139
Socrates
Soc. And further, that there is no third condition between these, which makes a man neither wise nor unwise?
Alcibiades
Alc. Yes, I admitted that.
Socrates
Soc. Well now, can there possibly be two opposites of one thing?
Alcibiades
Alc. By no means.
Socrates
Soc. Then it looks as though unwisdom and madness were the same.
20
Alcibiades
Alc. Yes, apparently.
Socrates
Soc. So we shall be right, Alcibiades, in saying that all unwise persons are mad; for example, such of your contemporaries as happen to be unwise—some such there are—and of your elders, even: for tell me, in Heaven’s name, do you not think that in our city the wise people are but few, whereas the majority are unwise, and these you call mad?
Socrates
Soc. Well, do you suppose we could safely live with so many madmen as our fellow-citizens, and should not long ago have paid the penalty for it in knocks and blows at their hands, and all the usual proceedings of madmen? Consider now, my wonderful friend, whether the case is not quite different?
Alcibiades
Alc. Well, it must be, Socrates. For it looks as though it were not as I thought.
25
Socrates
Soc. And I think so too. But there is another way of regarding it.
Alcibiades
Alc. I wonder what way you mean.
Socrates
Soc. Well, I will tell you. We conceive there are some who are sick, do we not?
Alcibiades
Alc. We do, to be sure.
