[358c]
or thought of other actions as better than those he is doing, and as possible, will do as he proposes if he is free to do the better ones; and this yielding to oneself is nothing but ignorance, and mastery of1 oneself is as certainly wisdom.They all agreed.Well then, by ignorance do you mean having a false opinion and being deceived about matters of importance?They all agreed to this also.Then surely, I went on, no one willingly goes after evil or what he thinks to be evil;
1 “Yielding to oneself” and “mastery of oneself” are here put instead of “being overcome by pleasure” and the opposite state. The conflict between the better and worse self is discussed in Plat. Rep. 4.430e ff.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 3 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967.
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