[37] Epiktêtus, ii. 17, 5-10. Τὸ δ’ ἐξαπατῶν τοὺς πολλοὺς τοῦτ’ ἔστιν, ὅπερ καὶ Θεόπομπον τὸν ῥήτορα ὅς που καὶ Πλάτωνι ἐγκαλεῖ ἐπὶ τῷ βούλεσθαι ἕκαστα ὁρίζεσθαι. Τί γὰρ λέγει; Οὐδεὶς ἡμῶν πρὸ σοῦ ἔλεγεν ἀγαθὸν ἢ δίκαιον; ἢ μὴ παρακολουθοῦντες τί ἐστι τούτων ἕκαστον, ἀσήμως καὶ κενῶς ἐφθεγγόμεθα τὰς φωνάς;
Respecting Theopompus, compare Dionys. Hal. Epistol. ad Cn. Pompeium de Platone, p. 757; also De Præcip. Historicis, p. 782.
[38] Isokrates, Helen. Encom. Or. x. init. De Permut. Or. xv. sect. 90.
These passages do not name Sokrates and Plato, but have every appearance of being intended to allude to them.
Objective view of Ethics, distinguished by Sokrates from the subjective.
All this shows the novelty of the Sokratic point of view: the distinction between the essential constituent and the objective accidental accompaniment,[39] and the search for a definition corresponding to the former: which search was first prosecuted by Sokrates (as Aristotle[40] points out) and was taken up from him by Plato. It was Sokrates who first brought conspicuously into notice the objective intellectual, scientific view of ethics — as distinguished from the subjective, emotional, incoherent, and uninquiring. I mean that he was the first who proclaimed himself as feeling the want of such an objective view, and who worked upon other minds so as to create the like want in them: I do not mean that he provided satisfaction for this requirement.
[39] This distinction is pointedly noticed in the Euthyphron, p. 11 A.
[40] Aristotel. Metaphys. A. 987, b. 2, M. 1078, b. 28.
Subjective unanimity coincident with objective dissent.
Undoubtedly (as Theopompus remarked) men had used these ethical terms long before the time of Sokrates, and had used them, not as empty and unmeaning, but with a full body of meaning (i.e. emotional meaning). Strong and marked emotion had become associated with each term; and the same emotion, similar in character, though not equal in force — was felt by the greater number of different minds. Subjectively and emotionally, there was no difference between one man and another, except as to degree. But it was Sokrates who first called attention to the fact as a matter for philosophical recognition and criticism, — that such subjective and emotional unanimity does not exclude the widest objective and intellectual dissension.[41]