Theaetetus Part I

Spoiler Alert!!! Part of the following blog will reveal some of my presentation for tomorrow's class. Here I go... I continue to find the depth and richness of Plato's dialogues astounding. Consider, for example, the beginning of the Theaetetus. Between 142-146, Plato introduces many of the central themes of the dialogue (the importance of character, seems vs knowledge, age, memory, etc.). Yet he does so in an extremely subtle way. For instance, Euclides announces that he cannot tell Terpsion the exchange between Socrates, Theodorus, and Theaetetus from memory: "Good Lord, no. Not from memory, anyway." (143a) This, it seems to me, serves as moment of foreshadowing that is easy to miss; Theaetetus and Socrates will eventually think long and hard about the relationship between memory and knowledge. A similar example of this is the emphasis with which Theodorus describes the good character of Theatetus. He is a fine young man who is generous with his money (144d) and has an "unusually gentle temper" (144a). This description helps Socrates understand why Theaetetus has potential to "turn out well" (143d). Thus, I believe that this brief exchange helps us to capture the significance of the "digression" to the rest of the dialogue. That is, the digression is not actually a digression, in the sense that it is actually a central passage in the dialogue. If one does not read the brief introduction closely, one could fail to see this point. Speaking of the digression and the importance of good character, I want to conclude this post with a brief reflection on some of what Socrates says there. First, I found the following statement quite striking: "If, therefore, one meets a man who practices injustice and is blasphemous in his talk or in his life, the best thing for him by far is that one should never grant that there is any sort of ability about his unscrupulousness; such men are ready enough to glory in the reproach, and think that it means not that they are mere rubbish, cumbering the ground to no purpose, but that they have the kind of qualities that are necessary for survival in the community. We must therefore tell them the truth--that their very ignorance of their true state fixes them the more firmly therein. For they do not know what is in the penalty of injustice, which is the last thing of which a man should be ignorant" (176d). I believe that this quotation captures many experiences that I have had, especially with "rough and tumble" blue-collar co-workers and gang members (yes, I realize that these two folks do not usually share much in common). Many of the guys I know who belong to either of these groups actively reject the sorts of accounts of justice and virtue that Socrates would endorse, and they do so because they believe that such accounts make one weak and vulnerable. They usually tell me that embracing such accounts of justice will lead to my downfall. If I want to survive, they say, I will drop all of that morality *&^%. Putting aside the fact that all of these guys have embraced some form of justice/morality in various areas of their lives and interactions, I find that they exemplify the type of person and character that Socrates believes we ought to pity and caution against explicitly rebuking. As the proverbist says, sometimes you do not answer a fool according to their folly lest they seem wise in their own eyes. This is a tough piece of wisdom to swallow. Yet, I think it is spot on; at least it tracks with my experiences. Second, it seems Plato and Socrates are depicting a tight nit relationship between character and belief. As I understand it, it seems that the two are arranged in a sort of feedback loop. One's beliefs impact one's character, One's character impacts what one can or will believe. And on this cycle goes (I do not here mean to suggest that it is deterministic or unalterable). Again, this seems right to me. I confess, however, that I do not really like it. That is, I do not want the world to be that way. I want malformed people to believe things just as easily as well-formed people, especially when we are talking about the most important matters of life. Yet this does not usually happen. So, I suppose, Christian teachers may have yet another reason to pray for the LORD to mercifully work on their students so that they can learn the important truths that they and their other teachers have to teach.