au)to/s
e)sti to\ noêto/n.]
Sydenham observes, in a note upon his translation of the Philêbus
(note 76, p. 118), "Being Intelligent and Being Intelligible are
not only correlatives, but are so in their very essence: neither
of them can be at all, without the Being of the other".]
[Footnote 24: I think that the inference in the Phædon is not
necessary to prove that conclusion, nor in itself just. For when I
speak of Augustus and Antony as having once lived, and as having
fought the battle of Actium, it is noway necessary that I should
believe myself to have been then alive and to have seen them: nor
when I speak of civil war as being now carried on in the United
States of America, is it necessary that I should believe myself to
be or to have been on the spot as a percipient witness. I believe,
on evidence which appears to me satisfactory, that both these are
real facts: that is, if I had been at Actium on the day of the
battle, or if I were now in the United States, I should see and
witness the facts here affirmed. These latter words describe the
subjective side of the fact, without introducing any supposition
that I have been myself present and percipient.]
[Side-note: The Protagorean measure is even more easily shown in
reference to the intelligible world than in reference to sense.]