Kitap 7
10
Again (b, d) one who does and pursues what is pleasant from conviction and choice,i.e., a profligate. This is another sophistic paradox based on the contradiction between (1) the identification of the unrestrained man with the profligate, and (2) the view (2.6) that the former acts contrary to his deliberate conviction (so Burnet). might be held to be a better man than one who acts in the same way not from calculation but from unrestraint, because he is more easy to cure, since he may be persuaded to alter his conviction; whereas the unrestrained man comes under the proverb that says when water chokes you, what are you to drink to wash it down? Had he been convinced that what he does is right, a change of conviction might have caused him to desist; but as it is he is convinced that he ought to do one thing and nevertheless does another thing.A variant οὐ πεπεισμένος . . . [ἀλλὰ] gives but as it is he is convinced it is wrong but nevertheless does it.
11
Again (f) if Self-restraint and Unrestraint can be displayed with reference to anything, what is the meaning of the epithet unrestrained without qualification? No one has every form of unrestraint, yet we speak of some men as simply unrestrained.
12
Such, more or less, are the difficulties that arise. Part of the conflicting opinions we have to clear out of the way, but part to leave standing; for to solve a difficulty is to find the answer to a problem.See 1.5, note.
