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Socrates
Socrates. They have; but my friend, see if you agree with me in thinking that their warp has gaps in it.
Phaedrus
Phaedrus. Go on and show them.
Socrates
Socrates. Tell me; if anyone should go to your friend Eryximachus or to his father Acumenus and should say I know how to apply various drugs to people, so as to make them warm or, if I wish, cold, and I can make them vomit, if I like, or can make their bowels move, and all that sort of thing; and because of this knowledge I claim that I am a physician and can make any other man a physician, to whom I impart the knowledge of these things; what do you think they would say?
5
Phaedrus
Phaedrus. They would ask him, of course, whether he knew also whom he ought to cause to do these things, and when, and how much.
Socrates
Socrates. If then he should say: No, not at all; but I think that he who has learned these things from me will be able to do by himself the things you ask about?
Phaedrus
Phaedrus. They would say, I fancy, that the man was crazy and, because he had read something in a book or had stumbled upon some medicines, imagined that he was a physician when he really had no knowledge of the art.
Socrates
Socrates. And what if someone should go to Sophocles or Euripides and should say that he knew how to make very long speeches about a small matter, and very short ones about a great affair, and pitiful utterances, if he wished, and again terrible and threatening ones, and all that sort of thing, and that he thought by imparting those things he could teach the art of writing tragedies?
