From Plato PROTAGORAS - translated by Benjamin
Jowett
Immediate
Source:
http://www.ac-nice.fr/philo/textes/Plato-Works/04-Protagoras.htm
Persons
of the Dialogue :
SOCRATES, who is the narrator of the Dialogue to his Companion ;
PROTAGORAS, . . . Sophist ;
Then, [Socrates] said, you do indeed possess a noble
art [of teaching virtue], if there is no mistake about this ; for I will
freely confess to you, Protagoras, that I have a doubt whether this art is
capable of being taught, and yet I know not how to disbelieve your assertion. .
. . I wish that you would, if possible, show me a little more clearly that
virtue can be taught. Will you be so good ?
That I will, Socrates, [said Protagoras,] and gladly.
But what would you like ? Shall I, as an elder,
speak to you as younger men in an apologue or myth, or shall I argue out the question ?
To this several of the company answered that he should
choose for himself.
Well, then, he said, I think that the myth will be
more interesting.
Once upon a time there were gods only, and no mortal
creatures. But when the time came that these also should be created, the gods
fashioned them out of earth and fire and various mixtures of both elements in
the interior of the earth ; and when they were
about to bring them into the light of day, they ordered Prometheus and Epimetheus to equip them, and to distribute to them
severally their proper qualities. Epimetheus said to Prometheus : “Let me distribute, and do you inspect.”
This was agreed, and Epimetheus made the
distribution. There were some to whom he gave strength without swiftness, while
he equipped the weaker with swiftness ; some he
armed, and others he left unarmed ; and devised for the latter some other
means of preservation, making some large, and having their size as a
protection, and others small, whose nature was to fly in the air or burrow in
the ground ; this was to be their way of escape. Thus did he compensate
them with the view of preventing any race from becoming extinct.
And when he had provided against their destruction by one another, he contrived
also a means of protecting them against the seasons of heaven ;
clothing them with close hair and thick skins sufficient to defend them against
the winter cold and able to resist the summer heat, so that they might have a
natural bed of their own when they wanted to rest ; also he furnished them
with hoofs and hair and hard and callous skins under their feet. Then he gave
them varieties of food-herb of the soil to some, to others fruits of trees, and
to others roots, and to some again he gave other animals as food. And some he
made to have few young ones, while those who were their prey were very prolific ; and in this manner the race was preserved.
Thus did Epimetheus, who, not being very wise, forgot
that he had distributed among the brute animals all the qualities which he had
to give — and when he came to man, who was still unprovided,
he was terribly perplexed. Now while he was in this perplexity, Prometheus came
to inspect the distribution, and he found that the other animals were suitably
furnished, but that man alone was naked and shoeless, and had neither bed nor
arms of defence. The appointed hour was approaching when man in his turn was to
go forth into the light of day ; and Prometheus, not knowing how he could
devise his salvation, stole the mechanical arts of
Hephaestus and Athene, and fire with them (they could
neither have been acquired nor used without fire), and gave them to man. Thus
man had the wisdom necessary to the support of life, but political wisdom he
had not ; for that was in the keeping of Zeus, and the power of Prometheus
did not extend to entering into the citadel of heaven, where Zeus dwelt, who
moreover had terrible sentinels ; but he did enter by stealth into the
common workshop of Athene and Hephaestus, in which
they used to practise their favourite arts, and carried off Hephaestus’ art of
working by fire, and also the art of Athene, and gave
them to man. And in this way man was supplied with the means of life. But
Prometheus is said to have been afterwards prosecuted for theft, owing to the
blunder of Epimetheus.
Now man, having a share of the divine attributes, was
at first the only one of the animals who had any gods, because he alone was of
their kindred ; and he would raise altars and
images of them. He was not long in inventing articulate speech and names ; and he also constructed houses and clothes and
shoes and beds, and drew sustenance from the earth. Thus provided, mankind at
first lived dispersed, and there were no cities. But the consequence was that
they were destroyed by the wild beasts, for they were utterly weak in
comparison of them, and their art was only sufficient to provide them with the
means of life, and did not enable them to carry on war against the animals : food they had, but not as yet the art of
government, of which the art of war is a part. After a while the desire of
self-preservation gathered them into cities ; but
when they were gathered together, having no art of government, they evil intreated [dealt badly with] one another, and were again in
process of dispersion and destruction. Zeus feared that the entire race would
be exterminated, and so he sent Hermes to them, bearing reverence and justice
to be the ordering principles of cities and the bonds of friendship and
conciliation. Hermes asked Zeus how he should impart justice and reverence
among men : — Should he distribute them as the
arts are distributed ; that is to say, to a favoured few only, one skilled
individual having enough of medicine or of any other art for many unskilled
ones ? “Shall this be the manner in which I am to distribute justice and
reverence among men, or shall I give them to all ?”
“To all,” said Zeus ; “I should like them all to
have a share ; for cities cannot exist, if a few only share in the
virtues, as in the arts. And further, make a law by my order, that he who has
no part in reverence and justice shall be put to death, for he is a plague of
the state.”
And this is the reason, Socrates, why the Athenians
and mankind in general, when the question relates to carpentering or any other
mechanical art, allow but a few to share in their deliberations ; and when
any one else interferes, then, as you say, they
object, if he be not of the favoured few ; which, as I reply, is very
natural. But when they meet to deliberate about political virtue, which
proceeds only by way of justice and wisdom, they are patient enough of any man
who speaks of them, as is also natural, because they think that every man ought
to share in this sort of virtue, and that states could not exist if this were
otherwise. I have explained to you, Socrates, the reason of this phenomenon.
And that you may not suppose yourself to be deceived
in thinking that all men regard every man as having a share of justice or
honesty and of every other political virtue, let me give you a further proof,
which is this. In other cases, as you are aware, if a man says that he is a
good flute-player, or skilful in any other art in which he has no skill, people
either laugh at him or are angry with him, and his relations think that he is
mad and go and admonish him ; but when honesty is in question, or some
other political virtue, even if they know that he is dishonest, yet, if the man
comes publicly forward and tells the truth about his dishonesty, then, what in
the other case was held by them to be good sense, they now deem to be madness.
They say that all men ought to profess honesty whether they are honest or not,
and that a man is out of his mind who says anything else. Their notion is, that
a man must have some degree of honesty ; and that
if he has none at all he ought not to be in the world.
I have been showing that they are right in admitting
every man as a counsellor about this sort of virtue, as they are of opinion
that every man is a partaker of it. And I will now endeavour to show further
that they do not conceive this virtue to be given by nature, or to grow
spontaneously, but to be a thing which may be taught ;
and which comes to a man by taking pains. No one would instruct, no one would
rebuke, or be angry with those whose calamities they suppose to be due to
nature or chance ; they do not try to punish or
to prevent them from being what they are ; they do but pity them. Who is
so foolish as to chastise or instruct the ugly, or the diminutive, or the feeble ? And for this reason.
Because he knows that good and evil of this kind is the work of nature and of chance ; whereas if a man is wanting in those good
qualities which are attained by study and exercise and teaching, and has only
the contrary evil qualities, other men are angry with him, and punish and
reprove him — of these evil qualities one is impiety, another injustice, and
they may be described generally as the very opposite of political virtue. In
such cases any man will be angry with another, and reprimand him, — clearly
because he thinks that by study and learning, the virtue in which the other is
deficient may be acquired. If you will think, Socrates, of the nature of
punishment, you will see at once that in the opinion of mankind virtue may be
acquired ; no one punishes the evil-doer under the notion, or for the
reason, that he has done wrong, only the unreasonable fury of a beast acts in
that manner. But he who desires to inflict rational punishment does not
retaliate for a past wrong which cannot be undone ;
he has regard to the future, and is desirous that the man who is punished, and
he who sees him punished, may be deterred from doing wrong again. He punishes
for the sake of prevention, thereby clearly implying that virtue is capable of
being taught. This is the notion of all who retaliate upon others either
privately or publicly. And the Athenians, too, your own citizens, like other
men, punish and take vengeance on all whom they regard as evil doers ; and
hence, we may infer them to be of the number of those who think that virtue may
be acquired and taught. Thus far, Socrates, I have shown you clearly enough, if
I am not mistaken, that your countrymen are right in admitting the tinker and
the cobbler to advise about politics, and also that they deem virtue to be
capable of being taught and acquired.