XXIV. On Plato's Survey of the Sciences. By W. Whewell, D.D. 



Master of Trinity College. 



[Read April 23, 1855.] 



A survey by Plato of the state of the Sciences, as existing in his time, may be regarded 

 as hardly less interesting than Francis Bacon's Review of the condition of the Sciences of 

 his time, contained in the Advancement of Learning. Such a survey we have, in the 

 seventh Book of Plato's Republic ; and it will be instructive to examine what the Sciences 

 then were, and what Plato aspired to have them become ; aiding ourselves by the light 

 afforded by the subsequent history of Science. 



In the first place, it is interesting to note, in the two writers, Plato and Bacon, the same 

 deep conviction that the large and profound philosophy which they recommended, had not. 

 in their judgement, been pursued in an adequate and worthy manner, by those who had 

 pursued it at all. The reader of Bacon will recollect the passage in the Novum Organon 

 (Lib. I. Aphorism 80) where he speaks with indignation of the way in which philosophy had 

 been degraded and perverted, by being applied as a mere instrument of utility or of early 

 education : " So that the great mother of the Sciences is thrust down with indignity to the 

 offices of a handmaid ; — is made to minister to the labours of medicine or mathematics ; or 

 again, to give the first preparatory tinge to the immature minds of youth*." 



In the like spirit, Plato says (Rep- vi. $11, Bekker's ed.) 



" Observe how boldly and fearlessly I set about my explanation of my assertion that 

 philosophers ought to rule the world. For I begin by saying, that the State must begin to 

 treat the study of philosophy in a way opposite to that now practised. Now, those who 

 meddle at all with this study are put upon it when they are children, between the lessons 

 which they receive in the farm-yard and in the shopj-; and as soon as they have been intro- 

 duced to the hardest part of the subject, are taken off from it, even those who get the most 

 of philosophy. By the hardest part, I mean, the discussion of principles — Dialectic %. And 

 in their succeeding years, if they are willing to listen to a few lectures of those who make 

 philosophy their business, they think they have done great things, as if it were something 

 foreign to the business of life. And as they advance towards old age, with a very few 



* Accedit et illud quod naturalis philosophia in iis ipsis 

 viris, qui ei incubuerunt, vacantem et integrum hominem, 

 prapsertim his recentioribus temporibus, vix nacta sit; nisi 

 forte quis monachi alicujus in cellula, aut nobilis in villula 

 lucubrantis, exemplum adduxerit ; sed facta est demum natu- 

 ralis philosophia instar transitus cujusdam et pontisternii ad 

 alia. Atque magna ista scientiarum mater ad officia ancillae 



detrusa est ; qua: medicinee aut mathematicis operibus minis- 

 trat, et rursus qua? adolescentium immatura ingenia lavat et 

 imbuat velut tinctura quadam prima, ut aliam postea felicius 

 et commodius excipiant. 



+ /ueroju olKovofiias Kal xp , 'f JLaTi "^''". between house- 

 keeping and money-getting. 



t to irepi tous \oyous 



