The Lovers

"where and what kind of teachings?" From that point, we were all full of perplexity; and I, teasing him, asked, "Do you wish," I said, "since we are in perplexity, that we ask these boys? Or are we perhaps ashamed, as Homer said of the suitors, not deeming anyone else worthy to string the bow?" Since they seemed to me to be discouraged by the argument, I tried to consider it in another way, and said, "What kind of teachings would we suppose are the ones that the philosopher must learn, since it is not all of them, nor many?" The wiser one answered and said that those are the most beautiful and fitting teachings, from which one might have the greatest reputation for philosophy. And one would have the greatest reputation if he appeared to be experienced in all the arts, or if not, at least in as many as possible, and especially the noteworthy ones, having learned of them those things which it is fitting for free men to learn, as much as pertains to understanding, not as much as pertains to manual labor. "Do you speak in this way," I said, "as in architecture? For there, you might buy a builder for five or six minae at most, but an architect not even for ten thousand drachmae; yet few such people exist among all the Greeks. Do you speak of something like that?" And he, having heard me, agreed that he spoke of such a thing. I asked him if it would not be impossible for the same person to learn only two arts in such a way, let alone many and great ones. He said, "Do not take me, Socrates, as saying that the one who philosophizes must know each of the arts precisely, as the one who possesses the art himself, but as it is fitting for a free and educated man, to be able to follow what is said by the craftsmen, better than those present, and to contribute his own opinion, so that..."