Tuesday, April 12, 2016
The Worst Kind of Ignorance
Plato, Sophist 229c (tr. Harold N. Fowler):
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STRANGER.
I at any rate think I do see one large and grievous kind of ignorance, separate from the rest, and as weighty as all the other parts put together.
THEAETETUS.
What is it?
STRANGER.
Thinking that one knows a thing when one does not know it. Through this, I believe, all the mistakes of the mind are caused in all of us.
ΞΕΝΟΣ.
ἀγνοίας γοῦν μέγα τί μοι δοκῶ καὶ χαλεπὸν ἀφωρισμένον ὁρᾶν εἶδος, πᾶσι τοῖς ἄλλοις αὐτῆς ἀντίσταθμον μέρεσιν.
ΘΕΑΙΤΗΤΟΣ.
ποῖον δή;
ΞΕΝΟΣ.
τὸ μὴ κατειδότα τι δοκεῖν εἰδέναι· δι᾽ οὗ κινδυνεύει πάντα ὅσα διανοίᾳ σφαλλόμεθα γίγνεσθαι πᾶσιν.
