Plato, Greater Hippias, section 296b

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Epinomis, or Nocturnal Council

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[296b]

Hippias
What are you afraid of again, Socrates, since now your discussion has gone ahead most beautifully?

Socrates
I wish that might be the case; but consider this point with me: could a person do what he did not know how and was utterly powerless to do?

Hippias
By no means; for how could he do what he was powerless to do?

Socrates
Then those who commit errors and accomplish and do bad things involuntarily, if they were powerless to do those things, would not do them?

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.

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