24 HUMANISM n 



come about that the pursuit of abstract knowledge has 

 engendered the perfect man. I greatly doubt whether 

 you convinced even your own brothers by your argument 

 in the Republic, and you have certainly failed to convince 

 those who have deemed themselves the greatest philosophers 

 from the time of Aristotle to the present day. They 

 would all in private scoff at the notion that speculative 

 knowledge was by nature conducive to practical excellence, 

 even though a few of the more prudent might not think 

 it expedient to state this in public, while as for the great 

 majority, they are always crying aloud that it is sacrilege 

 and profanation to demand practical results from their 

 meditations, and that only an utterly vulgar and ill- 

 educated mind is even interested in the practical con 

 sequences which theoretical researches may chance to 

 have. And this temper we observe not only among the 

 philosophers proper, who are few and speak a &quot; language 

 of the gods &quot; unintelligible to the many, but also more 

 patently among those who pursue the sciences and the 

 arts, and hold that &quot; Truth for the sake of Truth &quot; and 

 &quot; Art for the sake of Art &quot; alone are worthy of their 

 consideration. 



Is it true, Aristotle, that you also hold such opinions ? 

 May I be permitted, oh my master, to expound my 

 views at length, and yet briefly, as compared with the 

 importance of the subject ? You know that I do not find 

 the method of question and answer the most convenient 

 to express my thoughts (Plato nodded). Well, then, let 

 me say first of all that I do not hold it true that specula 

 tive wisdom (ao(j)ia) is the same as practical wisdom 

 (fypovyais}, or that the latter is naturally developed out of 

 the former. I must, therefore, with all respect agree with 

 our critic from a lower world that you have too easily 

 identified the two. They are quite distinct, and have 

 nothing to do with each other. 



Then observing an involuntary shudder on my part, 

 Oh, I know, he continued, what you are wishing to 

 object. How can a-o&amp;lt;j&amp;gt;ia exist without the help of 

 &amp;lt;f&amp;gt;povrj(7i&amp;lt;; in beings that have to act practically in a social 



