Cox &Plato (was Re: [lbo-talk] putting quackery to the test)

[Shane Mage]

>[I allow that in a dialogue it's always  possible to say "he" didn't say
>it. Especially given Plato's multiple forms of irony. Nevertheless.]
>
>"Would you say a man deserves to be a physician at the moment when he
>makes a mistake in treating his patient and just in respect of that
>mistake; or a mathematician, when he does a sum wrong and just in
>respect of that mistake. . . ." Republic, I, 340. Cornford tr.

Observe how an exquisitely subtle and precise ("just in respect of
that mistake") move by [the dramatic character] Sokrates, in his 
dialectical refutation of [the dramatic character] Thrasymachos's 
assertion that the concept of justice signifies merely the interest 
of the ruling class, is transformed into the statement "Plato claimed 
that a mathematician wasn't a mathematician when he was committing an 
error."

Shane Mage

Nanki Poo: "What if it should prove that, after all, I am no musician?"
Yum Yum: "There! I was certain of it, directly I heard you play!"
(W.S. Gilbert)


>If he wasn't a physician when he was making a mistake it wouldn't be a
>mistake.
>
>I find Plato wonderful -- but that hardly requires agreeing with him.
>
>Carrol
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