[437d]
generally into the opposite class
from all the former?” “Of course.”
“This being so, shall we say that the desires constitute a
class1 and that the
most conspicuous members of that class2 are what we call thirst and hunger?”
“We shall,” said he. “Is not the one desire of
drink, the other of food?” “Yes.”
“Then in so far as it is thirst, would it be of anything more than
that of which we say it is a desire in the soul?3 I mean is thirst thirst for hot drink or cold or much or little
or in a word for a draught of any particular quality, or is it the fact that
if heat4
1 Cf. on 349 E.
2 Cf. 412 B and Class. Phil. vii. (1912) pp. 485-486.
3 The argument might proceed with 439 Aτοῦ διψῶντος ἄρα ἡ ψυχή. All that intervenes is a digression on logic, a caveat against possible misunderstandings of the proposition that thirst qua thirst is a desire for drink only and unqualifiedly. We are especially warned (438 A) against the misconception that since all men desire the good, thirst must be a desire not for mere drink but for good drink. Cf. the dramatic correction of a misconception, Phaedo 79 B, 529 A-B.
4 In the terminology of the doctrine of ideas the “presence” of cold is the cause of cool, and that of heat, of hot. Cf. “The Origin of the Syllogism,”Class. Phil. vol. xix. p. 10. But in the concrete instance heat causes the desire of cool and vice versa. Cf. Philebus 35 Aἐπιθυμεῖ τῶν ἐναντίων ἢ πάσχει. If we assume that Plato is here speaking from the point of view of common sense (Cf. Lysis 215 Eτὸ δὲ ψυχρὸν θερμοῦ), there is no need of Hermann's transposition of ψυχροῦ and θερμοῦ, even though we do thereby get a more exact symmetry with πλήθους παρουσίαν . . . τοῦ πολλοῦ below.
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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