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can be taught ; and you have several times put together justice , prudence temperance , and holiness , and called them collectively by the one word virtue . Is virtue then one thing , and are all these parts of it , or are they all names for one and the same thing ? ' Protagoras answers—Virtue is one , and all these are parts of it . —Are they such parts as the parts of gold , all of them exactly resembling the whole , and one another ?
or " ( like the parts of the face , viz . eyes , nose , ears , and mouth ) extremel y unlike?—They are like the parts of the face . —May the same man have one of these parts of virtue , and be destitute of the others ?—Yes : many are courageous , but unjust , and many are just but unwise . —Then wisdom and courage are also parts of virtue?—Yes . —And unlike each other , as you said of the other parts ?—Yes .
Let us consider further of this matter . Is justice a just thing or an unjust one ? surely it is a just thing . —Undoubtedly . —Is holiness a holy or an unholy thing ? most assuredly a holy one . —Yes . —But you say that the different parts of virtue are unlike one another . Then since justice is a just thing , and holiness is not like justice , is holiness an unjust thing ? Since holiness is a holy thing , and justice is not like holiness , is justice an unholy thing ? I should affirm the contrary ; that justice and
holiness are either the same , or very nearly alike , and that nothing is so holy as justice , nor so just as holiness . It does not appear to me , replied Protagoras , so simple and obvious that justice and holiness are the same thing . There seems to me to be a difference ; but let us call them the same thing , if you will . —I have no use , said Socrates , for * if you will . ' I do not desire to examine or confute an ' if you will , ' or an 4 you think so / but what you think , and what I think , leaving out the * if . '—No doubt , said Protagoras , justice and holiness are somewhat
alike : all things , even black and white , hard and soft , and all other contraries , are alike in some respects . The parts of the face , which were the comparison we used , are somewhat alike . You might prove , in this way , all things to be alike . We must not call things like or unlike merely because they have some little points of resemblance or of difference . — Do you then consider holiness and justice to have only some little points of resemblance ?—Not exactly so , but yet not as you seem to think . — Since this discussion seems to displease you , let us consider another part of what you said .
Socrates , accordingly , dropping the subject of justice and holiness , but still endeavouring to drive Protagoras to an acknowledgment of the identity of all the virtues , now chooses as his example truxppoavvr ) . This word , which was in very popular use , and which conveyed to the mind of a Greek associations of the highest praise , is untranslatable into English , because we have no single word by which we are accustomed to express the same combination of qualities and of feelings . Names of what Locke calls mixed modes , and especially the names of moral
attributes , have very rarely any exact synonymes in another language . There are few things by which so much light would be thrown upon the ideas and feelings of a people , as by collecting from a large induction and clearing up by an accurate analysis , the niceties of meaning of this important portion of their popular language . We should thus learn what moral and intellectual qualities the people in question were accustomed to think of in conjunction , and as forming part of one and the same character ; and what , both in kind and in the degree of strength , were
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204 Plato ' s Dialogues ; the Protagoras .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 204, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/48/
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