Commentary on Plato's Alcibiades

throng of beings, as it does not recognize them as beings. For the philosopher himself withdraws us from the multitude and from the life that is carried along by disrepute, but directs us toward the one reason and the science of each, standing over them in beauty. The one who leads the respondent to speak by showing the way. He does not make an apparent knowledge of the soul, but by reminding the respondent of the teachings, he reveals the projections of the arguments. And nothing untoward is returned. But the perfect knowledge comes when one knows the truth in science... The text here is fragmented and concerns the soul's movement toward the good and the rejection of external, false goods. ...having taken the goods from himself. The one who declares that injustices are advantageous is mistaken regarding the soul. For the good that is of itself and from us is not of the substance of the good in our soul... for the advantageous is not our good, nor the existence of the good. The passage concludes by emphasizing the need to turn away from the appearance of things and toward the intellectual, rational, and scientific ...that is in the soul, and prepares one to turn inward. Even if one hears these things imperfectly, one must not look to external things.