57
Socrates
Soc. Right. But do you understand why I introduced this subject?
Protarchus
Pro. Perhaps; but I wish you would give the answer to your question.
Socrates
Soc. This discussion of ours is now, I think, no less than when we began it, seeking a counterpart of pleasure, and therefore it has introduced the present subject and is considering whether there is one kind of knowledge purer than another, as one pleasure is purer than another.
5
Protarchus
Pro. That is very clear; it was evidently introduced with that object.
Socrates
Soc. Well, had not the discussion already found in what preceded that the various arts had various purposes and various degrees of exactness?
Protarchus
Pro. Certainly.
Socrates
Soc. And after having given an art a single name in what has preceded, thereby making us think that it was a single art, does not the discussion now assume that the same art is two and ask whether the art of the philosophers or that of the non-philosophers possesses the higher degree of clearness and purity?
Protarchus
Pro. Yes, I think that is just the question it asks.
10
Socrates
Soc. Then what reply shall we make, Protarchus?
Protarchus
Pro. Socrates, we have found a marvelously great difference in the clearness of different kinds of knowledge.
Socrates
Soc. That will make the reply easier, will it not?
Protarchus
Pro. Yes, to be sure; and let our reply be this, that the arithmetical and metrical arts far surpass the others and that of these the arts which are stirred by the impulse of the true philosophers are immeasurably superior in accuracy and truth about measures and numbers.
