201
Socrates
SOC. The profession of those who are greatest in wisdom, who are called orators and lawyers; for they persuade men by the art which they possess, not teaching them, but making them have whatever opinion they like. Or do you think there are any teachers so clever as to be able, in the short time allowed by the water-clock, The length of speeches in the Athenian law courts was limited by a water-clock. satisfactorily to teach the judges the truth about what happened to people who have been robbed of their money or have suffered other acts of violence, when there were no eyewitnesses?
5
Theaetetus
THEAET. I certainly do not think so; but I think they can persuade them.
Socrates
SOC. And persuading them is making them have an opinion, is it not?
Theaetetus
THEAET. Of course.
Socrates
SOC. Then when judges are justly persuaded about matters which one can know only by having seen them and in no other way, in such a case, judging of them from hearsay, having acquired a true opinion of them, they have judged without knowledge, though they are rightly persuaded, if the judgement they have passed is correct, have they not?
Theaetetus
THEAET. Certainly.
10
Socrates
SOC. But, my friend, if true opinion and knowledge were the same thing in law courts, the best of judges could never have true opinion without knowledge; in fact, however, it appears that the two are different.
