Theaetetus by Plato is one of Plato’s dialogues concerning the nature of knowledge, written
circa 369 BCE.
In this dialogue set in a wrestling school, Socrates and Theaetetus discuss three definitions of knowledge: knowledge as nothing but
perception, knowledge as
true judgment, and, finally, knowledge as a
true judgment with an account. Each of these definitions is shown to be unsatisfactory.
Socrates declares Theaetetus will have benefited from discovering what he does not know, and that he may be better able to approach the topic in the future. The conversation ends with Socrates’ announcement that he has to go to court to face a criminal indictment.
Socrates thinks that the idea that knowledge is perception must be identical in meaning, if not in actual words, to Protagoras’ famous maxim 'Man is the measure of all things.’ Socrates wrestles to conflate the two ideas, and stirs in for good measure a claim about Homer being the captain of a team of Heraclitan flux theorists. Socrates dictates a complete textbook of logical fallacies to the bewildered Theaetetus.
When Socrates tells the child that he (Socrates) will later be smaller
without losing an inch because Theaetetus will have grown relative to him, the child complains of dizziness (155c). In an often quoted line, Socrates says with delight that 'wonder (thaumazein) belongs to the philosopher’. He admonishes the boy to be patient and bear with his questions, so that his hidden beliefs may be yanked out into the bright light of day.
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