Shame, age, ignorance, and the unanswered ending

Use in the book

The dialogue ends not with a recitation of the definition already reached but with a failure to answer the question that should make good lawgiving intelligible. What does the good lawgiver distribute to a soul to make it better? Socrates asks what response they could give without being ashamed for themselves and their age. The plural implicates both speakers. This is not simply a victorious examiner shaming an ignorant opponent (321d).

The companion's reply is exact in its limit: “This I can no longer say.” The “no longer” marks the point where the preceding chain of affirmative answers stops supplying a ready continuation. It need not mean that he once possessed the answer and has forgotten it. Nor does it retract every earlier agreement or claim that no answer is possible. What the dramatic exchange establishes is that he cannot now state it.

Socrates' final diagnosis includes himself. It is shameful for the soul of each that their souls appear not to know the things within them, where their own good and poor are present, although they have investigated bodily and other matters. The sentence contrasts a neglected internal object with examined external objects. The reproach is epistemic and ethical together: what is closest to the standards of their own improvement has not received an adequate account.

The reference to age increases the demand for responsibility but supplies no exact age for the unnamed companion. The work never identifies him as a child, youth, mature official or elderly man. One should therefore avoid supplying a biography from the force of the rebuke. It is enough that the speakers treat their stage of life as making such ignorance embarrassing.

The closing movement is often described as aporetic, a useful interpretive label for the impasse. It is not necessary to invent an occurrence of aporia in the Greek. The impasse also should not erase the constructive work already done. The dialogue has rejected certain definitions, proposed discovery of what is, developed expertise and distribution, and offered an educational reading of Minos. What remains open is how those resources become a determinate account of the beneficial contents and practice of lawgiving for souls. The final shame gives that unresolved question urgency.

Places to read

1. 321dτί ἂν ἀποκρινάμενοι οὐκ ἂν αἰσχυνθεῖμεν — Socrates asks for an answer that would not leave them ashamed
2. 321dκαὶ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν αὐτῶν καὶ τῆς ἡλικίας αὑτῶν — Both themselves and their age are at issue
3. 321dΟὐκέτι τοῦτ’ ἔχω εἰπεῖν — The companion's inability concerns this final demand
4. 321dαἰσχρόν γε τῇ ψυχῇ ἡμῶν ἐστιν ἑκατέρου — The shame belongs to each speaker's soul
5. 321dτὰ μὲν ἐν αὐταῖς φαίνεσθαι μὴ εἰδυίας — The souls appear not to know the matters within them
6. 321dτὰ δὲ τοῦ σώματος καὶ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἐσκέφθαι — They have nevertheless investigated bodily and other matters

Translation in this edition

“This I can no longer say” preserves the local object and the transition. “Our souls” makes the later plural construction intelligible; “the things within them” avoids the misleading technical phrase “things in themselves.” “Poor” renders the printed φλαῦρον, which should not be silently regularized to the φαῦλος of 320b.

Age — ἡλικία (hēlikia)

ἡλικία (hēlikia)

Age. Age or stage of life; increases the speakers' responsibility without identifying the unnamed companion's exact age. Attested: ἡλικίας (321d). Shame, age, ignorance, and the unanswered ending.

Be ashamed — αἰσχύνεσθαι (aischynesthai)

αἰσχύνεσθαι (aischynesthai)

Be ashamed. To feel shame; Socrates includes both speakers in the demand for an answer they could give without embarrassment. Attested: αἰσχυνθεῖμεν (321d). Shame, age, ignorance, and the unanswered ending.

Have looked into — σκέπτεσθαι (skeptesthai)

σκέπτεσθαι (skeptesthai)

Have looked into. To examine or investigate; the perfect infinitive marks bodily and other matters as already investigated in contrast to the neglected internal matters. Attested: ἐσκέφθαι (321d). Shame, age, ignorance, and the unanswered ending.

Knowing — εἰδέναι (eidenai)

εἰδέναι (eidenai)

Knowing. To know; the negative phrase describes the souls as appearing not to know the things within them, not an unqualified denial of all knowledge. Attested: εἰδυίας (321d). Shame, age, ignorance, and the unanswered ending.

Shameful — αἰσχρός (aischros)

αἰσχρός (aischros)

Shameful. Disgraceful or shameful, here the condition of souls that have examined other matters while appearing ignorant of their own. Attested: αἰσχρόν (321d). Shame, age, ignorance, and the unanswered ending.

Poor — φλαῦρος (phlauros)

φλαῦρος (phlauros)

Poor. Poor, inferior or bad; paired with good as a quality present within the souls. Keep this printed form distinct from phaulos at 320b. Attested: φλαῦρον (321d). Shame, age, ignorance, and the unanswered ending.

No longer able to say (contextual phrase)

321d: Οὐκέτι τοῦτ’ ἔχω εἰπεῖν. The construction with ἔχω and infinitive expresses being able to state an answer. Οὐκέτι marks the limit reached after the preceding agreements and the easy bodily answer. The companion is not forgetting his own name or refusing all discussion; he cannot say what the lawgiver distributes to the soul so as to improve it. See Shame and ignorance.

What is within the souls (contextual phrase)

321d: τὰ μὲν ἐν αὐταῖς … τὰ δὲ τοῦ σώματος. The paired objects contrast the souls' own contents with bodily matters. The feminine plural pronouns belong to the souls of the two speakers. The phrase is not the technical expression “things in themselves.” Socrates' reproach concerns an asymmetry of inquiry: apparent ignorance of what is internally good or poor alongside investigation of bodies and other things. See Shame and ignorance.