Wandering

Use in the book

At 112d Socrates already connects Alcibiades' wandering about justice with his inability to establish either learning or discovery. The phenomenon becomes explicit after the second argument: Alcibiades says that as Socrates questions him one thing seems right at one time and another at another. Socrates contrasts this with simple knowledge, such as knowing how many eyes and hands one has. Unwillingly answering opposites is evidence of lack of knowledge in the matter.

The next correction is decisive. Not all lack of knowledge produces wandering. Alcibiades' opinion does not fluctuate about how to ascend to heaven because he claims no such knowledge. The soul wanders where ignorance is combined with an attempt to judge as though knowledgeable. The culinary and nautical cases make that practical: one who acknowledges ignorance can leave the decision to someone competent.

Wandering is therefore a symptom within a diagnostic argument, not a synonym for ignorance. It also differs from an honest change of view after new evidence. The dialogue describes answers that conflict despite the speaker's intention to speak knowledgeably. The productive outcome is not to forbid revision but to recognize the condition and begin the inquiry that false assurance had prevented.

Places to read

1. 112dWandering accompanies the failed account of Alcibiades’ knowledge of justice
2. 116e–117b2Contrary answers are contrasted with stable answers in known matters
3. 117b–118a2Acknowledged ignorance provides the counterexample that sharpens the diagnosis

Translation in this edition

The edition retains “wander” across the argumentative sequence. The subject varies: soul at 117b, opinion in the next example, and Alcibiades himself in second-person questions. These are coordinated descriptions of unstable judgment, not separate wandering faculties.

πλανάομαι

Attested: πλανᾶσθαι (planasthai; 117a). At 117a: Waver in answers about ethical matters, the instability subsequently traced to ignorance combined with false confidence. Lexical identification: lemma: πλανάομαι. See Wandering.