From the book
Stobaeus, Volume II
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordAdmonition directs judgment and conduct through warning or encouragement. It includes scolding, but its meaning is broader than a harsh rebuke.
- In StobaeusThe Sophist questions its effectiveness against presumed knowledge; Iamblichus gives brief injunctions a positive role before children understand reasons for themselves.
- In this editionKeep admonition distinct from refutation: the former advises, while the latter exposes conflicting beliefs that can prevent a learner from accepting instruction.
- A place to readChapter 31 · Excerpt 129 · Passage 5 Read the division between ancestral admonition and another educational approach, where the learner’s conviction of being wise explains why advice achieves little.
- English renderings
- admonition; admonitory instruction; injunction
Meaning
The substantive feminine nouthetētikē names an admonitory form of instruction; nouthetēma is an admonition or injunction. The family concerns directing someone’s judgment and conduct through what is said, rather than examination that exposes contradictory beliefs.
Use in the book
The Sophist describes an ancestral practice toward sons: sometimes scolding, sometimes encouraging gently. It calls the whole practice admonition, but argues that this treatment achieves little when the learner already thinks himself wise. Iamblichus gives short admonitory commands a positive place in children’s development, after models and habits and before mature causal understanding. Such injunctions adjust conduct to another’s reason, including a teacher’s or lawgiver’s. The texts therefore assign admonition different functions and limits according to the learner’s condition; neither definition requires it to mean harsh reprimand alone.
The contrast develops within a division of instruction through speech. Calling one route rough and another smoother does not by itself establish that forceful advice succeeds. The ancestral practice varies its manner between anger and gentle encouragement, yet both belong to one educational procedure. The competing approach asks about the learner’s willingness to learn. If he already supposes himself skilled in the matter, repeated correction encounters a prior obstacle. The transition therefore concerns the conditions under which instruction can work, rather than a simple preference for either severity or kindness.
Places to read
- Chapter 31 · Excerpt 129 · Passage 52Scolding and gentler encouragement form one admonitory practice.
- Chapter 31 · Excerpt 122 · Passage 32Brief injunctions help direct children before fully developed rational understanding.
Translation in this edition
“Admonition” accommodates warning and encouragement. “Scolding” is appropriate only for one mode explicitly distinguished within the larger practice.
νουθετητικήν
Attested. Chapter 31 · Excerpt 129 · Passage 5; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 253.
τὸ δ’ οὖν ξύμπαν αὐτὸ ὀρθότατα εἴποι τις ἂν νουθετητικήν.
νουθετήματα
Attested. Chapter 31 · Excerpt 122 · Passage 3; Wachsmuth II, printed pp. 234-235.
τὰ οἰκεῖα παραγγέλματα καὶ νουθετήματα
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume II, printed pp. 234–235, 253. The nominal adjective and related noun are grouped as a lexical family. Iamblichus’s positive developmental use is not silently made equivalent to the Sophist’s criticism of its limited efficacy.