What makes an art
SocratesLet us leave the trifles aside and bring this art into the light: what power does it have, and when?
PhaedrusA very great one, Socrates, especially before a crowd.
SocratesIt does. But look, my friend, and see whether its fabric seems to you, as it does to me, to have come apart at the seams.
PhaedrusOnly show me where.
SocratesTell me this. Suppose someone approached your friend Eryximachus, or his father Acumenus, and said: “I know what substances to give the body to make it warm or cold, to bring on vomiting or move the bowels, and many other things of the sort. Because I know these things, I claim to be a doctor and to be able to make a doctor of anyone to whom I pass on this knowledge.” What do you think they would say?
PhaedrusSurely they would ask whether he also knew to whom to give each treatment, and when, and how much.
SocratesAnd suppose he said: “Not at all. But I expect anyone who learns these things from me to be able to do for himself what you are asking about.”
PhaedrusI think they would say he was out of his mind. He has read something in a book or come across a few medicines and imagines himself a doctor, though he understands nothing of medicine.