====== Jowett: Alcibiades II 138c-139d — Loucura ======




Veja também: Coletânea de excertos da obra completa de Platão, na tradução de Jowett, indexados por termos relevantes

Alcibiades : But you have instanced a madman, Socrates : why, do you suppose that anyone could bring himself, while he was in a sound state, to utter such a prayer ?

Socrates : Do you regard madness as the opposite of wisdom ?

Alcibiades : Certainly I do.

(138d) Socrates : And there are some men whom you regard as unwise, and others as wise ?

Alcibiades : Why, yes.

Socrates : Come then, let us consider who these people are. We have admitted that some are unwise, some wise, and others mad.

Alcibiades : Yes, we have.

Socrates : And again, there are some in sound health ?

Alcibiades : There are.

Socrates : And others also who are in ill-health ?

(139a) Alcibiades : Quite so.

Socrates : And they are not the same ?

Alcibiades : No, indeed.

Socrates : And are there any others besides, who are found to be in neither state ?

Alcibiades : No, to be sure.

Socrates : For a human being must needs be either sick or not sick.

Alcibiades : I agree.

Socrates : Well then, do you hold the same view about wisdom and unwisdom ?

Alcibiades : How do you mean ?

Socrates : Tell me, do you think it is only possible to be either wise or unwise, or is there some third condition between these, which makes (139b) a man neither wise nor unwise ?

Alcibiades : No, there is not.

Socrates : So he must needs be in one or the other of these two conditions.

Alcibiades : I agree.

Socrates : And you remember that you admitted that madness is the opposite of wisdom ?

Alcibiades : I do.

Socrates : And further, that there is no third condition between these, which makes a man neither wise nor unwise ?

Alcibiades : Yes, I admitted that.

Socrates : Well now, can there possibly be two opposites of one thing ?

(139c) Alcibiades : By no means.

Socrates : Then it looks as though unwisdom and madness were the same.

Alcibiades : Yes, apparently.

Socrates : 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 ?

Alcibiades : I do.

Socrates : Well, do you suppose we could safely live with so many (139d) 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 : Well, it must be, Socrates. For it looks as though it were not as I thought.