369 BC

Explore 3 quotes from the year 369 BC

Let us now suppose that in the mind of each man there is an aviary of all sorts of birds-some flocking together apart from the rest, others in small groups, others solitary, flying anywhere and everywhere... We may suppose that the birds are kinds of knowledge, and that when we were children, the receptacle was empty; whenever a man has gotten and detained in the enclosure a kind of knowledge, he may be said to have learned or discovered the thing which is the subject of the knowledge: and this is to know.

Socrates

Quoted in Theaetetus, by Plato

Buy Theaetetus at Amazon Buy Theaetetus at Amazon
Read Theaetetus at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Epistemology Nature of knowledge Knowledge Learning

Speaker

Socrates

Author

Plato

Source

Theaetetus

Medium

Philosophical dialogue Dialogue

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Greek

Time

369 BC 360s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Θεαίτητος [Theaetetus], written by Plato. c. 369 BC.

Current Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Theaetetus, written by Plato, translated by John McDowell. Oxford University Press, 2014.

I would have you imagine, then, that there exists in the mind of man a block of wax, which is of different sizes in different men; harder, moister, and having more or less of purity in one than another, and in some of an intermediate quality... Let us say that this tablet is a gift of Memory, the mother of the Muses; and that when we wish to remember anything which we have seen, or heard, or thought in our own minds, we hold the wax to the perceptions and thoughts, and in that material receive the impression of them as from the seal of a ring; and that we remember and know what is imprinted as long as the image lasts; but when the image is effaced, or cannot be taken, then we forget and do not know.

Socrates

Quoted in Theaetetus, by Plato

Buy Theaetetus at Amazon Buy Theaetetus at Amazon
Read Theaetetus at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Memory

Speaker

Socrates

Author

Plato

Source

Theaetetus

Medium

Philosophical dialogue Dialogue

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Greek

Time

369 BC 360s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Θεαίτητος [Theaetetus], written by Plato. c. 369 BC.

Current Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Theaetetus, written by Plato, translated by John McDowell. Oxford University Press, 2014.

Well, my art of midwifery is in most respects like theirs; but differs, in that I attend men and not women, and I look after their souls when they are in labor, and not after their bodies: and the triumph of my art is in thoroughly examining whether the thought which the mind of the young man brings forth is a false idol or a noble and true birth.

Socrates

Quoted in Theaetetus, by Plato

Buy Theaetetus at Amazon Buy Theaetetus at Amazon
Read Theaetetus at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of philosophy Philosophy

Speaker

Socrates

Author

Plato

Source

Theaetetus

Medium

Philosophical dialogue Dialogue

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Greek

Time

369 BC 360s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Θεαίτητος [Theaetetus], written by Plato. c. 369 BC.

Current Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Theaetetus, written by Plato, translated by John McDowell. Oxford University Press, 2014.