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A Dream of Socrates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2009

I. M. Crombie
Affiliation:
Wadham College, Oxford

Extract

The other night I had a very strange, and strangely coherent, dream. Socrates and Meno appeared to be arguing with each other in my presence. They talked English, I suppose, since I clearly thought I followed them; but I seem to remember that Greek words occurred from time to time. When I woke it seemed to me that the dream had some bearing on disputed matters of Platonic interpretation, so I shall try to reconstruct it here. Meno speaks first:

Tell me, Socrates, do you think that the just and the admirable are the same thing?

I should hardly think so; for we call many things admirable—for example a young lad's cheek—which we would hardly call just; and perhaps vice versa. But I am only guessing, of course, because I cannot know whether A is the same as B unless I know what A is and what B is.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1989

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