POLITICUS (Statesman) by Plato - Complete text

Page 62

Str. And is there any higher art or science, having power to decide which of these arts are and are not to be learned; - what do you say?

Y. Soc. I should answer that there is.

Str. And do we acknowledge this science to be different from the others?

Y. Soc. Yes.

Str. And ought the other sciences to be superior to this, or no single science to any other? Or ought this science to be the overseer and governor of all the others?

Y. Soc. The latter.

Str. You mean to say that the science which judges whether we ought to learn or not, must be superior to the science which is learned or which teaches?

Y. Soc. Far superior.

Str. And the science which determines whether we ought to persuade or not, must be superior to the science which is able to persuade?

Y. Soc. Of course.

Str. Very good; and to what science do we assign the power of persuading a multitude by a pleasing tale and not by teaching?

Y. Soc. That power, I think, must clearly be assigned to rhetoric.

Str. And to what science do we give the power of determining whether we are to employ persuasion or force towards any one, or to refrain altogether?

Y. Soc. To that science which governs the arts of speech and persuasion.

Str. Which, if I am not mistaken, will be politics?

Y. Soc. Very good.

Str. Rhetoric seems to be quickly distinguished from politics, being a different species, yet ministering to it.

Y. Soc. Yes.

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Plato : POLITICUS

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