[25] Montesquieu, Esprit des lois, I. IV. chap. VIII.
[26] Aristophanes, Clouds.
[27] The reputation of the sophists has been considerably raised by Mr. Grote (History of Greece, vol. VIII.). For an entertaining account of a sophist of a later age, see Pliny’s Letters, Melmoth’s translation, Book II., Letter III. See also Blackie’s Four Phases of Morals, and Ferrier’s Greek Philosophy. (P.)
[28] The primitive meaning of the Greek word εἰρωνεία, irony, is interrogation. Socrates gave a jeering, ironical turn to his questions, and in consequence this word lost its primary meaning, and took the one which we give it at this time.
[29] The Socratic method for the discovery of truth can be employed only in those cases where the pupil has the crude materials of the new knowledge actually in store. Psychology, logic, ethics, mathematics, and perhaps grammar and rhetoric, fall within the sphere of the Socratic method; but to apply this method of instruction to geography, history, geology, and, in general, to subjects where the material is inaccessible, is palpably absurd. The Socratic dialogue, in its negative phase, is aimed at presumption, arrogance, and pretentious ignorance; but it is sometimes misused to badger and bewilder an honest and docile pupil. (P.)
[30] Memorabilia, I. II.
[31] Memorabilia, I. IV.
[32] Republic, 401, 402. I have quoted from the version of Vaughan and Davies. (P.)
[33] Dialectic, as used in the Republic, is neither philosophy nor logic. I doubt whether it can be considered a subject of instruction at all. It is rather a method or an exercise, the purpose of which is to subject received opinions, formulated knowledge, current beliefs, etc., to a sifting or analysis for the purpose of distinguishing the real from the apparent, the true from the false. The Socratic dialogues are examples of the dialectic method. Dialectic might be defined as the method of thought proper or the discursive reason in act. (P.)
[34] See the allegory of the cavern, Republic, Book VII. ‘In Plato’s scheme of education, knowing is to precede doing,’ thus following Socrates (Memorabilia, IV. chap. II.) and Bias (Γνῶθι καὶ τότε πράττε), and anticipating Bacon (“studies perfect nature, and are perfected by experience”). (P.)