"[T]hat as you ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the body, so neither ought you attempt to cure the body without the soul."
— Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)
Author
Work Title
Date
c. 387 B.C.
Metaphor
"[T]hat as you ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the body, so neither ought you attempt to cure the body without the soul."
Metaphor in Context
I am glad to find that you remember me, I said, for I shall now be more at home with you and shall be better able to explain the nature of the charm, about which I felt a difficulty before. For the charm will do more, Charmides, than only cure the headache. I dare say that you have heard eminent physicians say to a patient who comes to them with bad eyes, that they cannot undertake to cure his eyes by themselves, but that if his eyes are to be cured, his head must be treated too. And then again they say that to think of curing the head alone, and not the rest of the body also, is the height of folly. And arguing in this way they apply their regime to the whole body, and try to treat and heal the whole and the part together. Did you ever observe that this is what they say?
Yes, he said.
And they are right, and you would agree with them?
Yes, he said, certainly I should.
His approving answers reassured me, and I began by degrees to regain confidence, and my natural heat returned to me. Such, Charmides, I said, is the nature of the charm, which I learned when serving with the armyy from one of the physicians of the Thracian king Zalmoxis who are said to be able even to give immortality. This Thracian told me that in these notions of theirs, which I was just now mentioning, the Greek physicians are quite right as far as they go, but Zalmoxis, he added, our king, who is also a god, says further, 'that as you ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the body, so neither ought you attempt to cure the body without the soul. And this,' he said, 'is the reason why the sure of many diseases is unknown to the physicians of Hellas, because they disregard the whole, which ought to be studied also, fo rthe part can never be well unless the whole is well.' For all good and evil, whether in the body or in the whole man, originates, as he declared, in the soul, and overflows from thence, as if from the head into the eyes. And therefore it the head and body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul--that is the first and essential thing. And the cure of the soul, my dear youth, has to be effected by the use of certain charms, and these charms are fair words, and by them temperance is implanted in the soul, and where temperance comes and stays, there health is speedily imparted, not only to the head, but to the whole body. And when he taught me the cure and the charm he added, 'Let no one persuade you to cure his head, until he has first given you his soul to be cured by the charm. For this,' he said, 'is the great error of our day in the treatment of human beings, that men try to be physicians of health and temperance separately.' And he strictly enjoined me not to let anyone, however rich or noble or fair, persuade me to give him the cure, without the charm. Now I have sworn, and I must keep my oath, and therefore if you will allow me to apply the Thracian charm first to your soul, as the stranger directed, I will afterward proceed to apply the cure to your head. But if not, I do not know what I am to do with you, my dear Charmides.
(156a-157c, pp. 102-3)
Yes, he said.
And they are right, and you would agree with them?
Yes, he said, certainly I should.
His approving answers reassured me, and I began by degrees to regain confidence, and my natural heat returned to me. Such, Charmides, I said, is the nature of the charm, which I learned when serving with the armyy from one of the physicians of the Thracian king Zalmoxis who are said to be able even to give immortality. This Thracian told me that in these notions of theirs, which I was just now mentioning, the Greek physicians are quite right as far as they go, but Zalmoxis, he added, our king, who is also a god, says further, 'that as you ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the body, so neither ought you attempt to cure the body without the soul. And this,' he said, 'is the reason why the sure of many diseases is unknown to the physicians of Hellas, because they disregard the whole, which ought to be studied also, fo rthe part can never be well unless the whole is well.' For all good and evil, whether in the body or in the whole man, originates, as he declared, in the soul, and overflows from thence, as if from the head into the eyes. And therefore it the head and body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul--that is the first and essential thing. And the cure of the soul, my dear youth, has to be effected by the use of certain charms, and these charms are fair words, and by them temperance is implanted in the soul, and where temperance comes and stays, there health is speedily imparted, not only to the head, but to the whole body. And when he taught me the cure and the charm he added, 'Let no one persuade you to cure his head, until he has first given you his soul to be cured by the charm. For this,' he said, 'is the great error of our day in the treatment of human beings, that men try to be physicians of health and temperance separately.' And he strictly enjoined me not to let anyone, however rich or noble or fair, persuade me to give him the cure, without the charm. Now I have sworn, and I must keep my oath, and therefore if you will allow me to apply the Thracian charm first to your soul, as the stranger directed, I will afterward proceed to apply the cure to your head. But if not, I do not know what I am to do with you, my dear Charmides.
(156a-157c, pp. 102-3)
Categories
Provenance
Reading P. S. MacDonald, History of the Concept of Mind: Speculations about Soul, Mind and Spirit from Homer to Hume (Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate Publishing, 2003): 39.
Citation
Hamilton, E. and Cairns, H., Eds. The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Bollingen Series. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.
Date of Entry
06/07/2003
Date of Review
10/22/2003
