Admiration and contempt

Use in the book

Admiration supplies a recurring measure of educational success in the Hipparchus story. The citizens around the town have been educated and admire Hipparchus for his wisdom. The Herms then seek to redirect the wider citizen body’s admiration away from Delphi toward his own sayings. Finally, the unnamed young man ceases to admire two private educators and comes to despise them after associating with Hipparchus. These are linked uses of esteem, not three unrelated emotional details.

The evaluations should not be mistaken for proofs of knowledge. To admire a man “as wise” is to recognise or regard him under that description. It does not independently establish that he is wise. Likewise, the young man’s contempt may represent recognition of pretension, but the text gives no report of the lesson or argument that caused it. The cause supplied is association with Hipparchus, whose wisdom the surrounding story has praised.

The change of esteem has consequences that exceed the initial intellectual judgment. Harmodius and Aristogeiton experience it as dishonour and kill the person they regard as their rival. The story makes reputation dependent on an audience whose judgment can move. Hipparchus seeks precisely such shifts in recognition when he challenges Delphi’s standing, although the account does not make him responsible for his rivals’ violent reaction.

This pattern offers a useful caution for reading the philosophical conversation. The companion need not admire Socrates’ argumentative skill in order to be persuaded of a conclusion, and admiration alone would not answer his charge of deception. His willingness to challenge the story’s application therefore differs from simply accepting an impressive teacher’s reputation. The dialogue places intellectual evaluation within relationships of trust, pride and injury rather than treating it as socially neutral.

Places to read

1. 228c–dἐθαύμαζον αὐτὸν ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ — The educated urban citizens admire Hipparchus for wisdom.
2. 228eμὴ θαυμάζοιεν οἱ πολῖται αὐτοῦ — The educational scheme also seeks to redirect admiration from Delphi.
3. 229dτέως μὲν θαυμάζειν — The young man’s earlier admiration is marked as temporary.
4. 229dκαταφρονῆσαι ἐκείνων — His later contempt becomes the injury to the rival educators.

Translation in this edition

The edition uses “admired” and “despised,” keeping the evaluative opposition plain. “Wondered at” would understate the social esteem relevant here. “Lost interest in” would understate the contempt that the men experience as dishonour. The temporal contrast, for a while and then, is part of the causal narrative and should not be omitted.