206–207
Socrates
SOC. The first would be making one’s own thought clear through speech by means of verbs and nouns, imaging the opinion in the stream that flows through the lips, as in a mirror or water. Do you not think the rational explanation is something of that sort?
Theaetetus
THEAET. Yes, I do. At any rate, we say that he who does that speaks or explains.
Socrates
SOC. Well, that is a thing that anyone can do sooner or later; he can show what he thinks about anything, unless he is deaf or dumb from the first; and so all who have any right opinion will be found to have it with the addition of rational explanation, and there will henceforth be no possibility of right opinion apart from knowledge.
15
Socrates
SOC. Let us not, therefore, carelessly accuse him of talking nonsense who gave the definition of knowledge which we are now considering; for perhaps that is not what he meant. He may have meant that each person if asked about anything must be able in reply to give his questioner an account of it in terms of its elements.
Theaetetus
THEAET. As for example, Socrates?
Socrates
SOC. As, for example, Hesiod, speaking of a wagon, says, a hundred pieces of wood in a wagon. Hes. WD 456 Now I could not name the pieces, nor, I fancy, could you; but if we were asked what a wagon is, we should be satisfied if we could say wheels, axle, body, rims, yoke.
Theaetetus
THEAET. Certainly.
