If and if indeed

Use in the book

The dialogue’s arguments repeatedly reason from agreed premises rather than asserting every claim without qualification. If love is for the good always, immortality is also desired; if guidance is right, the learner begins the prescribed course; if immortality belongs to any other human, it belongs to the producer and nurturer of true virtue. The strengthened particle can sound confident, but removing it changes what the sentence says. The related if-ever and if-anywhere constructions around the vision likewise preserve a conditional or emphatic comparison, not a report that Socrates has already undergone it.

Places to read

1. 201b–201cConditional consequences of the admissions about love.
2. 207aThe immortality inference retains its premise.
3. 210aCorrect guidance is a condition.
4. 211d–212a2Seeing and immortality are expressed with important conditions.

ἐάν (ean)

ean — If or whenever with the subjunctive; local context determines a specific condition or general case.

• 210a — ἐὰν ὀρθῶς ἡγῆται. The learner’s initial route depends on the guide’s leading correctly.

Read: If and if indeed.

εἰ (ei)

ei — If; introduces a condition that must remain attached to the conclusion.

• 201b — εἰ ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχει. Love’s beauty is challenged on the stated conditions.

Read: If and if indeed.

εἴπερ (eiper)

eiper — If indeed or if as granted; can emphasize a premise without turning every resulting claim unconditional.

• 207a — εἴπερ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἑαυτῷ εἶναι ἀεὶ ἔρως ἐστίν. The inference to immortality depends on the agreed formula of love.
• 212a — εἴπέρ τῳ ἄλλῳ ἀνθρώπων. The conditional qualification remains in the final immortality claim.

Read: If and if indeed.