[353c]
if they lacked their
own proper excellence and had in its stead the defect?”
“How could they?” he said; “for I presume you
meant blindness instead of vision.”
“Whatever,” said I, “the excellence may be.
For I have not yet come1 to that question, but am only asking whether whatever
operates will not do its own work well by its own virtue and badly by its
own defect.” “That much,” he said,
“you may affirm to be true.” “Then the ears,
too, if deprived of their own virtue will do their work ill?”
“Assuredly.” “And do we then apply
1 Platonic dialectic asks and affirms only so much as is needed for the present purpose.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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