[228a]
Stranger
The one is comparable to a disease in the body, the other to a deformity.Theaetetus
I do not understand.Stranger
Perhaps you have not considered that disease and discord are the same thing?Theaetetus
I do not know what reply I ought to make to this, either.Stranger
Is that because you think discord is anything else than the disagreement of the naturally related, brought about by some corruption?Theaetetus
No; I think it is nothing else.Stranger
But is deformity anything else than the presence of the quality of disproportion, which is always ugly? [228b] Theaetetus
Nothing else at all.Stranger
Well then; do we not see that in the souls of worthless men opinions are opposed to desires, anger to pleasures, reason to pain, and all such things to one another?Theaetetus
Yes, they are, decidedly.Stranger
Yet they must all be naturally related.Theaetetus
Of course.Stranger
Then we shall be right if we say that wickedness is a discord and disease of the soul.Theaetetus
Yes, quite right. [228c] Stranger
But if things which partake of motion and aim at some particular mark pass beside the mark and miss it on every occasion when they try to hit it, shall we say that this happens to them through right proportion to one another or, on the contrary, through disproportion?1Theaetetus
Evidently through disproportion.Stranger
But yet we know that every soul, if ignorant of anything, is ignorant against its will.Theaetetus
Very much so.Stranger
Now being ignorant is nothing else than [228d] the aberration of a soul that aims at truth, when the understanding passes beside the mark.Theaetetus
Very true.Stranger
Then we must regard a foolish soul as deformed and ill-proportioned.Theaetetus
So it seems.Stranger
Then there are, it appears, these two kinds of evils in the soul, one, which people call wickedness, which is very clearly a disease.Theaetetus
Yes.Stranger
And the other they call ignorance, but they are not willing to acknowledge that it is vice, when it arises only in the soul. [228e] Theaetetus
It must certainly be admitted, though I disputed it when you said it just now, that there are two kinds of vice in the soul, and that cowardice, intemperance, and injustice must all alike be considered a disease in us, and the widespread and various condition of ignorance must be regarded as a deformity.Stranger
In the case of the body there are two arts which have to do with these two evil conditions, are there not?Theaetetus
What are they?
The one is comparable to a disease in the body, the other to a deformity.Theaetetus
I do not understand.Stranger
Perhaps you have not considered that disease and discord are the same thing?Theaetetus
I do not know what reply I ought to make to this, either.Stranger
Is that because you think discord is anything else than the disagreement of the naturally related, brought about by some corruption?Theaetetus
No; I think it is nothing else.Stranger
But is deformity anything else than the presence of the quality of disproportion, which is always ugly? [228b] Theaetetus
Nothing else at all.Stranger
Well then; do we not see that in the souls of worthless men opinions are opposed to desires, anger to pleasures, reason to pain, and all such things to one another?Theaetetus
Yes, they are, decidedly.Stranger
Yet they must all be naturally related.Theaetetus
Of course.Stranger
Then we shall be right if we say that wickedness is a discord and disease of the soul.Theaetetus
Yes, quite right. [228c] Stranger
But if things which partake of motion and aim at some particular mark pass beside the mark and miss it on every occasion when they try to hit it, shall we say that this happens to them through right proportion to one another or, on the contrary, through disproportion?1Theaetetus
Evidently through disproportion.Stranger
But yet we know that every soul, if ignorant of anything, is ignorant against its will.Theaetetus
Very much so.Stranger
Now being ignorant is nothing else than [228d] the aberration of a soul that aims at truth, when the understanding passes beside the mark.Theaetetus
Very true.Stranger
Then we must regard a foolish soul as deformed and ill-proportioned.Theaetetus
So it seems.Stranger
Then there are, it appears, these two kinds of evils in the soul, one, which people call wickedness, which is very clearly a disease.Theaetetus
Yes.Stranger
And the other they call ignorance, but they are not willing to acknowledge that it is vice, when it arises only in the soul. [228e] Theaetetus
It must certainly be admitted, though I disputed it when you said it just now, that there are two kinds of vice in the soul, and that cowardice, intemperance, and injustice must all alike be considered a disease in us, and the widespread and various condition of ignorance must be regarded as a deformity.Stranger
In the case of the body there are two arts which have to do with these two evil conditions, are there not?Theaetetus
What are they?
