USELESS KNOWLEDGE 





True, I am a link between them. But what I have 

 experienced is not directly part of their _ experience. It is 

 far more probable, therefore, that I am Tying or cteluded 

 than that I should establish a connexion between two 

 worlds. Before they need, or indeed can, admit that 

 what I say is true, I must show them how, in consequence 

 of my visits to your higher world, I am enabled to act 

 more successfully in theirs. You see, Plato, I am exactly 

 in the position of your liberated Cave-dweller when he 

 returns to his fellow-prisoners. They need not, can not, 

 and will not, believe that I speak the truth concerning 

 what I have seen above, unless I am also able to discern 

 better the shadows in their cave below. 



And this must surely be the case. 



I notice that you assumed this, but you did not 

 explain how it was that the higher knowledge of the 

 Ideas, for example the ability to understand the motions 

 of the heavenly bodies, was useful for enabling men to 

 live better. 



But surely Knowledge is one, and the True and the 

 Beautiful must also be useful. 



I am not denying that, although your friend Aristotle 

 would, unless he has greatly changed his opinion ; I am 

 only saying that you have assumed this too lightly. 



Instead of replying Plato looked at Aristotle, who with 

 a slight hesitation ventured to suggest that possibly I was 

 right, and that he had always been of the opinion that his 

 master had overrated the practical usefulness of scientific 

 knowledge. Plato meditated for a while before replying. 



It is possible that there are difficulties here which 

 escaped my notice formerly. But did I not prove that 

 the soul attuned to the harmonies of the higher sphere 

 of true reality was also necessarily that most capable of 

 dealing with the discords of phenomenal existence ? 



No doubt, Plato, your spectator of all time and all 

 existence is a very beautiful being, and I too trust that in 

 the end you may be right in thinking that Truth and 

 Goodness must be harmonious. But neither in your time, 

 nor in the many years that have passed since, has it 



